2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. Last week, I highlighted the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Yesterday, I blogged the Top 50 law school professor rankings, equal weight (50%) to the Professors: Teaching and Professors: Accessibility rankings.

Today, in my concluding post, I blog the Princeton Review's overall law school rankings, giving equal weight (20%) to each of the Admissions Selectivity, Academic Experience, Professors: Teaching, Professors: Accessibility, and Career Rating rankings:

Continue reading

2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching And Accessibility)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. Last week, I highlighted the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Here are the Top 50 law school professor rankings, giving equal weight (50%) to the Professors: Teaching and Professors: Accessibility rankings:

Continue reading

2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Career Rating

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Career Rating:  This rating measures the confidence students have in their school's ability to lead them to fruitful employment opportunities, as well as the school's own record of having done so. This rating takes into account both student survey responses and school-reported statistical data. We ask students about how much the law program encourages practical experience; the opportunities for externships, internships, and clerkships; and how prepared to practice law they expect to feel after graduating. We ask law schools for the median starting salaries of graduating students; the percentage employed in a job that requires bar passage (and not employed by the school); and the percentage of these students who pass the bar exam the first time they take it. This rating is on a scale of 60–99.

Continue reading

2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Accessibility)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Professors: Accessible:  This rating is based on how law students rate the accessibility of law faculty members at their school. The rating is on a scale of 60 to 99. 

Continue reading

2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Professors: Interesting:  This rating is based on how students rate the quality of teaching at their law school. This rating is on a scale of 60-99.

Continue reading

2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Academic Experience

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Academic Experience:  This rating measures the quality of the school's learning environment on a scale of 60 to 99. Factors taken into consideration include the Admissions Selectivity Rating, as well as how students rate each of the following: the quality of teaching and the accessibility of their professors, the research resources at their school, the range of available courses, the balance of curricular emphasis on legal theory and practical lawyering, the tolerance for diverse opinions in the classroom, and the degree of intellectual challenge that the coursework presents.

Continue reading

2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Admissions Selectivity

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Admissions Selectivity:  This rating measures the competitiveness of admissions at each law school on a scale of 60–99. Factors taken into consideration include the median LSAT score and undergraduate GPA of entering 1L students, the percentage of applicants who are accepted, and the percentage of applicants who are accepted and ultimately enroll. 

Continue reading

Muller: Law Schools With The Best And Worst Debt-To-Income Ratios Among Recent Graduates

Following upon my previous posts (links below):  Derek Muller (Iowa), Which Law Schools Have the Best and Worst Debt-to-Income Ratios Among Recent Graduates?:

Last year, a treasure trove of data from the Department of Education offered incredible insights into debt and earnings of law school graduates. A recent update for 2018-2019 has been made available, and we can look at the data again.

One intriguing figure is the “debt-to-income” ratio (last year, plenty of people hated this term, but I’m still using it), or how much student debt recent graduates have compared to their earnings. ... A good rule of thumb might be that “manageable” debt loads are those where debt is about equal to expected income at graduation—i.e., a ratio of 1.00 or lower. Only 22 schools meet that definition among median debt and earnings. ...

In contrast,  17 law schools have debt-to-income ratios greater than 3.0.

Continue reading

October 2020 Tennessee Bar Exam Results: Vanderbilt, Tennessee Tie For #1

Here are the results of the October 2020 Tennessee Bar Exam Results for first-time test-takers by law school, along with each school's U.S. News ranking:

Bar Pass Rank (Rate)	School	US News Rank GA (Overall)
1 (92.6%)	Vanderbilt	1 (18)
1 (92.6%)	Tennessee	2 (70)
83.8%	Statewide Avg. (TN Law Schools)
3 (82.6%)	Belmont	3 (129)
4 (80.7%)	Memphis	4 (141)
79.3%	Statewide Avg. (Non-TN Law Schools)
5 (75.9%)	Lincoln Memorial	5 (Tier 2)
6 (74.5%)	Nashville	Unranked

Continue reading

Muller: Non-JD Enrollment Continues To Climb

Derek Muller (Iowa), Law School 1L JD Enrollment Holds Steady For 7th Straight Year as Non-JD Enrollment Climbs to All-Time Highs:

The 2020 law school enrollment figures have been released. They show a slightly worse first-year JD enrollment and continued growth in non-JD enrollment. Almost 16% of law school enrollees, nearly 1 in 6, are not enrolled in a JD program. ... 21,292 were enrolled in non-JD programs, a 1,400-student jump over last year. It’s now about 16% of all law school enrollment. ...

Here I also highlight a handful of schools with the highest non-JD enrollment as a percentage of total law school enrollment. There are a few heavy-hitters that are driving a lot of the non-JD enrollment.

Continue reading

October 2020 Georgia Bar Exam Results: Georgia #1 For 7th Consecutive Year

Here are the results of the October 2020 Georgia Bar Exam Results for first-time test-takers by law school, along with each school's U.S. News ranking:

Bar Pass Rank (Rate)	School	US News Rank GA (Overall)
1 (96.4%)	Georgia	2 (31)
2 (89.6%)	Georgia State	3 (76)
3 (88.8%)	Emory	1 (24)
84.6%	Statewide Avg. (GA Law Schools)
4 (83.2%)	Mercer	4 (126)
81.0%	Statewide Avg. (Non-GA Law Schools)
5 (56.6%)	John Marshall	5 (Tier 2)
6 (40.0%)	Savannah	Unranked

Continue reading

Organ: 2020 Legal Ed Data Show Rebound In Transfer Market

This blog posting updates my blog postings over the last several years — 2015, 2016, 2017,  2018, 2019,  regarding what we know about the transfer market. With the ABA’s posting of the 2020 Standard 509 Reports, we now have seven years (2014-2020) of more detailed transfer data from which to glean insights about the transfer market among law schools.

NUMBERS AND PERCENTAGES OF TRANSFERS REBOUND IN 2020

As shown in Table 1 below, the number of transfers in 2020 increased to 1612 (4.2%).  For the last several years, the transfer market had been shrinking, having declined from 5.5% in 2014, to 4.7% in 2016, to 4.0% in 2018, and down to 3.4% in 2019.  Aside from a slight bump in 2017, this is the first meaningful increase in transfers in many years, although the level is still less than in 2015-2017 when there were more than 1700 transfers.

Table 1 – Number of Transfers and Percentage of Transfers from 2014-2020

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Number of Transfers	2187	1979	1749	1797	1494	1294	1612
Previous Year First Year Enrollment	39,800	38,000	37,100	37,100	37,300	38,400	38,500
%   of Previous First-Year Total	5.5%	5.2%	4.7%	4.8%	4.0%	3.4%	4.2%

Some of this increase is attributable to the students transferring from Concordia to Idaho.  Idaho doesn't normally show up on the transfer list, but this year it has 105 transfers as a result of Concordia announcing its closure.  But that only explains part of the increase of more than 300 transfers between 2019 and 2020.  I believe the most likely additional explanation for this bump in transfers was the financial uncertainty for law schools associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly uncertainty regarding the number of first-year students who would show up at law schools that had announced during the summer a shift to online instruction for the fall semester.  With uncertainty regarding first-year enrollment and revenue, some law schools may have hedged by looking for more transfers.  For example, Harvard took 65 transfer students — the largest class of transfers it has taken in a number of years.  Its entering class this year was only 501 — when it has consistently welcomed 560 students almost every year for the last several years.  Knowing it might be welcoming a smaller entering class, I suspect Harvard made a conscious decision to welcome more transfers to counterbalance the loss of revenue from a smaller first-year class.  Other law schools on the list that showed an increase between 2019 and 2020 included George Washington (up 22), Berkeley (up 19) and Florida (up 11).  Relatedly, some students might have considered transferring because online learning might have made it possible for them to attend another law school without having to move, such that the transaction costs of transferring might have seemed smaller than in prior years.  And if students were going to be taking online courses anyway at the law school at which they started, why not transfer and take online courses at a law school that is more highly ranked.

SOME LAW SCHOOLS CONTINUE TO DOMINATE THE TRANSFER MARKET

Table 2 lists the top 15 law schools participating in the transfer market in descending order in Summer 2017 (fall 2016 entering class), Summer 2018 (fall 2017 entering class), Summer 2019 (fall 2018 entering class), and Summer 2020 (fall 2019 entering class).  The nine law schools on the list all four years include Cal. Berkeley, Columbia, Florida, Georgetown, George Washington, Harvard, Loyola Marymount, NYU, UCLA.  Arizona State and Northwestern have been on the list three of the four years.

Continue reading

Princeton Review's Best 164 Law Schools (2021 Edition)

The Princeton Review has published the 2021 edition of The Best 164 Law Schools (press release) (FAQs) (methodology):

The ranking lists, reported in 14 categories, each name the top 10 law schools. The education services company tallied the lists based on its surveys of 14,000 students attending 164 law schools [an average of 85 per school] in the U.S., and of administrators at those schools. The Princeton Review's 80-question student survey for this project asked students to rate their law schools on dozens of topics and report on their school experiences. The survey of law school administrators, which numbered more than 200 questions, covered topics from academic offerings and admission requirements to data about currently enrolled students as well as graduates' employment. Six of the 14 ranking lists were tallied using both student and administrator-reported data, five solely from student data, and three solely from administrator data.

Best Quality of Life:  Based on student answers to survey questions on: whether there is a strong sense of community at the school, whether differing opinions are tolerated in the classroom, the location of the school, the quality of social life at the school, the school's research resources (library, computer and database resources).

1. Virginia
2. Vanderbilt
3. Florida State
4. Samford
5. Stanford
6. Colorado
7. Pennsylvania
8. St. Thomas (MN)
9. Duke
10. Pepperdine

Best Professors:  Based on student answers to survey questions concerning how good their professors are as teachers and how accessible they are outside the classroom.

1. Virginia
2. Duke
3. Chicago
4. Washington & Lee
5. Stanford

Continue reading

The Curious Case Of Howard Law School’s Peer Ranking

Michael Conklin (Angelo State University), The Curious Case of Howard Law School’s Peer Ranking:

The U.S. News & World Report provides law school rankings based on a peer score (hereinafter “peer rank”) and an overall score (hereinafter “overall rank”). A law school’s peer rank is generally closely associated with its overall rank. For example, in the 2021 rankings more than 60% of law schools have peer ranks that are within nine places of their overall ranks. A glaring outlier is Howard University School of Law, whose peer rank is forty-six places higher than its overall rank. Even more peculiar is that this peer–overall disparity has existed every year for the last ten years during which it has experienced a gradual upward trend. This Essay analyzes the significance of the peer rank and considers potential explanations for this divergence.

