2025 US News Law School Rankings (The Correct Version)

[Anonymous]

1) Stanford
1) Yale

3) Chicago

4) Duke
4) Harvard
4) Penn
4) Virginia

8) Columbia

9) Northwestern
9) NYU
9) Michigan

12) UC-Berkeley

13) UCLA

14) Cornell
14) Georgetown

16) Minnesota
16) Texas
16) WashUStL

19) Vanderbilt

20) Georgia
20) UNC
20) Notre Dame
20) USC

24) BU

25) WFU

[Anonymous]

FWIW The top 3 law schools (Stanford, Yale, & Chicago) are also the smallest in terms of enrollment among the top 20 ranked law schools.

[Anonymous]

The official release date for the US News 2025 law school rankings is sometime next week. The list above was reportedly leaked to a law school consultant.

If correct, NYU leaves the top 6 and U Virginia moves up 4 places to a tie at #4.

Notre Dame also makes a big upward move to #20.

[Anonymous]

Why is this interesting?

[Anonymous]

Duke was never a bad school, but it has risen a lot since my day. That said, as a practicing attorney in coastal big law for the past couple decades, I don't really give a crap about these rankings, at least in their specificity. And the T14 categorization has never been as important as folks seem to think it is. Some of the best associate hires at my firm were kids who chose non-T14 schools to save money and kicked ass in those schools (grades, law review, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) Stanford
1) Yale University

3) University of Chicago

4) Duke University
4) Harvard University
4) University of Pennsylvania
4) University of Virginia

8) Columbia University

9) Northwestern University
9) NYU
9) University of Michigan

12) UC-Berkeley

13) UCLA

14) Cornell University
14) Georgetown University

Just clarified the listing to show that T-14 schools are listed numerically and alphabetically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke was never a bad school, but it has risen a lot since my day. That said, as a practicing attorney in coastal big law for the past couple decades, I don't really give a crap about these rankings, at least in their specificity. And the T14 categorization has never been as important as folks seem to think it is. Some of the best associate hires at my firm were kids who chose non-T14 schools to save money and kicked ass in those schools (grades, law review, etc.). [/

Duke has risen mostly because almost all the top law schools refuse to submit information to USNWR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke was never a bad school, but it has risen a lot since my day. That said, as a practicing attorney in coastal big law for the past couple decades, I don't really give a crap about these rankings, at least in their specificity. And the T14 categorization has never been as important as folks seem to think it is. Some of the best associate hires at my firm were kids who chose non-T14 schools to save money and kicked ass in those schools (grades, law review, etc.). [/

Duke has risen mostly because almost all the top law schools refuse to submit information to USNWR.

Duke and UVA are both a few places too high but doesn’t really matter because they are both top 10 regardless.

[Anonymous]

T14 is all that matters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:T14 is all that matters

False as it depends upon one's goals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:T14 is all that matters

This just isn’t true. There aren’t enough grads in just the T14 to fill up the first year seats in Biglaw. The firms have to dig deeper. If you graduate from a top 25 you’re in good shape.

For example, the Notre Dame graduating class of 2023 sent well over half of the class to law firms with over 500 lawyers or federal judicial clerkships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T14 is all that matters

This just isn’t true. There aren’t enough grads in just the T14 to fill up the first year seats in Biglaw. The firms have to dig deeper. If you graduate from a top 25 you’re in good shape.

For example, the Notre Dame graduating class of 2023 sent well over half of the class to law firms with over 500 lawyers or federal judicial clerkships.

encouraging cause my ivy league kids with high gpas are having a hard time getting super high on the LSAT but probably have enough for a Top 25 perhaps like a Wash U. Funny this is like undergrad where the targets were Wash U, Tufts, Emory, BU, and Wake lol if you couldn't do Ivy or Top 15. Seems the same for Law all over again (with the fact there is no law school for Tufts).

I went to American and made it to Big Law but then went in house for lifestyle so still possible. I had to go to govt first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T14 is all that matters

This just isn’t true. There aren’t enough grads in just the T14 to fill up the first year seats in Biglaw. The firms have to dig deeper. If you graduate from a top 25 you’re in good shape.

For example, the Notre Dame graduating class of 2023 sent well over half of the class to law firms with over 500 lawyers or federal judicial clerkships.

encouraging cause my ivy league kids with high gpas are having a hard time getting super high on the LSAT but probably have enough for a Top 25 perhaps like a Wash U. Funny this is like undergrad where the targets were Wash U, Tufts, Emory, BU, and Wake lol if you couldn't do Ivy or Top 15. Seems the same for Law all over again (with the fact there is no law school for Tufts).

I went to American and made it to Big Law but then went in house for lifestyle so still possible. I had to go to govt first.

WashU has one of the highest LSAT averages though no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T14 is all that matters

This just isn’t true. There aren’t enough grads in just the T14 to fill up the first year seats in Biglaw. The firms have to dig deeper. If you graduate from a top 25 you’re in good shape.

For example, the Notre Dame graduating class of 2023 sent well over half of the class to law firms with over 500 lawyers or federal judicial clerkships.

encouraging cause my ivy league kids with high gpas are having a hard time getting super high on the LSAT but probably have enough for a Top 25 perhaps like a Wash U. Funny this is like undergrad where the targets were Wash U, Tufts, Emory, BU, and Wake lol if you couldn't do Ivy or Top 15. Seems the same for Law all over again (with the fact there is no law school for Tufts).

I went to American and made it to Big Law but then went in house for lifestyle so still possible. I had to go to govt first.

Your post does not make sense as your kids attend Ivy League schools for undergrad.

[Anonymous]

It is disingenuous to include Yale and Harvard on the list since they do not participate in the rankings. They announced they were pulling out of the rankings in 2021.

They are being rated against their will. You should keep that in mind.