We’re
just
a
few
months
out
from
the
release
of
the
latest
iteration
of
the
U.S.
News
law
school
rankings,
but
we
know
that
many
are
incredibly
eager
to
see
what
the
future
may
hold.
For
those
of
you
who
are
growing
too
restless
to
wait
any
longer,
we’ve
got
a
surprise
for
you.
Today,
we
unveil
a
new
rankings
prediction,
courtesy
of
noted
law
school
consultant
Mike
Spivey
of
the
Spivey
Consulting
Group.
With
the
recent
release
of
the
2024
ABA-required
509
disclosures,
Spivey
was
able
to
calculate
the
upcoming
U.S.
News
law
school
rankings
using
the
magazine’s
current
methodology.
Here
are
some
additional
details
on
how
that
task
was
performed:
The
ABA
has
published
the 2024
Standard
509
disclosures for
all
law
schools,
including
the
final
official
LSAT/GPA
data
from
the
2023-2024
admissions
cycle
(compiled
with
+/- from
the
prior
cycle here).
This
means
that
we
can
now
predict
the
upcoming
2025-2026 U.S.
News law
school
rankings
with
a
high
degree
of
accuracy
using
their
current
methodology,
which
primarily
relies
on
publicly
available
data.
Spivey
cautions,
however,
that
his
predictions
may
not
be
completely
accurate
because
this
year’s
results
are
“so
tightly
clustered
that
even
extremely
minor,
unpublished
calculation
changes
(e.g.,
changing
how
certain
numbers
are
rounded)
could
result
in
a
very
different
set
of
rankings.”
That
being
the
case,
he’s
published
the
predicted
rankings
in
groups,
rather
than
assigning
a
specific
rank
to
a
specific
school.
That
being
said,
what
could
the
new
edition
of
U.S.
News
law
school
rankings
look
like?
You
can
check
out
Spivey’s
prediction
for
the
full
complement
of
196
law
schools,
but
here
are
the
schools
that
may
comprise
the
T14
based
the
calculations
he’s
run:
|
Current 2024 Ranking |
Predicted 2025 Ranking Group |
Predicted 2025 Raw Score |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Group 1 |
|||
|
Stanford University |
1 |
Group 1 |
100 |
|
Yale University |
1 |
Group 1 |
99.55503189 |
|
University of Chicago |
3 |
Group 1 |
99.08244746 |
|
Group 2 |
|||
|
University of Virginia |
4 |
Group 2 |
97.7375265 |
|
University of Pennsylvania |
4 |
Group 2 |
97.4961672 |
|
Harvard University |
4 |
Group 2 |
97.16804728 |
|
Group 3 |
|||
|
Duke University |
4 |
Group 3 |
96.07104827 |
|
University of Michigan |
9 |
Group 3 |
95.7808896 |
|
Northwestern University |
9 |
Group 3 |
95.72502558 |
|
New York University |
9 |
Group 3 |
95.59032168 |
|
Columbia University |
8 |
Group 3 |
95.49293619 |
|
Group 4 |
|||
|
University of California, Los Angeles |
13 |
Group 4 |
93.15227925 |
|
University of California, Berkeley |
12 |
Group 4 |
92.70541776 |
|
Washington University in St. Louis |
16 |
Group 4 |
92.23597085 |
|
Vanderbilt University |
19 |
Group 4 |
91.98658968 |
|
Georgetown University |
14 |
Group 4 |
91.6471114 |
What’s
this?
Has
Yale
lost
its
edge?
On
top
of
that,
it
looks
like
one
school
may
have
been
kicked
out
of
the
T14
entirely,
and
another
is
on
the
verge
of
being
elbowed
out
as
well!
Will
new
schools
actually
enter
the
hallowed
ground
that
is
the
T14!?!
What’s
going
on
here?
We
know
you
want
to
see
these
schools
with
actual
rankings
assigned
to
them,
and
for
that,
we
turn
to
Professor
Derek
Muller
of
Notre
Dame
Law
at
Excess
of
Democracy.
He’s
run
similar
calculations
and
offers
a
similar
warning
that
we
“proceed
with
caution”
while
viewing
his
rankings
prediction.
Buckle
up,
because
this
is
going
to
be
a
wild
ride.
| School |
Projected Rank |
This Year’s Rank |
| Stanford | 1 | 1 |
| Chicago | 2 | 3 |
| Yale | 3 | 1 |
| Virginia | 4 | 4 |
| Penn | 4 | 4 |
| Harvard | 4 | 4 |
| Duke | 7 | 4 |
| Michigan | 7 | 9 |
| Northwestern | 7 | 9 |
| NYU | 10 | 9 |
| Columbia | 10 | 8 |
| UCLA | 12 | 13 |
| Berkeley | 13 | 12 |
|
Washington Univ. |
14 | 16 |
| Vanderbilt | 14 | 19 |
Stanford
overtakes
Yale
to
become
the
best
law
school
in
the
nation,
with
Yale
falling
to
No.
3!
Yale
has
resided
in
the
No.
1
spot
since
the
inception
of
the
U.S.
News
law
school
rankings,
so
this
change
would
be
historic.
NYU
and
Columbia
both
drop
for
a
tie
at
#10.
Last,
but
certainly
not
least,
Cornell
and
Georgetown
are
both
out
of
the
T14
entirely
—
and
Washington
University
and
Vanderbilt,
two
schools
that
have
never
been
in
the
T14
before,
have
replaced
them!
Will
any
or
all
of
these
things
actually
happen?
That’s
unclear
for
the
moment,
but
given
our
experience
with
the
rankings,
these
could
all
be
very
serious
possibilities.
Stay
tuned
for
the
release
of
the
U.S.
News
law
school
rankings,
which
will
likely
be
published
sometime
in
this
spring.
Predicted
2025-2026
U.S.
News
Law
School
Rankings
[Spivey
Consulting]
Updated
projected
2025-2026
USNWR
law
school
rankings
(to
be
released
March
2025
or
so)
[Excess
of
Democracy]
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
follow
her
on Bluesky, X/Twitter,
and Threads, or
connect
with
her
on LinkedIn.