We’re happy to announce the discharge of the thirteenth annual Above the Law Top 50 Law School Rankings.
Above the Legislation’s rankings are premised on the assumption that most individuals who go to legislation faculty wish to be legal professionals. That’s why it’s the outcomes for graduates (e.g., bar passage, job placement) slightly than the inputs from entrants (e.g., LSAT rating, undergraduate GPA) that matter most in our rating methodology.
Our formulation incorporates six components. Employment represents the majority of a faculty’s rating as the important thing ingredient of two individually weighted standards: authorized employment (full-time, long-term jobs that require bar passage) and “high quality jobs” (which embody positions in massive, usually high-paying legislation corporations and federal judicial clerkships). Ours are the one rankings that embody the most recent ABA employment knowledge for the Class of 2024.
We additionally consider first-time bar passage fee and the price of acquiring a legislation diploma. The ultimate two elements weigh the variety of alumni serving as federal judges and the quantity who’ve clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court docket. (Learn extra about our methodology here.)
Listed below are the High 10 legislation faculties for 2025:
- Duke (+2)
- Cornell (+5)
- College of Chicago (-1)
- College of Virginia (-3)
- Penn (+1)
- Northwestern (+2)
- College of Michigan (-3)
- Yale (+5)
- Columbia (-4)
- Vanderbilt (no change)
In case you’re questioning why some elite faculties, like Harvard and Stanford, don’t seem within the high 10, it’s clearly not as a result of these aren’t nice legislation faculties. They only didn’t rating as properly in our rating standards, which concentrate on sure concrete knowledge, comparable to job placement and value of attendance, and omit different components (like median LSAT and peer assessments) that measure much less tangible qualities of selectivity and status. That mentioned, one uber-elite faculty did make the highest 10 this 12 months. Yale (beforehand No. 13) moved up 5 locations, because of greater figures for bar passage, general authorized employment, and high quality job placement.
Actually, a lot of the rating shifts are the results of adjustments in faculties’ employment and, to a lesser extent, bar passage scores. Duke has returned to the highest spot that it final held in 2023, with the strongest employment scores of all 194 legislation faculties this 12 months. Cornell, whose scores have been virtually as spectacular, has moved as much as second place. Conversely, barely decrease high quality job scores meant rating drops for Michigan and Columbia, although each stay within the high 10.
One of many advantages of our formulation is that it highlights faculties that will not be high of thoughts for everybody however have succeeded in putting the majority of their college students in well-paying authorized positions for a comparatively decrease value. For instance, the College of Illinois jumped 25 locations this 12 months, from No. 44 to No. 19, because of a lot greater bar passage and job placement charges. In the meantime, faculties who’ve returned to the High 50 after a couple of years’ absence embody Texas A&M, College of Colorado, College of Kansas, UC Davis, and Indiana College-Bloomington.
We acknowledge that not everybody shares our perspective on what makes a high legislation faculty. For these with totally different priorities, go to the ATL Law School DIY, an interactive instrument the place you possibly can modify the relative weights of 11 components your self to customise rankings based mostly in your private wants and objectives.
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