Prospective
law
students,
current
law
students,
and
law
school
alumni
are
eagerly
awaiting
the
release
of
the
2025
U.S.
News
Law
School
Rankings,
which
usually
occurs
sometime
in
March.
Will
U.S.
News
dare
to
change
its
rankings
methodology
yet
again?
We
suppose
we’ll
have
to
wait
and
see…
but
what
if
we
told
you
that
we
had
an
admissions-based
“preview”
of
those
rankings?
Sounds
great,
right?
Let
us
help
you
scratch
that
rankings
itch.
The
current
methodology
used
by
U.S.
News
places
a
10%
weight
on
law
school
admissions
in
the
overall
ranking.
That
category
is
comprised
of
three
separate
components,
each
with
a
different
weight: acceptance
rate (1%); median
undergraduate
GPA (4%);
and median
LSAT (5%)
(GRE
scores
omitted
for
lack
of
data).
Which
schools
come
out
on
top
using
this
data?
Dean
Paul
Caron
of
Pepperdine
University
School
of
Law
recently
provided
charts
for
all
of
the
ABA
data
for
those
components,
and
now,
he’s
created two
admissions
rankings using
that
data.
The
first
ranking
is
simple,
while
the
second
ranking
better
approximates
the
U.S.
News
rankings
using
Z
scores.
Here
are
the
Top
14
schools,
using
each
of
Caron’s
rankings.
RANKING
1
| School |
Acceptance Rate Rank |
UGPA Rank |
LSAT Rank |
Weighted Ranks |
|
| 1 | Yale | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.40 |
| 2 | Harvard | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2.90 |
| 3 |
Washington Univ. |
25 | 2 | 3 | 4.80 |
| 4 | Chicago | 9 | 9 | 3 | 6.00 |
| 5 | Stanford | 2 | 11 | 3 | 6.10 |
| 5 | Virginia | 13 | 2 | 8 | 6.10 |
| 7 | Northwestern | 17 | 5 | 8 | 7.70 |
| 8 | Penn | 3 | 10 | 8 | 8.30 |
| 9 | Columbia | 6 | 20 | 3 | 10.10 |
| 10 | UCLA | 19 | 5 | 15 | 11.40 |
| 11 | NYU | 20 | 15 | 8 | 12.00 |
| 12 | Georgetown | 27 | 11 | 12 | 13.10 |
| 13 | Cornell | 33 | 23 | 3 | 14.00 |
| 13 |
Texas A&M |
11 | 1 | 25 | 14.00 |
RANKING
2
| School |
Acceptance Rate Rank |
UGPA Rank |
LSAT Rank |
Weighted Z-Scores |
|
| 1 | Yale | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.64 |
| 2 | Harvard | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1.58 |
| 3 | Virginia | 13 | 2 | 8 | 1.56 |
| 4 | Chicago | 9 | 9 | 3 | 1.54 |
| 5 |
Washington Univ. |
25 | 2 | 3 | 1.54 |
| 6 | Northwestern | 17 | 5 | 8 | 1.53 |
| 7 | Stanford | 2 | 11 | 3 | 1.53 |
| 8 | Penn | 3 | 10 | 8 | 1.52 |
| 9 | UCLA | 19 | 5 | 15 | 1.48 |
| 10 | Columbia | 6 | 20 | 3 | 1.47 |
| 11 |
Texas A&M |
11 | 1 | 25 | 1.47 |
| 12 | NYU | 20 | 15 | 8 | 1.44 |
| 13 | Georgetown | 27 | 11 | 12 | 1.42 |
| 14 | USC | 8 | 15 | 19 | 1.39 |
Click here to
see
the
full
rankings
at
TaxProf
Blog.
We
bet
Washington
University
and
Texas
A&M
wish
that
the
U.S.
News
rankings
were
based
only
on
their
admissions
profiles
right
about
now,
while
schools
like
Duke,
Michigan,
and
UC
Berkeley
are
thanking
their
lucky
stars
that
the
rankings
are
based
on
more.
We’ll
check
back
in
sometime
this
spring
to
see
how
close
to
reality
these
partial
rankings
are.
In
the
meantime,
check
out
the Above
the
Law
Top
50
Law
School
Rankings for
a
better,
outcome-based
methodology.
Preview
Of
The
2024-2025
U.S.
News
Law
School
Rankings:
Admissions [TaxProf
Blog]
Staci
Zaretsky is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law,
where
she’s
worked
since
2011.
She’d
love
to
hear
from
you,
so
please
feel
free
to
email
her
with
any
tips,
questions,
comments,
or
critiques.
You
can
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and Threads, or
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with
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on LinkedIn.