The U. S. News & World Report “Best Law Schools 2013″ is out – and there’s a bit of shuffling around in some of the top spots and a few big jumps elsewhere.
Yale remains ranked #1 (holding the spot since 1990), Stanford moves up to the #2 spot (from #3) and Harvard moves to #3 (Harvard held the #2 spot since 2007 and Stanford had jointly held the #2 spot with Harvard in 2008 and 2009).
There was also some shuffling within the Top 14 (T14). According to a U.S. News post: “The University of California—Berkeley School of Law and the University of Virginia School of Law both moved up two spots to tie with the University of Pennsylvania Law School for 7th, while the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor Law School slid from 7th to 10th; Cornell Law School, now ranked 14th, and the Georgetown Law Center, at 13th, switched spots from last year’s list.”
Other notable news includes:
- After one year in the T14, the University of Texas—Austin School of Law, fell two spots to 16th in the rankings for 2013.
- The Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Lawleapt to the 26th spot, up 14 spots from 40th last year, following a 15-spot jump from 55th two years before that.
- Last year’s five-way tie for 30th dissolved in the 2013 rankings as the University of Washington School of Lawmoved 10 spots to 20th.
- Emory University School of Law and the Washington and Lee University School of Lawboth jumped six spots and remain tied at 24th.
- The Pepperdine University School of Law moved five spots to crack the top 50 (from 54th to 49th).
- The University of Miami School of Law jumped eight spots, from 77th last year to 69th in the 2013 rankings.
Here are the top 20-ranked law schools:
1) Yale University
2) Stanford University
3) Harvard University
4) Columbia University
5) University of Chicago
6) New York University
7) University of California at Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia (tied)
10) University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
11) Duke University Law School
12) Northwestern Law School
13) Georgetown Law School
14) Cornell Law School
15) UCLA Law School
16) University of Texas, Austin, Vanderbilt (tied)
18) University of Southern California, Gould
19) University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
20) George Washington University Law School
So, what do the numbers really mean? Hear directly from Robert Morse, Director of Data Research for U. S. News & World Report in our podcast, Law School Rankings: What Do the Numbers Mean?