Online MBA Rankings Scandal Costs Temple $17 Million; After Ranking #1 In 2015-2018 With False Data, Business School Now Ranks #88

Following up on my previous posts (links below): Poets & Quants, MBA Ranking Scandal Costs Temple At Least $17 Million:

Temple University’s Fox School of Business says that the rankings scandal over its online MBA program has cost it a minimum of $17 million in “remediation costs.” The school made the disclosure in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Education over the school’s misreporting of data to U.S. News & World Report.

Temple’s fraudulent reporting of that data led U.S. News to rank its online MBA program first in the nation for four consecutive years in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Under the settlement, announced yesterday (Dec. 4), Temple agreed to pay a $700,000 civil fine to the government. The payment is in addition to an earlier $4 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed by former online MBA students who claimed the school’s rankings scandal devalued their degrees, nearly $1.5 million to students in other Fox programs impacted and an agreement with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office to award $250,000 in scholarships to students who enroll in business school programs affected by the false data reporting.

The Fox School of Business, which was tossed off the U.S. News ranking last year managed a return to the list of the best earlier this year. But instead of ranking first, Fox managed to do no better than 88th place this year, tied with six other business schools (see U.S. News 2020 Online MBA Ranking: Some Familiar Names & A Few Surprises).

Continue reading

October 2020 Ohio Bar Exam Results: Case Western #1

Ohio Bar Exam Results Released:

The Ohio Supreme Court has released results from the October 2020 Ohio Bar Examination. The pass rate for the 958 applicants who sat for the exam was 77.4%, up 4.3 percentage points from last year. Out of 810 first-time test takers, 85% passed, up 3 percentage points from last year).

Here are the October 2020 Ohio Bar Exam results for first-time test-takers by law school:

Bar Pass Rank (Rate)	School	US News Rank OH (Overall)
1 (93.7%)	Case Western	2 (76)
2 (92.7%)	Ohio State	1 (38)
3 (88.0%)	Capital	8 (Tier 2)
4 (86.4%)	Ohio Northern	8 (Tier 2)
5 (85.16%)	Cincinnati	3 (83)
6 (85.11%)	Dayton	6 (141)
7 (84.4%)	Toledo	5 (136)
8 (82.1%)	Cleveland State	4 (102)
9 (73.9%)	Akron	6 (141)

Continue reading

2019 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Notes #1, Florida Tax Review #2

Here are the Washington & Lee tax law review rankings of the six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2015-2019 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. Tax Notes	15.16	0.02	406	5	0.03
2. Florida	14.30	0.75	188	1	1.45
3. NYU	12.29	0.65	161	0	1.16
4. Virginia	8.52	0.46	108	2	0.61
5. Columbia	6.98	0.45	69	0	0.53
6. ABA	5.82	0.16	115	4	0.23

As I have previously noted, Tax Notes fares poorly in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published) because W&L apparently counts as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes. Tax Notes is #1 by a wide margin in the number of citations in law reviews, with more than double the citations of its nearest competitor.

October 2020 Florida Bar Exam Results: Florida International Is #1 For 6th Year In A Row

The October 2020 Florida bar passage rates by school are out. The overall pass rate for first-time takers is 71.7%, down 2.2 percentage points from last year. For the sixth year in a row, Florida International is #1. Here are the results for the 11 Florida law schools, along with each school's U.S. News ranking (Florida and overall):

Bar Pass Rank (Rate)	School	US News Rank FL (Overall)
1 (89.3%)	Florida Int'l	4 (90)
2 (84.4%)	Florida State	2 (50)
3 (83.9%)	Florida	1 (24)
4 (74.4%)	Stetson	5 (105)
5 (72.56%)	Miami	3 (67)
6 (67.4%)	Nova	Tier 2
7 (66.9%)	St. Thomas	Tier 2
8 (65.9%)	Ave Maria	Tier 2
9 (61.7%)	Florida A&M	Tier 2
10 (61.2%)	Barry	Tier 2
11 (57.6%)	Florida Coastal	Tier 2

For discussion of how Florida International graduates consistently overperform on the bar exam, see:

• Louis Schulze (Florida International), The Science of Learning Law: Academic Support Measures at Florida International University College of Law
• Rory Bahadur (Washburn), High 1L Attrition And 2L Transfer Rates Contribute To Florida International's Over Performance On The Bar Exam
• Rory Bahadur (Washburn), Attrition And Bar Performance

Continue reading

2021 U.S. News Global Universities Rankings

U.S. News & World Report, 2021 Best Global Universities Rankings:

These institutions from the U.S. and more than 80 other countries have been ranked based on 13 indicators that measure their academic research performance and their global and regional reputations. Students can use these rankings to explore the higher education options that exist beyond their own countries' borders and to compare key aspects of schools' research missions. These are the world's nearly 1,500 top universities.

1.   Harvard (100.0)
2.   MIT (97.9)
3.   Stanford (95.3)
4.   UC-Berkeley (89.8)
5.   Oxford (87.0)
6.   Columbia (86.7)
7.   Cal-Tech (86.3)
8.   U. Washington (86.0)
9.   Cambridge (85.8)
10. Johns Hopkins (85.1)
11.  Princeton (85.0)
11.  Yale (85.0)
13.  UCLA (84.3)
14.  Pennsylvania (84.2)
15.  UC-San Francisco (84.1)
15.  Chicago (84.1)
17.  Michigan (83.5)
17.  Toronto (83.5)
19.  University College London (83.4)
20.  Imperial College London (83.3)
21.  UC-San Diego (83.1)
22.  Cornell (81.9)
23.  Duke (81.6)
24.  Northwestern (80.4)
25.  Melbourne (79.7)

Continue reading

Law Firm Climate Change Rankings

Law Students For Climate Accountability,  Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard:

Executive Summary
When future generations look back at the origins of the climate crisis, they will see that too many law firms were on the wrong side of history. Law firms constitute an indispensable pillar of support for the fossil fuel industry. When fossil fuel companies want to build new pipelines and refineries, law firms write the contracts and advise the project financing. Law firms lobby public officials to roll back environmental regulations and give tax breaks to polluters. And when fossil fuel companies face lawsuits seeking to hold them liable for violating laws and damaging communities, law firms work to get them off the hook in exchange for substantial legal fees.

The 2020 Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard is the first to detail the scale of top law firms’ role in the climate crisis. Using the best data available, the 2020 Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard analyzes litigation, transactional, and lobbying work conducted by the 2020 Vault Law 100 law firms—the 100 most prestigious law firms in the United States—from 2015 to 2019. Each firm receives an overall Climate Score reflecting its contribution to the climate crisis based on the data in these three categories. ...

This report shows that Vault 100 firms lend their services to clients engaged in expanding fossil fuel dependence and exacerbating climate change far more than clients working to mitigate climate change. From 2015 to 2019:

• Vault 100 firms worked on ten times as many cases exacerbating climate change as cases addressing climate change: 286 cases compared to 27 cases.
• Vault 100 firms were the legal advisors on five times more transactional work for the fossil fuel industry than the renewable energy industry: $1.3 trillion of transactions compared to $271 billion of transactions.
• Vault 100 firms lobbied five times more for fossil fuel companies than renewable energy companies: for $36.5 million in compensation compared to $6.8 million in compensation.

Of the Vault 100 firms, only four firms receive an A Climate Score, while 14 receive a B, 15 receive a C, 41 receive a D, and 26 receive an F.

Continue reading

The Cost Of The University Of Florida's Ascent Up The U.S. News Rankings, From #52 (#17 Among Public Universities) To #30 (#6)

Following up on my previous post, 2021 U.S. News College Rankings:  Chronicle of Higher Education, The Rules of the Game:

How the U.S. News rankings helped reshape one state’s public colleges.

For Bernie Machen, it started before he’d been hired. The University of Florida’s Board of Trustees was looking for a president who would commit to moving the institution up the U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings.

“The thing that would bring us all together was to be able to bring the university, that we all went to and loved, to the top 10,” said Manny Fernandez, a tech-company executive who chaired the 2003 presidential search. At the time, the University of Florida ranked No. 52 over all and No. 17 among public universities. The board wanted to see the Gators among the top 10 public institutions.

Fernandez was tired of the reactions he would get when he divulged his alma mater at parties. Either people wouldn’t have really heard of the University of Florida — “or somebody would say, ‘Wasn’t that voted No. 1 party school by Playboy?’” Fernandez was offended. “I believe I am who I am today because I went to this school,” he said. “We needed to change the external perception of the University of Florida.” U.S. News was one very effective way to do that.

Machen, too, believed in the goal. While many people inside and outside of higher education today argue that a high ranking doesn’t necessarily translate to quality, Machen believed in many of U.S. News’s metrics. “I feel that many of them are relevant and worth shooting for,” he said, “and I think improving on those variables made us a better institution.”

He became the president of the University of Florida in January 2004. He would not see the Gators reach his goal; he retired in 2014, when UF was No. 14 among public universities. But he set the ball for the next administration’s spike. The Gators would break into the top 10 in 2017. On Monday, in U.S. News’ latest rankings, they ranked sixth — on the verge of reaching their latest goal: top five.

Continue reading

2021 U.S. News College Rankings

U.S. News & World Report has released its 2021 College Rankings. Here are the Top 25 National Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges:

Rank	National Universities
1	Princeton
2	Harvard
3	Columbia
4	MIT
4	Yale
6	Chicago
6	Stanford
8	Penn
9	Cal-Tech
9	Johns Hopkins
9	Northwestern
12	Duke
13	Dartmouth
14	Brown
14	Vanderbilt
16	Rice
16	Washington (St. Louis)
18	Cornell
19	Notre Dame
20	UCLA
21	Emory
22	UC-Berkeley
23	Georgetown
24	Michigan
24	USC

Pepperdine is ranked #49.

Prior Years' U.S. News National University Rankings:

• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2009

2021 U.S. News Liberal Arts College Rankings:

Continue reading

Bahadur: Attrition And Bar Performance

TaxProf Blog op-ed:  Attrition and Bar Performance, by Rory Bahadur (Washburn):

Recently I was made aware of an incredibly well researched article by Jeffrey Kinsler [The Best Law Schools for Passing the Bar Exam].  The article predicted bar outcomes based on incoming credentials and listed the 15 schools that overperformed their incoming credentials the most and the fifteen schools that underperformed the most on the bar based on incoming credentials. 

