Cooley President and Dean Don LeDuc explained the objection to the U.S. News and World Report rankings:
“U.S. News uses a system that lacks objectivity because it is commercial. Their rankings reflect elitist values, like exclusivity in admissions and the inherent prejudice that comes from heavy reliance on reputation, which is introduced without consideration of knowledge about the law schools among those assessing their reputations.”
Cooley notably does quite well on Cooley’s ranking while Chicago is below the University of Houston.
Here are the rankings in Judging the Law Schools:
1. Harvard University
2. Georgetown University
3. New York University
4. University of Virginia
5. University of Texas
6. University of Michigan
7. Northwestern University
8. Columbia University
9. Yale Law School
10. George Washington University
11. University of Minnesota
12. Thomas M. Cooley Law School
13. Fordham University
14. University of California-Los Angeles
15. American University
16. University of Pennsylvania
17. University of California-Hastings
18. Stanford University
19. University of Maryland
20. University of California-Berkeley
Rounding out the Top 50 were:
21. Loyola Law School
22. Temple University
23. Brooklyn Law School
24. University of Wisconsin
25. Boston University
26. University of Miami
27. Duke University
28. Washington University
29. Chicago-Kent College of Law
30. University of Houston
31. University of Chicago
32. Emory University
33. University of Connecticut
34. University of Iowa
35. Suffolk University
36. Indiana University-Bloomington
37. SMU Dedman School of Law
38. Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
39. Boston College
40. Ohio State University
41. University of Alabama
42. Seton Hall University
43. Vanderbilt University
44. University of North Carolina
45. Cornell Law School
46. Catholic University
47. Tulane University
48. University of Illinois
49. University of Denver
50. University of San Diego
For those interested in comparing, the difference is quite significant with the U.S. News and World Report.
The U.S. News & World Report Ranking is below:
(1) Yale University
(2) Harvard University, Stanford University
(4) Columbia University
(5) New York University
(6) University of California at Berkeley
(7) University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania
(9) Northwestern University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, University of Virginia
(12) Cornell University Ithaca, NY; Duke University Durham, NC
(14) Georgetown University Washington, DC
(15) Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN
(16) University of California–Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA; University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX
(18 ) University of Southern California (Gould) Los Angeles, CA
(19) Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, MO
(20) George Washington University Washington, DC
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