Employment of lawyers is expected to grow 10% over the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even so, law students often struggle to find a job after graduation that truly validates the significant time and expense they invested into their education.
U.S. News' Best Law Schools rankings are designed to help. Nearly 60% of the rankings methodology evaluated institutions on their successful placement of graduates. The remainder is a combination of academic metrics about faculty resources, the achievements of entering students, and opinions by law schools, lawyers and judges on overall program quality.
A school's overall Best Law Schools rank should be one consideration and not the lone determinant in where a student applies. The rankings only assess academic quality and graduate success – factors that are universally important to prospective students. But personal considerations involving location, campus culture, strength in specific programs, and cost after tuition and financial aid are also very important.
Consequently, U.S. News supplements its overall rankings with specialized subject rankings and a detailed searchable law school directory. Specialized rankings include part-time law programs and 13 distinct rankings by area, such as health care law, international law and legal writing. The full rankings, search tool and complete directory are free to all visitors of usnews.com and enable prospective students to compare an array of academic and nonacademic characteristics across schools to inform their choice.
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Best Law Schools rankings.How the Rankings Were Calculated
U.S. News derived each school's overall rank by scoring it on 10 distinct ranking factors explained in the section below. These scores were standardized so they were compared with the means and standard deviations among all other ranked schools.
Next, the standardized values were weighted, totaled and rescaled so that the top school received 100; others received their percentage of the top score. Finally, each law school was numerically ranked in descending order of its overall score.
As education costs continue to soar, students and their families are placing more emphasis on the results that education can bring. Additionally, the sophistication of data available on employment and bar passage rates has evolved over time. For example, this enabled the inclusion of schools’ ultimate bar passage rate as a new ranking factor this year. The ranking factor weights for this edition therefore feature an increased emphasis on outcome measures and a reduced emphasis on reputation, resources and selectivity. As in past years, changes in methodology, together with changes in individual schools’ data, can result in significant changes to schools’ rankings.
In fall 2022 and early 2023, U.S. News fielded statistical and reputation data surveys directly to nearly 200 law schools that were fully accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA). It also collected data that law schools annually disclose and publish as required by the ABA. All statistical data used to calculate the rankings reflect the data available as of April 20, 2023. Indicators measuring graduate indebtedness, financial resources and employment at graduation that were previously part of the rankings were discontinued so the rankings formula only uses statistics that schools report to the ABA. As always, U.S. News relies on schools to accurately report their data.
Indicators Used in the Overall Law Schools Ranking
Placement Success and Bar Passage
Placement success comprises three indicators that total 58% of each school's rank.
Outcomes 10 months after graduation (weighted by 0.33, previously 0.14): This measures the extent by which graduates obtain the most in-demand jobs – namely those that are long term, full time and requiring (or taking advantage of) bar passage. A change this year was that maximum credit was assigned for graduates with school-funded fellowships – as long as those fellowships were otherwise full-time, long-term jobs in which bar passage was required or the J.D. degree was an advantage. Maximum credit was also assigned to law school graduates pursuing additional graduate studies.
U.S. News published an outcomes 10 months after graduation employment value for information purposes on usnews.com that equals the percentage of 2021 graduates in positions awarded 100% credit in the rankings. However, the actual value used in the rankings is an index that also awards partial credit for other outcomes values described below.
These non-fully weighted jobs that were some combination of particular factors, namely short term, part time, in many cases funded by the law school and/or not utilizing bar passage received less credit by varying amounts, determined by an allocation of some or all of these factors.
Law schools are required to report these highly differentiated outcome measures each year to the ABA. For a more detailed explanation, see Notes on Employment Rates below.
Bar passage rate for first-time test-takers (0.18, previously 0.03): For the second consecutive year, U.S. News used its treatment of bar passage rates to incorporate all graduates who took the bar for the first time. Computations were again modified to de-emphasize the impact of geography on law schools' relative performance.