The article identified the 15 top overperforming schools as

Rank	The Top 15 Law Schools for Bar Passage
1	Belmont
2	Florida International
3	Liberty
4	Campbell
5	Texas A&M
6	Duquesne
7	LSU
8	Georgia State
9	Texas Tech
10	New Hampshire
11	Regent
12	South Carolina
13	Seton Hall
14	Cleveland State
15	Oklahoma

And it identified the 15 most underperforming schools as

Rank	The Bottom 15 Law Schools for Bar Passage
173	Touro
174	Minnesota
175	Northwestern
176	John Marshall (Atlanta)
177	New York Law School
178	UC-Hastings
179	Emory
180	Thomas Cooley
181	SUNY-Buffalo
182	American
183	Hofstra
184	Southwestern
185	Golden Gate
186	District of Columbia
187	San Francisco

The article suggests reasons for why these schools fall where they do but I thought it would be interesting based on my current research in this area to compare 1L attrition rates for these schools.  I very quickly used two on-line sources for the comparison.  I used this site to ascertain 1L attrition rates for law schools and this site to ascertain the seven-year average national 1L attrition rates for schools in different LSAT ranges.  The findings are laid out in the following tables that are modified from the article by Kinsler.

For the top 15 schools the data looks like this and it indicates the average 1L attrition rate for these schools is almost twice as high as the national average rate of 1L attrition for schools with similar LSAT entering credentials.

Continue reading

Miami And AALS Host Free Virtual Symposium Today On Power, Privilege, and Transformation: Lessons From The Pandemic For Online Legal Education

The University of Miami School of Law, in partnership with the AALS Journal of Legal Education, hosts a free virtual symposium today (noon - 6:00 pm ET) on Power, Privilege, and Transformation: Lessons from the Pandemic for Online Legal Education (registration):

Keynote Address:  Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard)

Panel #1: Power, Race, Gender, Class, Disability and Family Status

• Meera E. Deo (Thomas Jefferson)
• Doron Dorfman (Syracuse)
• Sheila R. Foster (Georgetown)
• Mary Anne Franks (Miami)
• Osamudia James (Miami)
• Margaret Y. K. Woo (Northeastern; Co-editor, Journal of Legal Education)

Continue reading

Phillips: Which Law Schools Will Thrive (46), Survive (65), Struggle (23), Or Perish (18) In The Age Of COVID-19?

Following up on my previous post, Which Of The 436 Universities Ranked BY U.S. News Will Thrive, Survive, Struggle, Or Perish In The Age Of COVID-19?:

James C. Phillips (Chapman), Will My Law School Perish?:

Based on Professor Galloway’s predictions, 18 law schools will perish in the near future (because their university will perish). That is 1 school in the top 50, 5 in the 51-100, 5 in the 101-147, and 7 in the unranked law schools. I have listed them below in order of ranking:

27	Fordham
53	Cardozo
62	Seton Hall
70	Loyola-Chicago
83	Chicago-Kent
93	Drexel
102	Hofstra
111	Chapman
118	DePaul
136	Pace
141	Willamette
148-194	Campbell
148-194	Elon
148-194	New England
148-194	Nova
148-194	Detroit Mercy
148-194	UMass-Dartmouth
148-194	McGeorge

Here are the projections for the U.S. News Top 50 

US News Ranking	Law School	Galloway Categorization
1	Yale	Thrive
2	Stanford	Thrive
3	Harvard	Thrive
4	Columbia	Survive
4	Chicago	Survive
6	NYU	Survive
7	Penn	Thrive
8	Virginia	Thrive
9	Northwestern	Thrive
9	UC-Berkeley	Survive
9	Michigan	Thrive
12	Duke	Thrive
13	Cornell	Thrive
14	Georgetown	Survive
15	UCLA	Survive
16	Texas	Thrive
17	Washington U.	Thrive
18	USC	Survive
18	Vanderbilt	Survive
20	Boston University	Survive
21	Minnesota	Survive
22	Notre Dame	Thrive
23	George Washington	Survive
24	Arizona State	Survive
24	Emory	Survive
24	Florida	Survive
27	Fordham	Perish
27	UC-Irvine	Survive
27	Iowa	Survive
27	North Carolina	Thrive
31	Boston College	Thrive
31	Alabama	Survive
31	Georgia	Thrive
31	Illinois	Survive
31	Washington & Lee	Thrive
31	William & Mary	Survive
37	BYU	Thrive
38	Indiana	Survive
38	Ohio State	Survive
38	UC-Davis	Survive
38	Wisconsin	Survive
42	George Mason	Survive
42	U. Washington	Survive
42	Wake Forest	Survive
45	Utah	Survive
46	Colorado	Survive
47	Pepperdine	Survive
47	Arizona	Survive
47	Maryland	Survive
50	Baylor	Struggle
50	Florida State	Survive
50	Connecticut	Survive

Here are the totals:

Continue reading

2020 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

Bryce Clayton Newell (Oregon), 2020 Meta-Ranking of Flagship US Law Reviews:

This is an updated ranking of the top flagship law reviews at US law schools (updated as of July 15, 2020). ... The ranking table below includes 191 flagship law reviews from ABA accredited law schools. Even if you ignore the “MetaRank,” the table provides access to the updated rankings from US News (peer reputation and overall rankings, averaged over the 10-year period from 2012 through the 2021 edition) and the current W&L (2015-2019; released on June 1, 2020) and Google Scholar (July 2020) rankings.. ...

prRank = Average 10-year US News Peer Reputation score ranking;
usnRank = Average 10-year overall US News school ranking; 
wluRank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Ranking; 
gRank = Google Scholar Metrics ranking; 
wlu(IF)Rank = Washington & Lee Law Journal Impact Factor Ranking (NOT included in meta-rank).

Journal	MetaRank	prRank	usnRank	wluRank	gRank	wlu(IF)Rank
Yale Law Journal	1	2	1	1	1	2
Harvard Law Review	2	1	3	2	2	20
Stanford Law Review	3	3	2	3	3	1
Columbia Law Review	4	4	5	4	4	19
University of Chicago Law Review	5	5	4	9	6	15
Univ. of Pennsylvania Law Rev.	6	9	7	5	7	4
California Law Review	7	7	9	7	10	6
New York University Law Review	8	6	6	10	12	14
Georgetown Law Journal	9	14	14	6	5	10
Virginia Law Review	10	9	8	16	12	17
Michigan Law Review	11	8	9	15	16	8
Texas Law Review	12	15	15	14	8	20
UCLA Law Review	13	16	16	12	9	3
Duke Law Journal	13	11	11	17	14	5
Vanderbilt Law Review	15	17	17	19	15	13
Notre Dame Law Review	16	24	21	8	16	6
Cornell Law Review	17	12	13	23	22	12
Minnesota Law Review	18	20	20	13	18	15
Iowa Law Review	19	28	25	11	10	23
Northwestern Univ. Law Review	20	13	12	24	26	27
Washington Univ. Law Review	21	18	18	26	28	18
Boston University Law Review	22	25	24	22	20	22
Southern California Law Review	23	19	19	27	30	11
George Washington Law Review	24	23	22	29	22	42
Emory Law Journal	24	21	23	30	22	29
Boston College Law Review	26	29	30	21	19	27
William & Mary Law Review	27	33	35	18	21	8
UC Davis Law Review	28	26	36	28	22	26
Fordham Law Review	29	34	38	20	27	46
Indiana Law Journal	30	32	29	35	34	33
Washington Law Review	30	35	31	34	30	32
Wisconsin Law Review	32	26	34	39	37	38
Ohio State Law Journal	33	31	37	33	36	25
Univ. of Illinois Law Review	34	36	41	32	29	39
North Carolina Law Review	35	22	39	36	45	37
Florida Law Review	36	38	44	31	30	34
Washington & Lee Law Review	37	39	33	43	40	43
Alabama Law Review	38	40	27	40	52	35
Arizona Law Review	39	43	43	42	34	36
Hastings Law Journal	40	41	53	37	37	40
Arizona State Law Journal	41	44	28	55	42	61
UC Irvine Law Review	42	30	26	66	51	58
Cardozo Law Review	43	53	59	25	37	24
Wake Forest Law Review	44	45	40	47	47	49
Maryland Law Review	45	47	48	44	42	43
American Univ. Law Review	46	49	71	38	30	40
Colorado Law Review	47	42	45	50	55	52
Georgia Law Review	48	37	32	58	66	52
BYU Law Review	49	50	42	60	49	66
Utah Law Review	50	51	47	53	52	54
Houston Law Review	51	64	56	46	48	43
Connecticut Law Review	52	52	57	41	66	29
George Mason Law Review	53	56	46	49	66	51
Case Western Reserve Law Rev.	54	63	64	52	42	66
Univ. of Richmond Law Review	55	73	55	54	52	49
Tulane Law Review	56	46	51	69	85	83
Univ. of Miami Law Review	57	54	67	68	63	62
Temple Law Review	57	58	54	61	79	47
Brooklyn Law Review	59	70	82	48	58	66
SMU Law Review	59	66	49	64	79	77
Pepperdine Law Review	61	67	58	71	63	66
Lewis & Clark Law Review	61	81	87	51	40	56
Florida State Univ. Law Review	63	48	50	89	75	74
Seton Hall Law Review	64	85	62	62	55	58
Missouri Law Review	64	68	73	65	58	65
Nevada Law Journal	66	84	68	45	75	48
Chicago-Kent Law Review	67	72	80	63	58	74
San Diego Law Review	68	58	77	80	61	72
Michigan State Law Review	69	95	90	59	45	63
Univ. of Kansas Law Review	70	62	74	85	70	88
Nebraska Law Review	71	80	70	83	61	80
Loyola Univ. Chicago Law Journal	72	75	76	72	72	66
Oklahoma Law Review	73	78	69	76	75	87
Denver University Law Review	74	57	72	88	85	88
Penn State Law Review	75	93	66	57	90	31
Tennessee Law Review	76	61	61	96	94	110
Seattle University Law Review	77	91	108	56	63	71
Indiana Law Review	78	76	98	77	79	83
Georgia State Univ. Law Review	78	69	60	109	92	147
Univ. of Cincinnati Law Review	80	83	75	82	96	81
Villanova Law Review	80	86	85	86	79	88
South Carolina Law Review	82	89	95	87	70	83
DePaul Law Review	83	98	112	67	66	56
Kentucky Law Journal	84	71	63	108	107	125
Hofstra Law Review	85	99	109	74	72	81
West Virginia Law Review	86	109	99	70	79	58
Buffalo Law Review	87	100	96	84	79	74
Saint Louis Univ. Law Journal	88	97	92	102	72	114
Marquette Law Review	89	92	100	78	94	79
Rutgers Univ. Law Review	90	74	83	123	85	142
Baylor Law Review	90	87	52	113	1000	103
Albany Law Review	92	127	119	73	49	83
Arkansas Law Review	93	96	84	105	85	129
Santa Clara Law Review	94	77	106	99	96	77
UMKC Law Review	95	106	118	81	75	108
Louisiana Law Review	96	102	89	98	96	125
St. John’s Law Review	97	104	86	112	99	136
Howard Law Journal	98	90	116	100	99	103
Catholic Univ. Law Review	99	101	100	107	102	114
Loyola of L.A. Law Review	100	64	65	150	133	150

