The U.S. News and World Report has released its annual law school rankings for 2018.
Yale University took out the top spot, just like last year, with Stanford University in second place and Harvard University in third.
The rest of the pack was made up of the usual suspects: The University of Chicago, Columbia University, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and the University of Virginia. Duke University broke through to the 10 top this year, tying for 10th place with Northwestern University (Pritzker).
The University of California-Berkeley missed out on the top 10 this year, placing 12th.
These rankings are determined using a statistical metric that surveys peer reviews, as well as the school's placement success, bar passage rate and faculty resources.
Helpfully, for prospective students, the report lists the tuition fees, and additional information like the school's acceptance rate and LSAT scores are available for those who subscribe to U.S. News.
As well as the general law school rankings, U.S. News has ranked the best schools for a number of specialties.
The University of California-Berkeley may not have made it in to the general top 10, but according to the U.S. News ranking, it's the top law school for studying Intellectual Property Law.
New York University was named the top school for both Tax Law and International Law. Meanwhile, lesser-ranked schools shone in other specialties, like Pepperdine University being ranked the top school for Dispute Resolution and Vermont Law School for Environmental Law.
LLM Guide offers its own Top 10 lists for a range of LLM specialties.
Below, you can find a list of the top 20 law schools, according to U.S. News:
US News' Top 20 Law School Ranking 2018
| 2018 Rank | Law School | Change from 2017 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yale | no change |
| 2 | Stanford | +1 |
| 3 | Harvard | -1 |
| 4 | University of Chicago | no change |
| 5 | Columbia | -1 |
| 6 | New York University (NYU) | no change |
| 7 | University of Pennsylvania | no change |
| 8 (tie) | Michigan - Ann Arbor | no change |
| 8 (tie) | University of Virginia | no change |
| 10 (tie) | Duke | +1 |
| 10 (tie) | Northwestern - Pritzker | +2 |
| 12 | UC California - Berkeley | -4 |
| 13 | Cornell | no change |
| 14 | UT - Austin | +1 |
| 15 (tie) | Georgetown | -1 |
| 15 (tie) | UCLA | +2 |
| 17 | Vanderbilt | -1 |
| 18 | WUSTL | no change |
| 19 | USC | no change |
| 20 (tie) | University of Iowa | no change |
| 20 (tie) | University of Notre Dame | +2 |
Image: Yale University Law School by John CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