Specifically, the bar passage rate indicator scored schools on their 2021 first-time test-takers' weighted bar passage rates among all jurisdictions (states), then added or subtracted the percentage point difference between those rates and the weighted state average among ABA accredited schools' first-time test-takers in the corresponding jurisdictions in 2021. This meant schools that performed best on this ranking factor graduated students whose bar passage rates were both higher than most schools overall and higher compared with what was typical among graduates who took the bar in corresponding jurisdictions.
For example, if a fictional law school in upstate New York graduated 100 students who first took the bar exam – and 79 took the New York exam, 18 the Massachusetts exam and three the Vermont exam – the school's weighted average rate would use pass rate results that were weighted 79% for New York, 18% for Massachusetts and 3% for Vermont. This computation would then be compared with an index of these jurisdictions' average pass rates – also weighted 79-18-3. (For privacy, school profiles on usnews.com only display bar passage data for jurisdictions with at least 10 test-takers.) Both weighted averages included any graduates who passed the bar with diploma privilege. Diploma privilege is a method for J.D. graduates to be admitted to a state bar and allowed to practice law in that state without taking that state's actual bar examination. Diploma privilege is generally based on attending and graduating from a law school in that state with the diploma privilege.
Ultimate bar passage rate (0.07 – new indicator): While passing the bar on the first try is optimal, passing eventually is critical. Underscoring this, the ABA has an accreditation standard that at least 75% of a law school’s test-taking graduates must pass a bar exam within two years of earning a diploma.
With that in mind, the ultimate bar passage ranking factor measures the percentage of each law school's 2019 graduates who sat for a bar exam and passed it within two years of graduation, including diploma privilege graduates.
Both the first-time bar passage and ultimate bar passage indicators were used to determine if a particular law school is offering a rigorous program of legal education to students. The first-time bar passage indicator was assigned greater weight because of the greater granularity of its data and its wider variance of outcomes.
Quality Assessment
Quality assessment comprises two indicators of expert opinion that contributed 25% to the overall rank.
Peer assessment score (0.125, previously 0.25): Law school deans, deans of academic affairs, chairs of faculty appointments and the most recently tenured faculty members rated programs' overall quality on a scale from marginal (1) to outstanding (5), and were instructed to mark "don't know" for schools they did not know well enough to evaluate. A school's score is the average of 1-5 ratings received. U.S. News administered the peer assessment survey in fall 2022 and early 2023; 64.5% of recipients at law schools who submitted the statistical survey responded.
Peer assessment ratings were only used when submitted by law schools that also submitted their statistical surveys. This means the schools that declined to provide statistical information to U.S. News and its readers had their academic peer ratings programmatically discarded before any computations were made.
Lawyers and judges assessment score (0.125, previously 0.15): Legal professionals – including hiring partners of law firms, practicing attorneys and judges – rated programs' overall quality on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding), and were instructed to mark "don't know" for schools they did not know well enough to evaluate. A school's score is the average of 1-5 ratings it received across the three most recent survey years. U.S. News administered the legal professionals survey in fall 2022 and early 2023 to recipients that law schools provided to U.S. News in summer 2022. Of the recipients surveyed in fall 2022 and early 2023, 50% responded.
Selectivity
A selective admissions process enables law schools to enroll students who are prepared for challenging coursework. Its three indicators contributed 10% to the ranking.
Median LSAT and GRE scores (0.05, previously 0.1125): These are the combined median scores on the LSAT and GRE quantitative, verbal and analytical writing exams of all 2022 full- and part-time entrants to the J.D. program. Reported scores for each of the four exams, when applicable, were converted to 0-100 percentile scales. LSAT and GRE percentile scales were weighted by the proportions of test-takers submitting each exam. For example, if 85% of exams submitted were LSATs and 15% submitted were GREs, the LSAT percentile would be multiplied by 0.85 and the average percentile of the three GRE exams by 0.15 before summing the two values. This means GRE scores were never converted to LSAT scores or vice versa. If a school was not required to report GRE scores to the ABA for the disclosure requirements because a small number of incoming students reported these scores, then they were not used in the rankings.
Median undergraduate grade point average (0.04, previously 0.0875): This is the combined median undergraduate GPA of all 2022 full- and part-time entrants to the J.D. program. Law schools with higher median GPAs scored higher on this indicator.