Oregon Law Review	101	55	88	136	1000	142
Texas A&M Law Review	101	123	115	75	102	63
Syracuse Law Review	103	94	96	101	126	99
Drake Law Review	103	132	110	90	85	91
Idaho Law Review	105	117	129	119	55	106
Univ. of Pittsburgh Law Review	106	60	81	141	112	136
New Mexico Law Review	107	88	79	131	1000	119
Chapman Law Review	108	141	131	79	1000	54
Texas Tech Law Review	109	135	113	91	92	99
Mississippi Law Journal	110	103	107	110	119	114
Cleveland State Law Review	111	140	117	94	90	91
Vermont Law Review	112	112	133	95	102	103
Univ. of Louisville Law Review	113	108	93	122	1000	97
Univ. of San Francisco Law Rev.	114	119	142	93	1000	73
Washburn Law Journal	115	136	128	97	1000	96
Northeastern Univ. Law Journal	116	82	77	150	1000	150
Maine Law Review	117	105	124	130	102	110
Mercer Law Review	118	121	121	111	115	136
Akron Law Review	119	144	135	92	102	91
Univ. of Hawai'i Law Review	119	79	94	150	1000	150
CUNY Law Review	121	114	120	121	1000	112
Tulsa Law Review	122	125	91	150	112	150
Montana Law Review	122	120	126	116	1000	95
Creighton Law Review	124	134	122	106	119	119
Stetson Law Review	125	110	104	134	1000	149
Quinnipiac Law Review	126	131	130	114	1000	99
Wayne Law Review	127	116	100	150	131	150
Univ. of Memphis Law Review	128	143	147	103	107	133
Univ. of St. Thomas Law Journal	129	139	125	139	99	125
Pace Law Review	130	132	136	128	109	136
Wyoming Law Review	131	118	126	132	1000	122
Duquesne Law Review	132	148	134	115	1000	99
Drexel Law Review	132	115	111	143	1000	130
Univ. of Baltimore Law Review	134	122	123	134	1000	112
Loyola Law Review	135	113	140	137	126	128
Suffolk Univ. Law Review	135	130	151	120	115	136
FIU Law Review	137	147	105	146	119	136
Gonzaga Law Review	138	111	114	147	1000	148
New York Law School Law Rev.	139	129	132	142	119	130
Southwestern Law Review	140	138	150	129	109	114
Univ. of Toledo Law Review	141	142	141	125	119	142
Univ. of Arkansas LR Law Rev.	142	107	137	150	134	150
Univ. of the Pacific Law Review	143	128	139	150	112	150
Univ. of New Hampshire Law Rev.	143	126	103	150	1000	150
Ohio Northern Univ. Law Review	145	169	153	104	1000	122
St. Mary's Law Journal	146	157	158	117	119	119
Mitchell Hamline Law Review	147	145	144	150	115	150
South Dakota Law Review	147	146	147	133	128	133
Capital University Law Review	149	170	161	117	109	107
Willamette Law Review	150	124	138	150	1000	150
Touro Law Review	151	167	161	127	115	130
Northern Kentucky Law Review	152	162	161	124	1000	91
Campbell Law Review	153	170	146	140	119	122
John Marshall Law Review	154	149	152	149	131	145
North Dakota Law Review	155	137	149	150	1000	150
Univ. of Detroit Mercy Law Rev.	155	173	161	126	1000	97
South Texas Law Review	157	157	156	148	128	145
Roger Williams Univ. Law Rev.	158	155	161	150	128	150
Southern Illinois Univ. L.J.	159	154	156	150	135	150
Cumberland Law Review	160	153	145	150	1000	150
Widener Law Review	161	150	161	144	1000	114
Univ. of Dayton Law Review	162	151	154	150	1000	150
Northern Illinois Univ. Law Rev.	163	156	155	150	1000	150
Widener Commonwealth Law Rev.	163	152	159	150	1000	150
New England Law Review	165	168	161	145	1000	133
Nova Law Review	166	159	161	150	1000	150
Regent Univ. Law Review	167	184	161	138	1000	108
Elon Law Review	167	160	161	150	1000	150
Golden Gate Univ. Law Review	169	161	161	150	1000	150
California Western Law Review	170	163	161	150	1000	150
Belmont Law Review	170	181	143	150	1000	150
Oklahoma City Univ. Law Review	170	165	159	150	1000	150
Mississippi College Law Review	173	164	161	150	1000	150
University of Mass. Law Review	174	166	161	150	1000	150
N. Carolina Central Law Review	175	172	161	150	1000	150
Univ. of the D.C. Law Review	176	174	161	150	1000	150
Florida A&M Univ. Law Review	177	175	161	150	1000	150
W. New England Law Review	178	176	161	150	1000	150
St. Thomas Law Review	179	177	161	150	1000	150
Thurgood Marshall Law Review	179	177	161	150	1000	150
John Marshall Law Journal	181	179	161	150	1000	150
Southern Univ. Law Review	182	180	161	150	1000	150
Charleston Law Review	183	182	161	150	1000	150
Faulkner Law Review	184	183	161	150	1000	150
Florida Coastal Law Review	185	184	161	150	1000	150
Appalachian Journal of Law	186	186	161	150	1000	150
Liberty University Law Review	187	187	161	150	1000	150
Barry Law Review	188	188	161	150	1000	150
Western State Univ. Law Review	189	189	161	150	1000	150
Thomas M. Cooley Law Review	189	189	161	150	1000	150
Ave Maria Law Review	191	191	161	150	1000	150

• 2019 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2018 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews
• 2016 Meta-Ranking Of Flagship U.S. Law Reviews

College Fall 2020 Plans And U.S. News Rankings: Higher Ranked Schools Are More Likely Online, Lower Ranked Schools Are More Likely On-Ground

Andy Thomason (Chronicle of Higher Education), U.S. News Rankings and Fall Plans:

Green: plans that don't (yet) imagine on-campus instruction ("planning for online," "waiting to decide," "considering a range of scenarios")
Orange: some in-person and some online ("proposing a hybrid model")
Red: "Planning for in-person" ...

The top 20 were much more reticent to pledge a return to campus, as compared to institutions 81-100:

Continue reading

After 7 Of 8 Ivy League Schools Drop SAT/ACT For Class of 2025, U.S. News Will Start Ranking Test-Blind Colleges

Robert Morse (Chief Data Strategist, U.S. News) & Eric Brook (Senior Data Analyst), U.S. News to Start Ranking Test-Blind Schools:

Starting with the upcoming 2021 Best Colleges rankings – to be published in September 2020 – U.S. News will rank schools that report not using the SAT or ACT at all in admissions decisions. In the past, beginning with the 2008 edition of Best Colleges, these test-blind schools were automatically excluded from the overall rankings and categorized as "Unranked."

In contrast, schools that have test-optional or text-flexible admissions policies have always been ranked and will continue to be ranked.

Why is U.S. News making this change? Because prospective students and their families want to know the academic quality of all schools, including ones that do not make use of standardized test scores. Also, in recent years a large number of colleges have changed their application requirements regarding the SAT and ACT. ...

Continue reading

The 20 Law Schools With The Most Improved Bar Passage Rates

Bar Exam Results Improve as Law Schools Push Prep, preLaw (Spring 2020):

In 2019, first-time test-takers nationwide passed at a rate of nearly 80%, up 5% from the year before, according to recently released ABA figures. ...

Continue reading

Law School Rankings By Class Of 2019 Job Placement

Following up on Monday's post, Class Of 2020 Legal Employment Outcomes In California, DC-Maryland-Virginia, Florida, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, And Texas:

Karen Sloan (Law.com), Law Grads Hiring Report: Job Stats for the Class of 2019:

Among the J.D. class of 2019, four out of five graduates landed jobs that either require bar passage or for which a law degree offers an advantage within 10 months of leaving campus. That’s the strongest entry-level employment record in more than a decade, according to new data from the American Bar Association. ...

But not every law school had such robust employment outcomes last year. Law.com has dug through a wealth of jobs data released by the ABA this month to spotlight how law schools performed in 10 different areas:

Continue reading

The Best Law Schools For Practical Training

Best Schools For Practical Training, preLaw (Spring 2020):

These schools focus on giving students real-world experience before they step into the real world. It’s growing more vital, since employers want grads who don’t need hand-holding.

We graded schools on a number of data points, focusing on key practical training offerings such as clinics, externships, simulation courses, pro bono hours and moot trial participation.

