For whatever its worth...


Robert Morse, Director of Data Research at U.S. News & World Report, announced yesterday that the new law school rankings will be published online on April 23, 2009, the latest date since the annual rankings began in 1990.

1. Harvard (#2)
2. Stanford (#2)
Yale (#1)
4. Chicago (#7)
Columbia (#4)
NYU (#5)
7. Cornell (#12)
Georgetown (#14)
Michigan (#9)
Northwestern (#9)
Penn (#7)
UC-Berkeley (#6)
Virginia (#9)

14. Duke (#12)
UCLA (#16)
USC (#18)
Vanderbilt (#15)
18. Boston College (#26)
Boston University (#21)
George Washington (#20)
Illinois (#27)
Minnesota (#22)
Texas (#16)
Washington & Lee (#25)
Washington University (#19)
26. Emory (#22)
Fordham (#27)
Iowa (#27)
Notre Dame (#22)
30. Georgia (#32)
North Carolina (#38)
University of Washington (#30)
William & Mary (#30)
Wisconsin (#38)
35. George Mason (#38)
Ohio State (#32)
Tulane (#44)
UC-Davis (#44)
UC-Hastings (#38)
Wake Forest (#42)
41. American (#46)
Arizona (#38)
Baylor (#55)
Connecticut (#46)
Florida (#46)
Indiana (#36)
Maryland (#42)
48. Alabama (#32)
Arizona State (#52)
BYU (#46)
Cardozo (#55)
Case Western (#63)
Cincinnati (#52)
Colorado (#32)
Miami (#82)
Pittsburgh (#73)
Tennessee (#52)
Utah (#51)

http://digg.com/d1njNW

First of all, look at the other content of that website.
Secondly, look at the date of that particular web page.
And last but certainly not least, wake up an smell the coffee before you post such garbage :)

Lol that ranking would suck so much :s

First of all, look at the other content of that website.
Secondly, look at the date of that particular web page.
And last but certainly not least, wake up an smell the coffee before you post such garbage :)

The ranking would suck as it almost doesn't make any difference between law schools.

And putting Harvard above Yale for the first year in a long time would make no sense at all imo. Except if they do it because Obama studied there :')

Seven law schools at place seven would suck so much. Lucky I didn't pick Duke though if the ranking is genuine :)

First of all, look at the other content of that website.
Secondly, look at the date of that particular web page.
And last but certainly not least, wake up an smell the coffee before you post such garbage :)

Idiot: Read the first line "For whatever it's worth." We will see in a couple of weeks.

I like rankings with more "tied". In most cases the gap between say rank 8 and rank 9 means nothing in practice.
Something like:
1. Harvard, Stanford, Yale
4. Columbia, NYU, UChicago
7. Berkeley, UMich, UPenn, UVA
11. Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern
15. UCLA, UTexas, Vanderblit
18. etc

I mean there's a difference between Yale and UChicago, or Columbia and Duke. But between Duke and Cornell, or Yale and Stanford, come on, it's only a matter of personal preferences, e.g. specialization and location.

I like rankings with more "tied". In most cases the gap between say rank 8 and rank 9 means nothing in practice.
Something like:
1. Harvard, Stanford, Yale
4. Columbia, NYU, UChicago
7. Berkeley, UMich, UPenn, UVA
11. Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern
15. UCLA, UTexas, Vanderblit
18. etc

I mean there's a difference between Yale and UChicago, or Columbia and Duke. But between Duke and Cornell, or Yale and Stanford, come on, it's only a matter of personal preferences, e.g. specialization and location.

I do not think the ranking on the website is what the U.S. News makes and plans to publish. It doe not seem that U.S. News ranking is unveiled.

The above ranking just appears to come from http://www.lawschool100.com/, which shows exactly identical rankings.^ ^

still don't know whether and how the current financial turmoil will affect these rankings...if I'm not mistaken, there's also the unemployment rate (how many months after graduation?) to consider...I do foresee new ranking as follows (and let's see if I get it):
1) Yale
2) Stanford
3) Harvard
4) Columbia, Chicago
6) NYU, Berkeley
8) Northwestern, UVA
10) Michigan (and perhaps Cornell too)

less than 10 days to see if I have good assessment skills

I like Hedeks and Stagista11 rankings, but Hedeks ranking seems to be very accurate for what is the general perception in the US market. NYU may be very critized for having a huge LLM class, but in the JD scenario things are different.

completely agree with you, Gloss. I was just making fun, trying fo foresee the outcome of the next USNews rankings. JD is far away from LL.M, we all know about that. my ranking is based upon a veru basic consideration: larger the program, higher the number of unemployed (although the percentual share could be the same). this is the only reason for which I placed Stanford before Harvard and Chicago up to 4th place (tie with Columbia?). With regard to myself and my up-coming master (what a selfishness!), I'm very curious about NU's placing

Your consideration is perfect Stagista11. In fact, big law firms in the US use the principle of diversification. They prefer not to hire all or too many students from the same school. Therefore, in the end, your biggest competitors are your classmates. If you have less classmates, you have better chances of getting a job. I have been surprised to find out, for example, that many Harvard LLMs cant find a position in US (even before the economic crisis). I suppose the main reason is because they are in a big class (150). My comment on NYU was not regarding your ranking, but about another post that mentioned NYU.

I think, like others in the market, that NYU might actually grab the 3rd spot soon, after Yale and Harvard. But we'll wait and see.

Just curious upon your thought...how can you foresee NYU before Columbia, Stanford and perhaps Chicago?

Dumdedum, if you see the rankings in a 10 or 20 years analysis you will see that Stanford has been many more times number 2 than Harvard. I dont understand how NYU could jump from number 5 to 3., if the school was never number 3 before. The top 3 have been unchanged for decades... sorry to say, but your comment does not make a lot of sense to me. I suppose you studied or is studying at NYU.

I like Hedek's ranking! ^^

Stagista and Gloss, I agree that this is true but rankings are subject to change. You'd be surprised but this is the talk right now. I firt read it here in the board last year before I applied to law schools. I'm not saying it's justified or that it will happen... in fact it might even drop, we never know. But many believe that this change will happen, since NYU is getting a lot of money and faculty in recent years. It was on #4 and you also wouldn't expect it in the past and some believe it might rank on 3 eventually. It's above Chicago right now and has been for some time, so I don't see why that bit is surprising.

The First 10 or even 20 are always 10/20. If you are accepted by one of those schools you are fine. Movement for 2 places is not relevant. For example Columbia is 255 years old same for other Ive Un. Yale, HLS, CLS and etc do not care about one year ranking.
Most important part is recognition of an university at a country where you work or will work.

in any case it is the same as "what is better Mercedes or BMW" ...

got your point; sure for many was a big surprise when NYU overtook Chicago, once steadly ranked among the top 5. that said, you must acknowledge that NYU is all about its law school, while Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Columbia excel in both undergraduate and professional schools. Yale and Harvard, for instance, can also rely on $1.000+ million (I heard about $5.000 million for Harvard) endowment...besides, in the last 2 years Stanford and John Hopkins were the largest beneficiaries of their alumni's generosity...