Acceptance rate (0.01, unchanged): This is the combined proportion of applicants to both the full- and part-time J.D. programs who were accepted for the 2022 entering class. A lower acceptance rate scored higher because this indicated greater selectivity.
Faculty and Library Resources
Faculty and library resources comprise two indicators, weighted at 7% of the ranking: one on student-faculty ratio and one for library resources.
Student-faculty ratio (0.05, previously 0.02): This is the ratio of law school students to law school faculty members for 2021-2022. It is a proxy for the amount of attention from faculty that may be available to students. This indicator’s weight was increased to partially compensate for the discontinuation of financial resources in the ranking formula, which was also a measure of school resources.
The student-to-faculty ratio definition that U.S. News uses is a modified version of the Common Data Set's definition, a standard used throughout higher education based on the ratio of full-time equivalent students to full-time equivalent faculty. For law schools, full-time equivalent faculty is defined as full-time faculty plus one-third part-time law school faculty. Full-time equivalent students are defined as full-time law school students plus two-thirds of total part-time law school students.
Full-time equivalent students is for the 2021-2022 school year's full- and part-time enrollment in order to match the cohort of full- and part-time faculty. It was based on the enrollment data from the Grants and Scholarship section of the ABA 509 disclosures.
Library resources (0.02, previously 0.01): This is the ratio of full-time equivalent students to full-time equivalent librarian positions. It was based on the 2021-2022 school year's full- and part-time librarians as required by law schools to publicly disclose each year. To calculate the full-time equivalent librarian numerator from data that schools disclosed to the ABA, U.S. News treated each part-time librarian as equivalent to one half of a full-time librarian, based on a comparison of schools’ ABA data and their U.S. News survey counts of full-time equivalent faculty. Full-time equivalent students is for the 2021-2022 school year's full- and part-time enrollment in order to match the cohort of full- and part-time law librarians. It was based on the enrollment data from the Grants and Scholarship section of the ABA 509 disclosures. Full-time equivalent students are defined as full-time law school students plus two-thirds of total part-time law school students.
Schools Listed With a Ranking Range
For greater transparency, the top 90% of ranked law schools all have their individual ranks displayed on usnews.com; up from 75% the previous year. For schools in the bottom 10% of the rankings, U.S. News elected to only display them alphabetically in rankings ranges.
U.S. News will supply schools listed in the ranking range with their numerical ranks if they submit a request following the procedures listed on the Information for School Officials page.
Unranked Schools
To be ranked, a law school must be accredited and fully approved by the ABA. All 196 law schools that were accredited and fully approved were ranked. There were no unranked law schools at the time the rankings were first released.
In recent years, enhanced ABA reporting rules have led to more information becoming available from law schools about the many types of positions law students take after they graduate. Each year, schools are required to report to the ABA how many of their most recent graduates had various types of jobs lined up after graduation.
As in previous years, the ABA mandated that schools report law school and university positions separately from all other nonuniversity-funded positions to make the difference between the two types of jobs very clear. U.S. News continued to use this standard for data collection for the class of 2021 for 10 months after graduation, which is the ABA-required time frame. The ABA chose that 10-month time frame in order to provide enough time for J.D. graduates to take the bar exam in the state of their choosing, get results and look for a job.
These ABA standards require law schools to go into great detail by reporting 45 different job types, as well as employment status and duration. That includes, for example, whether each graduate's employment was long term – defined as lasting at least a year – or short term, whether it was full or part time, and whether it required passage of a bar exam.
U.S. News collected these same statistics when schools were surveyed for the annual rankings and gathered the same data on members of the class who were employed 10 months after graduation. U.S. News also collected data on students' jobs when the law school was unable to determine length of employment or full- or part-time status, as well as when employment status was unknown.
U.S. News incorporated this rich 10 months after graduation data into its computation of the employment measure for the class of 2021 at 10 months after graduation. Placement success was calculated by assigning various weights to the number of graduates employed in 45 of these different types of post-J.D. jobs, employment statuses and durations.