Continue reading

Bob Morse Discusses The U.S. News Law School Rankings Today At Texas A&M Virtual Conference

I am delighted to be speaking on a U.S. News law school rankings panel today at Texas A&M University School of Law's virtual Conference for Associate Deans (at 11:30 am - 12:45 pm ET). Robert Morse, Chief Data Strategist at U.S. News, will make a presentation on The U.S. News Law School Rankings: All Things Considered. After Bob's presentation, Gary Lucas (Senior Associate Dean, Texas A&M) and I will ask Bob some questions, followed by Q&A with the audience. Among the issues I hope we will discuss are:

• In light of this current moment in our nation, is US News going to add a diversity component to the rankings (as it does in its college rankings using Pell Grants)?
  • If so, would U.S. News use its existing stand alone Law School Diversity Index?
  • Why does U.S. News use national diversity data rather than data from the state in which a law school is located, like it does for the bar exam component of the rankings?
  • Would U.S. News consider other measures, such as the percentage of students who are first-generation students (law school or college)?
  • UPDATE: Bob said U.S. News is open to perhaps including a diversity component to the rankings. U.S. News is working with LSAC on getting appropriate data (such as Pell Grants received by law students during their undergraduate years).
• Is U.S. News considering suspending the law school rankings due to COVID-19, as it has been asked to do for the college and business school rankings? 
  • What does U.S. News think about Businessweek's decision to suspend its business school rankings due to COVID-19?
  • UPDATE: Bob Said U.S. News is considering the issue but it is too early to make a determination.
  • If U.S. News does not suspend the law school rankings:
    • How will U.S. News adjust the bar exam component of the rankings in light of the decision by states to permit graduate to practice law prior to passing a bar exam under diploma privilege and supervised practice systems?
    • How will U.S. News adjust the job placement component of the rankings?
      • How will U.S. News define jobs at graduation for schools that have not yet held graduation ceremonies due to COVID-19? Do virtual graduations matter?
      • How will U.S. News define jobs ten months after graduation for law schools located in states that have delayed their July bar exams? Will U.S. News adjust the 10-month period for law schools located in those states?
      • UPDATE: Bob recognized the problem and said U.S. News likely would follow the lead of the ABA and NALP.
• When will the stand alone U.S. News scholarly impact rankings (FAQ; Update #1; Update #2; Update #3) be published?
• UPDATE: Bob said 2020. 
  • How does U.S. News respond to the many criticisms of the scholarly impact rankings (e.g., here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here)?
  • Will U.S. News ever include the scholarly impact rankings in the law school rankings?
  • UPDATE: Bob said U.S. News has no current plans to do so.
• U.S. News ranks universities in several different categories (e.g., national universities, liberal arts colleges), based on Carnegie classifications.
  • Would U.S. News ever consider ranking law schools in different categories rather than in a single ranking?
  • What categories might U.S. News consider?
  • Might law schools opt-in to a category?
• U.S. News reported that 32 schools (16% the total) reported GRE scores for their Fall 2019 entering class.
  • How does U.S. News weight the three GRE components: quantitative, verbal, analytical writing?
  • UPDATE: Bob said 40%/40%/20%.

Continue reading

Use Of Google Scholar And Hein Author Profiles Boosts Citations

Caroline Osborne (West Virginia) & Stephanie Miller (West Virginia), The Scholarly Impact Matrix: An Empirical Study of How Multiple Metrics Create an Informed Story of a Scholar's Work:

This article analyzes data collected in an empirical study of citation metrics. Between February 1, 2019 and April 30, 2019, the authors collected citation data from Google Scholar, HeinOnline, Westlaw, Lexis, SSRN, and Digital Commons repositories on randomly selected faculty members at U.S. law schools for the purpose of answering questions regarding fit and utility of citation metrics. Analysis of the citation data examines the impact of adoption of scholarly profiles, gender, and stage in the profession, and discipline, on exposure on citation with the conclusion that exposure results in increased citations.

Conclusion
This examination of metrics measuring exposure and citation demonstrates that greater exposure leads to greater citations. This suggests that robust promotion and scholarly communication efforts that lead to downloads have cascading effects that lead to increased citation. Scholars with Google Scholar profiles enjoy a greater likelihood of citation and exposure across all platforms in the study with the exception of HeinOnline. This suggests scholars should adopt Google Scholar profiles. In contrast, the Hein Author profile while having no apparent benefit for exposure does positively impact citation. This finding suggests scholars should adopt the Hein Author profile. ORCiD has no measurable impact on either exposure or citation but may have other benefits not explored in the underlying study or this paper.

Gender impacts citation with men more likely to be frequently cited or significantly cited when compared to women. ...

The results centered on the scholar’s state of career are as anticipated. The mature scholar, one with twenty plus years in the profession, enjoys a greater likelihood of being significantly cited than those with less years in the profession. This reflects the long tail of scholarship. In contrast, scholars, with between eight and nineteen years in the profession, receive the benefit of exposure being more likely to be in the significantly downloaded interval than either those with greater or fewer years in the profession. Analysis from this study supports a generational difference and the development of institutional use of IR’s and SSRN.

Institution rank produces a benefit at the frequently cited interval for those at a T-14 institution, but rank is irreverent at the significantly cited level, except on HeinOnline where scholars at T-50 schools are more likely to be significantly cited than scholars at a T-14 institution. Scholars at T14 institutions enjoy a benefit at the frequently cited level.

Continue reading

Movement Builds To Suspend U.S. News Rankings During COVID-19 Pandemic

Following up on my previous posts:

• GMAC, Accreditors Seek To Postpone Business School Rankings During COVID-19
• Businessweek Suspends MBA Rankings Due To COVID-19; Will US News Follow Suit? What About Law School Rankings?

Chronicle of Higher Education, Why One Former Campus Leader Thinks College Rankings Should Stop During the Pandemic:

The coronavirus has underscored inequities in American society, including among college students. ... Now, in the next phase of the pandemic, new inequities are poised to arise, this time among both who gets into college, and among who completes their degrees. So argues H. Holden Thorp in the latest issue of the journal Science, of which he’s editor in chief. He has two ideas for leveling the playing field: Suspend both the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, and the use of standardized tests in admissions.

Thorp draws from his past experiences as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then provost of Washington University in St. Louis.

"The best thing would be for U.S. News to do the right thing and say, 'We’re just not going to do this until this is over.'”

[Reached for comment, Robert Morse, chief data strategist for U.S. News & World Report, sent along the following statement, via a spokeswoman:

Continue reading

The Ten Law Schools With The Most Discounted Tuition

U.S. News & World Report, 10 Law Schools That Offer the Most Tuition Help:

Here are 10 schools where students received enough grants to cover more than half of their tuition:

	Law School	Students With Grants > 50% Tuition	Median Grant	US News Rank
1	Penn State - Carlisle	93.2%	$49,896	62
2	Penn State - Univ. Park	90.0%	$49,896	60
3	Belmont	88.2%	$32,572	129
4	UNLV	85.6%	$25,900	62
5	George Mason	84.7%	$30,000	42
6	Nebraska	81.3%	$15,800	76
7	Illinois	80.6%	$35,000	31
8	Washington Univ.	79.3%	$40,000	17
9	Villanova	78.0%	$40,000	62
10	Liberty	77.8%	$20,075	Tier 2

Businessweek Suspends MBA Rankings Due To COVID-19; Will US News Follow Suit? What About Law School Rankings?

Following up on my previous post, GMAC, Accreditors Seek To Postpone Business School Rankings During COVID-19:

Poets&Quants, Businessweek Agrees To Suspend Its MBA Ranking This Year:

Bloomberg Businessweek, which annually publishes one of the five most influential rankings of MBA programs, today (May 7) announced that it would suspend its 2020 ranking due to the disruptions caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Poets&Quants, Wimps: Will U.S. News Chicken Out & Pause Its MBA Ranking?:

The wimpy decision to pause one of the five most influential MBA rankings comes less than two weeks after the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the GMAT exam, and two business school accreditation agencies asked ranking organizations, including Businessweek, to halt their work and postpone the publication of their lists.

Sad to say, Businessweek‘s ranking has waned in importance over the years after a series of abrupt methodology changes and highly inconsistent an less-than-credible results. ... It is one thing, however, for Businessweek to pause its ranking–part of which is based on employment statistics that are more than a year old. It is an entirely another thing for U.S. News & World Report, the most followed MBA ranking in North America, or the Financial Times, the most influential ranking in Europe and Asia, to halt publication of their rankings. Both of these media organizations gather freshly issued metrics that help inform the applicant market, allowing candidates to compare and contrast these schools far beyond any numerical rank they are given.

In fact, the release of those metrics, made uniform by the reporting requirements imposed on schools by U.S. News and the FT, is especially critical in this year made turbulent by the coronavirus outbreak and the global recession. Transparency is more critical today than ever before. Applicants should have access to timely metrics that will likely show which schools have best weathered the storm at hand. ...

Bob Morse, chief data strategist for U.S. News, has told Poets&Quants that “the team at U.S. News continues to monitor the unprecedented disruptions to business schools themselves, their current students and prospective students caused by COVID 19.  As a result, we’re still reviewing our strategies for both our next U.S. News Full-time and Part-time Best Business Schools rankings and fall 2020 data collection.”

Continue reading

U.S. News Law School Academic Reputation Scores, 1998-2020

Robert L. Jones (Northern Illinois), Academic Reputation Scores for Law Schools Rise Significantly in 2020:

This Article summarizes the results of the U.S. News & World Report rankings published in 2020 with respect to the academic reputation scores of law schools. In addition to analyzing the most recent results for the U.S. News rankings, the Article supplements the more extensive longitudinal study published by this author in 2013. The Article also includes updated appendices from the prior study that catalog the U.S. News academic reputation scores for every law school between 1998 and 2020.

Continue reading

U.S. News Law School Rankings And College Football

Noah Chauvin (J.D. 2019, William & Mary), Finally, a Use for the U.S. News Law School Rankings, 11 Cal. L. Rev. Online 1 (2020):

The U.S. News & World Report law school rankings are highly influential among people applying to law school. Nonetheless, they are widely panned among the legal community for the often-arbitrary criteria they use to distinguish between law schools. In this essay, I seek to rescue the rankings from this derision by proposing a novel use for them: picking the winner of college football games against the spread.

Continue reading

The 250 Most-Cited Legal Scholars

HeinOnline, The 250 Most-Cited Legal Scholars:

The following list is calculated based on an analysis of all articles in HeinOnline. We then ranked each author in each category: number of times cited by articles, number of times cited by articles written in the past 10 years, number of times cited by articles written in the past 12-24 months, number of times cited by cases, and number of times accessed and averaged the rankings to produce this list of the 250 authors that scored the highest when averaging all categories.

