U.S. News and World Report Rankings For Law Schools Released

This year’s ranking of law schools by U.S. News & World Report have been released for 2011. The rankings have become increasingly important for law schools in steering applicants and encouraging alumni support. Most professors are highly critical of the rankings. For example, in responding to the drop of Missouri law school again in the ranking,Dean Larry Dessem stated “This is magazine marketing masquerading as social science.” I certainly understand such frustration but I have always viewed these ratings in a more positive way. While flawed in some respects, this is a far better resource that I had in applying to law schools. Back then, you had to ask your undergraduate advisers about the best law schools — a highly imperfect source of such information. GW is ranked 20th. The rankings of the top twenty-five schools and their tuition rates are below:

#1 Yale University: $50,750 per year

#2 Harvard University: $45,450 per year

#3 Stanford University: $46,581 per year

#4 Columbia University: $50,428

#5 University of Chicago: $45,405

#6 New York University: $46,840

#7 University of Michigan: $44,840 per year, Out-of-state, full-time: $47,840

#7 University of Pennsylvania: $48,362

#9 University of California–Berkeley: $44,244 per year, Out-of-state, full-time: $52,245

#9 University of Virginia: $42,500 per year, Out-of-state, full-time: $47,500

#11 Duke University: $47,722

#12 Northwestern University: $49,714

#13 Cornell University: $51,150

#14 Georgetown University: $45,105

#14 University of Texas–Austin: $28,669 per year, Out-of-state, full-time: $44,638

#16 University of California–Los Angeles: $40,616 per year, Out-of-state, full-time: $50,639

#16 Vanderbilt University: $45,286

#18 University of Southern California (Gould): $48,434

#18 Washington University in St. Louis: $44,125

#20 George Washington University: $43,999

#20 University of Minnesota–Twin Cities: $31,882 per year, Out-of-state, full-time: $40,388

#22 Boston University: $40,838

#23 Indiana University–Bloomington (Maurer): $26,904 per year, Out-of-state, full-time: $43,704

#23 University of California–Davis: $41,763 per year, Out-of-state, full-time: $50,595

#23 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign: $36,420 per year, Out-of-state, full-time: $43,420

The biggest story appears to be Davis, which has continued an impressive rise in the rankings:

2008-09 Rankings: 44
2009-10 Rankings: 35
2010-11 Rankings: 28
2011-12 Rankings: 23

University of Texas also deserves congratulations. It went up on slot to break into the long unbroken T14 — the top fourteen law schools.

University of Maryland also climbed six spots — an impressive rise from 48th place to 42nd while the University of California at Davis went from 28th place to 23rd. Congratulations to their faculties and students on a very impressive showing.

George Washington remains in the top 20 (just so). It is also ranked as the third best intellectual property school. As the longest serving teacher in the evening program (I also teach in the day section), I am most proud of the ranking as the third best part-time program. However, I honestly believe that our part-time program is second to none, particularly after the addition of a legal theory course for the first-year evening students.

Jonathan Turley