Full weight was given for graduates who had these types of jobs. The 100% weighted jobs were those who had a full-time job that lasted at least a year and for which bar passage was required, or a full-time job that lasted at least a year where a J.D. degree was an advantage.
New this year, we also give full weight to school-funded full-time, long-term fellowships where bar passage is required or where the J.D. degree is an advantage. We also now give full weight to those enrolled in graduate studies in the ABA employment outcomes grid.
Less weight went to full-time, long-term jobs that were professional or nonprofessional and did not require bar passage and to positions whose start dates were deferred. The lowest weight applied to jobs categorized as both part-time and short-term and those jobs for which a law school was unable to determine length of employment or whether they were full time.
In terms of all law school and university positions, U.S. News continues to apply a discount for some law school-funded jobs which aren’t fully weighted in our rankings calculations.
All these weighted employment figures were divided by the total number of 2021 J.D. graduates. They were used in the ranking formula only and are not published.
Actual rates for the other types of positions of each school's latest graduating class appear in the profiles.
Part-time Law Rankings
These rankings are exclusive to law schools with at least 20 part-time students enrolled in fall 2021 and fall 2022. Its three indicators incorporate data distinct from the overall law schools ranking. Review the part-time law methodology for more information.
Specialty Rankings
Law school specialty rankings, such as clinical training, tax law and health care law, are based solely on peer assessment surveys administered to law school faculty who teach in that specialty area. Peer assessment surveys for the law school specialty rankings were conducted in fall 2022 and early 2023 by U.S. News.
In summer 2022, law schools provided U.S. News with the names of law school faculty members who teach in each specialty area. Once again, law school faculty members who teach in each specialty area rated the other law schools in that specialty area on a 5-point scale. Schools are ranked in descending order from highest to lowest based on their average peer assessment scores in their specialty area.
As was the case with the overall law rankings and part-time law rankings, only ratings from schools that submitted a statistical survey to U.S. News were incorporated in the specialty rankings. The specialty response rates are based on those who responded from schools that submitted a statistical survey.
The number of schools ranked in the 13 law school specialty rankings and the response rates among those law school faculty members surveyed in fall 2022 and early 2023 were as follows:
- 196 schools ranked for business/corporate law (response rate: 58%).
- 188 schools ranked for clinical training (53%).
- 196 schools ranked for constitutional law (46%).
- 196 schools ranked for contracts/commercial law (42%).
- 196 schools ranked for criminal law (46%).
- 67 schools ranked for dispute resolution (56%).
- 195 schools ranked for environmental law (59%).
- 189 schools ranked for health care law (52%).
- 196 schools ranked for intellectual property law (57%).
- 174 schools ranked for international law (53%).
- 121 schools ranked for legal writing (63%).
- 196 schools ranked for tax law (54%).
- 196 schools ranked for trial advocacy (59%).
In the law school specialty rankings, all programs that received 10 or more ratings are numerically ranked in that specialty from highest to lowest. Schools receiving fewer than 10 ratings in a specialty aren't listed in that specialty ranking.
School Data, Profile Pages and Search
Responder schools provided the data listed in the rankings and their individual profiles in U.S. News' directory.
Missing information in some cases was filled with corresponding statistics schools disclosed as reporting to the ABA. For some data like program offerings not collected by the ABA (and by extension not used in the rankings), the school’s previous year’s reported data may display instead. Otherwise, if a data point is listed as "N/A," the data was not available.
The majority of institutions that reported statistical data to U.S. News were able to have profile pages that feature richer, more detailed and more current standardized information on their program characteristics for prospective students compared with law schools that did not make this data available. Nonresponders to U.S. News' law survey are flagged as being such at the top of their profile pages for transparency.
With search tools, visitors can filter rankings and profiles by characteristics like location, tuition, LSAT scores and average starting salary, and create personalized shortlists of schools to examine further.
Check back every now and then, as we occasionally add content to the website when we obtain additional data we think is useful – whether on job placement, GPA, LSAT scores or other factors – or we learn information that changes the data. As always, review U.S. News' editorial content that provides insights about law school trends and applying to law school.
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