1. Sunstein, C. R.
2. Posner, Richard A.
3. Prosser, William L.
4. Lemley, Mark
5. Kerr, Orin S.
6. Easterbrook, Frank
7. Friendly, Henry J.
8. Crenshaw, Kimberle
9. Fallon, Richard H. Jr.
10. Eskridge Jr., William N.
11. Coffee, John C.
12. Frankfurter, Felix
13. Amar, Akhil R.
14. Epstein, Richard
15. Chemerinsky, Erwin
16. Merrill, Thomas W.
17. Scalia, Antonin
18. Schauer, F.
19. Pound, Roscoe
20. Eisenberg, Theodore
21. Redish, Martin
22. Miller, Geoffrey
23. Manning, John F.
24. Monaghan, Henry
25. Volokh, Eugene
26. McConnell, Michael
27. Posner, Eric
28. Brandeis, Louis D.
29. Fischel, Daniel R.
30. Warren, Samuel D.
31. Tushnet, Mark
32. Siegel, Reva
33. Brennan, William J. Jr.
34. Resnik, Judith
35. Strine, Leo E. Jr.
36. Langbein, John H.
37. Imwinkelreid, Edward J.
38. Fuller, L. L.
39. Miller, Arthur
40. Scott, Robert
41. Issacharoff, Sam
42. Farber, Dan
43. Delgado, Richard
44. James, Fleming Jr.
45. Bebchuk, Lucian
46. Solove, Daniel J.
47. Tribe, Laurence H.
48. Vermeule, Adrian
49. Balkin, J. M.
50. Laycock, Douglas

The Top 100 Law Schools, Based On 5-, 10-, And 15-Year Rolling Average U.S. News Rankings

Bradley A. Areheart (Tennessee), The Top 100 Law Reviews: A Reference Guide Based on Historical USNWR Data:

The best proxy for how other law professors react and respond to publishing in main, or flagship, law reviews is the US News and World Report (USNWR) rankings. This paper utilizes historical USNWR data to rank the top 100 law reviews. The USNWR rankings are important in shaping many – if not most – law professors’ perceptions about the relative strength of a law school (and derivatively, the home law review). This document contains a chart that is sorted by the 10-year rolling average for each school, but it also contains the 5-year and 15-year rolling averages. This paper also describes my methodology and responds to a series of frequently asked questions. [Were there any ties? If two law school’s 10-year rolling averages were within 2/10 of a point, I tied them and then attempted to break those ties based on the current year’s peer reputation scores. You’ll see that where there was a tie, I have included the peer rep scores in parentheses for those schools. If the peer rep scores were the same, I allowed the tie to remain.] The document was updated in April 2020.

Here are the Top 75 law schools based on their 10-year rolling average overall U.S. News ranking:

Rank	School	10-Year Rank
1	Yale	1.0
2	Stanford	2.3
3	Harvard	2.5
4	Columbia (4.7)	4.3
5	Chicago (4.6)	4.2
6	NYU	6.0
7	Pennsylvania	7.0
8	Virginia	8.0
9	UC-Berkeley (4.5)	8.9
10	Michigan (4.4)	8.9
11	Duke	10.5
12	Northwestern	11.2
13	Cornell	13.1
14	Georgetown	13.9
15	Texas	15.1
16	UCLA	15.8
17	Vanderbilt	16.6
18	Washington Univ. (3.7)	18.5
19	USC (3.6)	18.4
20	Minnesota	20.4
21	Notre Dame	22.5
22	George Washington	22.7
23	Emory	23.1
24	Boston University	23.8
25	Iowa	25.2
26	UC-Irvine	26.2
27	Alabama	26.7
28	Arizona State	28.0
29	Indiana (Maurer)	29.5
30	Boston College	29.8
31	Washington	31.1
32	Georgia	31.5
33	Washington & Lee	32.4
34	Wisconsin	32.7
35	William & Mary	32.9
36	UC-Davis	33.2
37	Ohio State	33.9
38	Fordham	34.3
39	North Carolina	34.7
40	Wake Forest	37.0
41	Illinois	37.7
42	BYU	39.6
43	Arizona	42.0
44	Florida (3.3)	42.2
45	George Mason (2.7)	42.2
46	Colorado	43.1
47	Utah	45.6
48	Maryland	45.9
49	Florida State (3.1)	48.7
50	SMU (2.7)	48.6
51	Tulane	49.6
52	Baylor	52.2
53	UC-Hastings	53.0
54	Temple	54.2
55	Richmond	54.9
56	Houston	55.3
57	Pepperdine	56.1
58	Connecticut	56.4
59	Cardozo	60.3
60	Georgia State	62.3
61	Tennessee (2.7)	62.6
62	Seton Hall (2.5)	62.7
63	Kentucky	63.5
64	Case Western	65.0
65	Loyola-L.A.	65.4
66	Penn State (Dickinson)	66.5
67	Miami	68.2
68	UNLV	68.4
69	Oklahoma (2.5)	68.8
69	Penn State (Univ. Park) (2.5)	68.8
71	Nebraska	69.1
72	American	69.5
73	Denver	69.7
74	Missouri	70.8
75	Kansas	73.0

2020 World Law School Rankings

Quacquarelli Symonds has released the 2020 World Law School Rankings as part of its World University Rankings. The methodology is 50% academic reputation, 30% employer reputation, 15% h-index per faculty member, and 5% citations per paper.  The rankings consist of 300 law schools, 48 in the United States.  Here are the U.S. law schools, along with each school's position in the latest SSRN Top 750 Law School Faculty Rankings -- Total Downloads):

QS Ranking	School	SSRN Ranking
1	Harvard	1
4	Yale	5
5	Stanford	2
7	UC-Berkeley	4
8	Columbia	6
9	NYU	3
11	Chicago	7
18	Georgetown	9
26	UCLA	15
29	Michigan	13
31	Penn	11
32	Duke	18
41	Cornell	27
46	Northwestern	14
51-100	American	44
51-100	Boston University	29
51-100	George Washington	8
51-100	Texas	31
51-100	Virginia	24
101-150	Fordham	17
101-150	Notre Dame	55
101-150	UC-Irvine	28
101-150	USC	30
101-150	Washington	66
101-150	Washington Univ.	41
101-150	Wisconsin	102
151-200	Boston College	84
151-200	Florida	53
151-200	Michigan State	76
151-200	North Carolina	68
201-250	Florida State	51
201-250	George Mason	20
201-250	Illinois	33
201-250	Loyola-Chicago	65
201-250	Minnesota	26
201-250	Ohio State	37
201-250	Penn State (Univ. Park)	96
201-250	UC-Davis	32
201-250	Vanderbilt	16
251-300	Arizona State	57
251-300	CUNY	167
251-300	Arizona	46
251-300	Colorado	71
251-300	Emory	56
251-300	Indiana (Maurer)	34
251-300	Iowa	106
251-300	UIC-John Marshall	162

GMAC, Accreditors Seek To Postpone Business School Rankings During COVID-19

Bloomberg Businessweek
The Economist
Forbes
Financial Times
QS
US News & World Report

This has been an unprecedented few months for our world. As we all continue to navigate the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, our first thought is for the safety and well-being of our frontline healthcare professionals and everyone who continues to be impacted by these difficult circumstances. 

The reach of COVID-19 knows no boundaries:

• Business schools and students are dealing with questions of when and how upcoming classes will begin, as all formats shift online.
• MBA and business master’s graduates, poised to join a historically strong job market with record-high salaries for MBA’s, now find themselves dealing with uncertainty. 
• While mobility has become a significant issue over the past few years, the current environment has effectively halted cross-border travel, a reality that will not resolve itself quickly. Accepted students face uncertainty about obtaining visas and getting to campus for the start of their chosen program. 
• Governments around the world are grappling with how to manage their respective economies; commerce has come to a halt. 

Business school deans and administrators have always understood the impact outside forces have on their mission to develop diverse, high-level talent in their classrooms. Traditionally, such forces have included economic fluctuations, trade wars, advances in technology, and political factors. 

The forces we face today are extraordinary. 

As industry leaders representing business schools and candidates, AACSB [Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business], EFMD [European Foundation for Management Development] and GMAC [Graduate Management Admission Council] understand and appreciate the impact COVID-19 has had and will continue to have on the admissions process, coupled with the economic uncertainty for graduates and potential employers. Given this new normal, we need to work together to mitigate the negative impact of the crisis for schools and students around the world. Therefore, we strongly advocate that all rankings institutions postpone their work and publication on business school rankings, to provide business schools worldwide the opportunity to rebound in these tumultuous circumstances. 

Continue reading

Law School Rankings By Debt-To-Income Ratios Of Graduates

What Law Grads Earn, Nat'l Jurist, Spr. 2020, at 16:

For the first time, the U.S. Department of Education has unveiled median salaries earned by first-year graduates [in the Class of 2016].

Here are the Top 50 law schools with the lowest average debt-to-income ratios of their graduates with federal student loan debt:

Rank	School	Ratio
1	Stanford	0.77
2	Harvard	0.84
3	Duke	0.85
4	Chicago	0.86
4	Penn	0.86
6	Cornell	0.88
7	BYU	0.91
7	Northwestern	0.91
9	Columbia	0.92
10	Yale	0.98
11	Iowa	0.99
12	Connecticut	1.01
13	Washington University	1.02
14	NYU	1.05
14	Virginia	1.05
16	Wisconsin	1.10
17	Georgia State	1.11
18	UC-Berkeley	1.12
19	Boston College	1.14
19	Michigan	1.14
19	Temple	1.14
22	Nebraska	1.16
22	Tennessee	1.16
22	Texas Tech	1.16
22	Wayne State	1.16
26	Texas	1.18
27	Arkansas-Fayetteville	1.19
27	Vanderbilt	1.19
29	Mitchell Hamline	1.21
30	North Dakota	1.26
30	UCLA	1.26
32	Kansas	1.27
33	Kentucky	1.28
34	Mississippi	1.32
35	Alabama	1.33
36	Illinois	1.34
37	Houston	1.36
38	Baylor	1.37
38	Boston University	1.37
40	Utah	1.38
41	Hawaii	1.39
41	Oklahoma	1.39
43	Louisiana State	1.41
44	CUNY	1.43
44	Georgia	1.43
44	UNLV	1.43
47	Missouri	1.45
47	USC	1.45
49	Villanova	1.47
50	Tulsa	1.48

Continue reading

Law School Rankings By Debt Of Graduates

What Law Grads Earn, Nat'l Jurist, Spr. 2020, at 16:

For the first time, the U.S. Department of Education has unveiled median salaries earned by first-year graduates [in the Class of 2016].

Here are the Top 50 law schools with the lowest average debt loads of their graduates with federal student loan debt:

Rank	School	Debt
1	BYU	$51,250
2	Nebraska	$59,124
3	Arkansas-Fayetteville	$61,500
3	North Dakota	$61,500
3	Tennessee	$61,500
3	Wisconsin	$61,500
7	Iowa	$62,249
8	Mississippi	$64,300
9	Mitchell Hamline	$64,429
10	Kansas	$66,415
11	Wayne State	$67,640
12	Alabama	$68,992
13	Connecticut	$69,085
14	Georgia State	$69,200
15	Temple	$69,583
16	Kentucky	$69,860
17	Texas Tech	$70,006
18	Louisiana State	$71,422
19	Liberty	$71,534
20	Missouri	$71,603
21	Akron	$73,756
22	Oklahoma	$74,250
23	Tulsa	$75,326
24	Cincinnati	$76,173
25	Memphis	$76,622
26	Montana	$76,666
27	Arkansas-Little Rock	$77,208
28	Hawaii	$77,849
29	CUNY	$78,224
30	South Dakota	$79,143
31	Utah	$79,768
32	N. Kentucky	$79,951
33	Florida State	$81,159
34	Arizona	$81,178
35	Washington Univ.	$81,500
36	Toledo	$81,546
37	Quinnipiac	$82,000
37	Rutgers	$82,000
39	Washburn	$82,194
40	Georgia	$82,480
41	Case Western	$82,570
42	N. Illinois	$83,660
43	Villanova	$83,761
44	Cleveland-Marshall	$83,868
45	New Mexico	$83,999
46	Wyoming	$84,032
47	West Virginia	$84,227
48	St. Thomas (MN)	$84,261
49	Duquesne	$84,428
50	Florida	$84,508

Continue reading

Law School Rankings By Salary Of Graduates

What Law Grads Earn, Nat'l Jurist, Spr. 2020, at 16:

For the first time, the U.S. Department of Education has unveiled median salaries earned by first-year graduates [in the Class of 2016].

Here are the Top 50 law schools with the highest average salaries of their graduates:

Rank	School	Income
1	Columbia	$180,300
2	NYU	$175,800
3	Cornell	$175,200
4	Penn	$175,100
5	Northwestern	$171,900
6	Chicago	$170,500
7	Duke	$162,200
8	Harvard	$158,200
9	Stanford	$156,700
10	Virginia	$151,500
11	UC-Berkeley	$135,400
12	Yale	$128,900
13	Michigan	$126,800
14	Vanderbilt	$108,800
15	Georgetown	$105,000
16	Fordham	$99,000
17	UCLA	$96,600
18	Texas	$90,100
19	USC	$89,300
20	Boston College	$88,300
21	Boston University	$81,200
22	Washington Univ.	$79,800
23	SMU	$75,600
24	Notre Dame	$75,500
25	George Washington	$74,300
26	UC-Irvine	$68,700
27	Connecticut	$68,600
28	Illinois	$67,700
29	Houston	$67,600
29	UC-Hastings	$67,600
31	UC-Davis	$67,100
32	George Mason	$66,900
33	Baylor	$66,800
33	Emory	$66,800
35	Santa Clara	$66,200
36	Brooklyn	$66,100
37	Cardozo	$66,000
38	St. John's	$65,900
38	UNLV	$65,900
40	Loyola-Chicago	$64,400
41	Washington & Lee	$64,200
42	Loyola-Los Angeles	$63,700
43	Washington	$63,000
44	Iowa	$62,700
45	Georgia State	$62,400
46	San Diego	$62,100
47	Pepperdine	$61,400
48	Temple	$61,300
49	Pace	$60,700
50	Texas Tech	$60,200

• Law School Rankings By Salary Of Graduates
• Law School Rankings By Debt Of Graduates
• Law School Rankings By Debt-To-Income Ratios Of Graduates

2021 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings v. Overall Rankings

Following up on yesterday's post, 2021 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings:

Here are the law schools whose U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Ranking most exceeds their overall U.S. News Ranking:

	School	Specialty Rank	Overall Rank	Difference
1	Suffolk	75	136	+61
2	American	18	76	+58
3	Seattle	72	129	+57
4	Pacific	94	148	+54
5	UIC-John Marshall	97	140	+43
6	Brooklyn	47	83	+36
6	Indiana (McKinney)	86	122	+36
6	UC-Hastings	23	59	+36
9	Denver	40	74	+34
9	Pace	102	136	+34
11	New York Law School	98	129	+31
12	Baltimore	96	126	+30
12	Santa Clara	77	107	+30
14	Chicago-Kent	54	83	+29
14	Mitchell Hamline	112	141	+29
16	Case Western	50	76	+26
16	DePaul	92	118	+26
18	Georgia State	51	76	+25
18	Loyola-New Orleans	101	126	+25
20	Loyola-L.A.	38	62	+24
20	Missouri (KC)	109	133	+24
22	Arkansas (Little Rock)	125	148	+23
23	Widener (DE)	126	148	+22
24	San Francisco	127	148	+21
24	Syracuse	90	111	+21
24	Temple	35	56	+21
27	Howard	87	107	+20
28	Rutgers	58	76	+18
29	Hofstra	85	102	+17
30	Ohio State	22	38	+16
30	South Carolina	80	96	+16
30	UC-Irvine	11	27	+16
33	Loyola-Chicago	55	70	+15
33	Miami	52	67	+15
35	Lewis & Clark	79	93	+14
35	Maryland	33	47	+14
35	Oregon	74	88	+14
35	San Diego	69	83	+14
35	Stetson	91	105	+14
40	Georgetown	1	14	+13
40	Golden Gate	135	148	+13
40	Vermont	128	141	+13
43	Houston	45	56	+11
44	George Washington	13	23	+10
44	New Mexico	89	99	+10
46	Drexel	84	93	+9
46	Southwestern	139	148	+9
46	Texas	7	16	+9
46	UNLV	53	62	+9
50	Fordham	19	27	+8
50	UC-Davis	30	38	+8
50	Willamette	133	141	+8

Here are the law schools whose U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Ranking most trails their overall U.S. News Ranking:

Continue reading

2021 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings include the rankings for 13 specialty programs at 194 law schools. Here are the Top 100 law schools, determined by giving equal weight to each of the 13 separate specialty rankings:

1. Business/Corporate Law
2. Clinical Law
3. Constitutional Law
4. Contracts/Commercial Law
5. Criminal Law
6. Dispute Resolution 
7. Environmental Law
8. Health Care Law
9. Intellectual Property Law
10. International Law
11. Legal Writing
12. Tax Law
13. Trial Advocacy

	School	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Avg.
1	Georgetown	8	1	9	13	5	25	10	7	13	3	12	2	12	9.2
2	NYU	3	2	5	3	1	16	6	48	3	1	76	1	31	15.1
3	Stanford	5	8	3	6	1	18	10	5	2	9	92	7	44	16.2
4	Michigan	12	8	13	8	10	37	37	19	13	7	12	11	59	18.9
5	Northwestern	12	6	13	13	16	6	49	48	21	21	24	3	19	19.3
6	UC-Berkeley	4	8	7	3	3	32	1	29	1	11	127	23	15	20.3
7	Texas	17	32	11	8	17	16	26	19	18	14	44	15	36	21.0
8	Harvard	1	22	2	3	3	1	10	9	18	2	167	7	36	21.6
9	UCLA	8	27	13	11	10	25	4	32	25	17	101	5	23	23.2
10	Duke	12	54	9	15	10	25	19	25	12	9	44	18	78	25.4
11	UC-Irvine	37	8	19	29	17	22	33	40	25	25	11	11	65	26.3
12	Penn	6	27	11	6	6	32	41	22	8	14	101	15	78	28.2
13	George Washington	30	22	25	34	22	44	15	32	5	8	44	42	50	28.7
14	Washington Univ.	26	14	19	21	26	25	73	29	45	17	51	23	12	29.3
15	Virginia	8	82	7	11	6	18	26	46	31	11	76	5	78	31.2
16	Columbia	1	20	5	1	6	37	6	46	13	4	154	10	105	31.4
17	Yale	8	5	1	8	6	37	20	16	62	4	167	11	65	31.5
18	American	68	2	44	51	26	48	37	11	10	4	51	55	4	31.6
19	Fordham	17	17	25	23	17	13	63	93	21	21	101	32	9	34.8
20	Boston University	19	32	19	18	30	56	55	5	10	32	51	21	105	34.8
21	North Carolina	26	44	25	18	22	48	37	22	55	46	7	26	78	34.9
22	Ohio State	37	69	28	23	15	2	55	29	40	43	38	32	44	35.0
23	UC-Hastings	37	27	44	46	33	13	20	13	45	28	114	23	20	35.6
24	Cornell	16	44	13	15	17	22	41	71	40	13	70	42	65	36.1
25	Minnesota	19	32	19	21	22	78	20	19	40	25	76	26	78	36.5
26	Vanderbilt	12	61	17	17	10	32	17	25	25	14	136	48	65	36.8
27	Arizona State	52	61	38	51	33	10	20	22	51	25	7	37	78	37.3
28	Emory	26	69	28	23	33	56	49	40	36	40	44	48	23	39.6
29	Boston College	26	27	31	29	43	48	33	48	31	40	38	18	105	39.8
30	UC-Davis	23	54	19	23	22	25	20	54	36	32	136	26	50	40.0
31	Chicago	7	22	4	1	10	48	63	71	40	17	154	7	78	40.2
32	Indiana (Maurer)	23	82	44	23	43	56	31	40	21	28	51	20	78	41.5
33	Maryland	61	6	44	46	57	13	10	7	79	69	63	63	31	42.2
34	William & Mary	37	61	19	29	17	18	41	48	45	32	101	63	44	42.7
35	Temple	52	86	59	59	53	25	85	17	71	17	12	37	2	44.2
36	Notre Dame	37	44	18	34	43	56	55	102	25	28	76	45	25	45.2
37	Wisconsin	48	44	38	29	33	37	41	40	79	32	51	55	78	46.5
38	Loyola-L.A.	48	69	54	63	33	67	85	48	31	57	44	11	5	47.3
39	Florida	37	82	67	39	33	37	20	61	71	69	76	3	25	47.7
40	Denver	68	8	59	63	43	56	26	93	79	52	7	63	9	48.2
41	Washington	61	44	59	39	43	99	31	32	18	43	51	42	65	48.2
42	Arizona	59	61	38	46	57	86	33	32	55	36	24	68	50	49.6
42	Colorado	30	96	44	51	30	72	10	71	25	52	51	63	50	49.6
42	Georgia	23	32	31	39	33	99	85	40	71	21	101	45	25	49.6
45	Houston	59	69	71	34	64	99	26	3	5	46	101	26	44	49.8
46	Wake Forest	37	86	54	39	29	99	41	17	95	69	6	55	25	50.2
47	Brooklyn	30	32	35	34	26	72	106	90	62	46	32	48	59	51.7
48	Tulane	37	39	54	34	53	37	17	61	62	28	148	63	44	52.1
49	USC	22	82	31	18	33	32	96	48	55	46	114	15	96	52.9
50	Case Western	61	44	59	51	64	67	55	9	40	24	92	98	50	54.9
51	Georgia State	52	27	44	86	57	56	85	2	62	98	92	55	25	57.0
52	Miami	52	32	59	46	53	78	55	93	55	36	101	26	59	57.3
53	UNLV	78	39	69	51	68	6	85	32	62	106	1	48	105	57.7
54	Chicago-Kent	52	86	54	72	74	86	85	54	13	75	32	75	5	58.7
55	Loyola-Chicago	75	54	59	72	82	56	126	3	45	69	76	48	12	59.8
55	Washington & Lee	52	69	44	51	43	44	79	40	90	36	101	32	96	59.8
57	Cardozo	52	61	38	59	30	5	106	114	13	75	114	48	65	60.0
58	Rutgers	83	22	59	81	57	83	63	54	85	52	18	80	59	61.2
59	Florida State	48	96	44	39	53	99	15	54	79	62	136	37	36	61.4
60	Utah	30	106	44	39	33	99	9	32	71	62	136	55	121	64.4
61	Texas A&M	68	54	111	69	119	6	37	102	8	62	29	75	105	65.0
62	Pepperdine	61	39	44	59	91	3	96	114	100	46	114	37	50	65.7
63	Iowa	30	86	38	46	43	99	106	78	62	57	51	68	105	66.8
64	Northeastern	113	22	71	107	57	48	106	11	21	62	38	110	105	67.0
65	Villanova	78	69	83	86	74	90	79	61	45	91	29	37	50	67.1
66	Alabama	61	61	31	29	43	99	63	102	100	98	127	32	31	67.5
67	Illinois	30	117	35	23	33	93	79	90	51	83	101	45	105	68.1
68	SMU	68	61	71	69	43	72	96	61	55	46	136	48	65	68.5
69	San Diego	30	121	28	72	57	99	79	71	31	62	166	21	59	68.9
70	BYU	19	136	54	39	68	67	55	144	55	75	76	32	96	70.5
71	Pittsburgh	75	121	69	69	57	99	85	32	51	43	76	26	131	71.8
72	Seattle	83	20	71	107	91	99	79	78	62	91	3	80	78	72.5
73	Seton Hall	83	69	71	81	82	67	116	13	71	57	92	68	78	72.9
74	Oregon	61	121	71	63	74	10	6	144	100	98	2	68	131	73.0
75	Suffolk	95	14	136	116	111	22	96	61	45	106	5	132	20	73.8
76	Richmond	37	121	35	63	43	99	63	144	25	69	101	55	105	73.8
77	Santa Clara	75	121	93	98	91	44	55	102	4	40	44	68	131	74.3
78	Tennessee	37	17	83	63	74	99	106	78	123	118	32	75	65	74.6
79	Lewis & Clark	95	86	71	107	91	48	1	122	55	69	18	92	121	75.1
80	South Carolina	83	39	93	86	74	99	63	61	114	106	70	55	36	75.3
81	Kansas	78	86	83	51	68	25	63	122	100	91	51	80	121	78.4
82	St. John's	68	117	71	72	74	37	152	102	71	57	32	132	36	78.5
83	Connecticut	61	96	59	59	82	72	63	61	108	57	76	68	160	78.6
84	Drexel	78	54	71	98	100	83	130	32	108	103	18	132	15	78.6
85	Hofstra	92	69	83	90	68	93	130	61	95	62	76	89	36	80.3
86	Indiana (McKinney)	95	86	83	81	111	99	85	15	85	83	24	98	121	82.0
87	Howard	92	44	71	72	64	67	143	122	62	106	63	120	59	83.5
88	Michigan State	68	86	83	63	91	93	96	114	71	75	101	98	65	84.9
89	New Mexico	113	17	111	81	100	99	33	78	137	106	70	92	78	85.8
90	Syracuse	95	96	111	98	100	99	73	78	85	83	76	110	15	86.1
91	Stetson	95	96	111	72	100	72	106	122	137	106	3	110	1	87.0
92	DePaul	95	106	93	98	82	97	152	25	36	91	92	92	78	87.5
93	George Mason	48	155	38	51	74	99	136	114	31	75	148	80	105	88.8
94	Pacific	106	136	146	98	125	56	73	102	114	36	32	126	9	89.2
95	Missouri (Columbia)	88	127	83	72	82	3	136	90	90	91	136	98	65	89.3
96	Baltimore	123	14	93	120	100	78	116	122	95	75	38	75	149	92.2
97	UIC-John Marshall	135	69	136	148	111	90	152	122	36	75	7	98	36	93.5
98	New York Law School	95	54	93	156	100	78	136	78	62	83	38	98	145	93.5
99	St. Louis	88	86	71	90	100	99	159	1	90	98	127	80	131	93.8
100	Marquette	88	127	93	90	91	10	126	144	79	118	12	126	121	94.2

If anyone at a law school outside the Top 100 would like the data for their school's rank, email me.

Continue reading

2021 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings include the trial advocacy programs at 188 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.1	Stetson
2	4.0	Baylor
2	4.0	Temple
4	3.9	American
5	3.8	Chicago-Kent
5	3.8	Loyola-L.A.
7	3.6	Samford
7	3.6	South Texas
9	3.5	Fordham
9	3.5	Denver
9	3.5	Pacific
12	3.4	Georgetown
12	3.4	Loyola-Chicago
12	3.4	Washington University
15	3.3	Campbell
15	3.3	Drexel
15	3.3	Syracuse
15	3.3	UC-Berkeley
19	3.2	Northwestern
20	3.1	St. Mary's
20	3.1	Suffolk
20	3.1	UC-Hastings
23	3.0	Emory
23	3.0	UCLA
25	2.9	Georgia State
25	2.9	Akron
25	2.9	Florida
25	2.9	Georgia
25	2.9	Notre Dame
25	2.9	Wake Forest
31	2.8	Faulkner
31	2.8	NYU
31	2.8	Texas Tech
31	2.8	Alabama
31	2.8	Maryland
36	2.7	Florida State
36	2.7	Harvard
36	2.7	Hofstra
36	2.7	St. John's
36	2.7	UIC-John Marshall
36	2.7	Missouri (Kansas City)
36	2.7	South Carolina
36	2.7	Texas
44	2.6	Ohio State
44	2.6	Pace
44	2.6	Stanford
44	2.6	Tulane
44	2.6	Houston
44	2.6	William & Mary
50	2.5	Case Western
50	2.5	George Washington
50	2.5	Loyola-New Orleans
50	2.5	Nova
50	2.5	Pepperdine
50	2.5	Arizona
50	2.5	UC-Davis
50	2.5	Colorado
50	2.5	Villanova

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

Continue reading

2021 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings include the legal writing programs at 179 law schools (the faculty survey had a 54% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.3	UNLV
2	4.2	Oregon
3	4.1	Seattle
3	4.1	Stetson
5	4.0	Suffolk
6	3.9	Wake Forest
7	3.8	Arizona State
7	3.8	Denver
7	3.8	UIC-John Marshall
7	3.8	North Carolina
11	3.7	UC-Irvine
12	3.6	Drake
12	3.6	Georgetown
12	3.6	Marquette
12	3.6	Temple
12	3.6	Texas Tech
12	3.6	Michigan
18	3.5	Drexel
18	3.5	Lewis & Clark
18	3.5	Mercer
18	3.5	Nova
18	3.5	Rutgers
18	3.5	Washburn
24	3.4	Indiana (McKinney)
24	3.4	Northwestern
24	3.4	Arizona
24	3.4	Arkansas (Little Rock)
24	3.4	Missouri (Kansas City)
29	3.3	Duquesne
29	3.3	Texas A&M
29	3.3	Villanova
32	3.2	Brooklyn
32	3.2	Chicago-Kent
32	3.2	St. John's
32	3.2	Arkansas (Fayetteville)
32	3.2	Tennessee
32	3.2	Pacific
38	3.1	Boston College
38	3.1	New York Law School
38	3.1	Northeastern
38	3.1	Ohio State
38	3.1	Baltimore
38	3.1	Memphis
44	3.0	Duke
44	3.0	Elon
44	3.0	Emory
44	3.0	George Washington
44	3.0	Loyola-L.A.
44	3.0	Santa Clara
44	3.0	Texas

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

Continue reading

2021 U.S. News International Law Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News International Law Rankings include the international law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.7	NYU
2	4.4	Harvard
3	4.3	Georgetown
4	4.2	American
4	4.2	Columbia
4	4.2	Yale
7	4.1	Michigan
8	4.0	George Washington
9	3.9	Duke
9	3.9	Stanford
11	3.8	UC-Berkeley
11	3.8	Virginia
13	3.7	Cornell
14	3.6	Penn
14	3.6	Texas
14	3.6	Vanderbilt
17	3.5	Temple
17	3.5	UCLA
17	3.5	Chicago
17	3.5	Washington Univ.
21	3.4	Fordham
21	3.4	Northwestern
21	3.4	Georgia
24	3.3	Case Western
25	3.2	Arizona State
25	3.2	UC-Irvine
25	3.2	Minnesota
28	3.1	Indiana (Maurer)
28	3.1	Tulane
28	3.1	UC-Hastings
28	3.1	Notre Dame
32	3.0	Boston University
32	3.0	UC-Davis
32	3.0	Wisconsin
32	3.0	William & Mary
36	2.9	Arizona
36	2.9	Miami
36	2.9	Pacific
36	2.9	Washington & Lee
40	2.8	Boston College
40	2.8	Emory
40	2.8	Santa Clara
43	2.7	Ohio State
43	2.7	Pittsburgh
43	2.7	Washington
46	2.6	Brooklyn
46	2.6	Pepperdine
46	2.6	SMU
46	2.6	Houston
46	2.6	North Carolina
46	2.6	USC

2021 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

Continue reading