All You Need To Know About The 2025 U.S. News Law School Rankings
The U.S. News & World Report law school rankings are here, and the legal world is definitely interested in all the ups and downs that we’re seeing when it comes to changes in rank. First and foremost, lawyers and law students are in an absolute tizzy over the state of the T14.
Before we get to that, here is the methodology for the latest edition of the rankings, which may explain some of the wild gains and losses you’re about to see:
- Employment: 33%
- First-Time Bar Passage: 18%
- Ultimate Bar Passage: 7%
- Peer Assessment: 12.5%
- Lawyer/Judge Assessment: 12.5%
- LSAT/GRE: 5%
- UGPA: 4%
- Acceptance Rate: 1%
- Student-Faculty Ratio: 5%
- Library Resources: 2%
Once again, here is the new-and-improved T14, featuring some pretty major moves:
| Stanford University | 1 | – |
| Yale University | 1 | – |
| University of Chicago | 3 | – |
| University of Virginia | 4 | – |
| University of Pennsylvania | 5 | +1 |
| Duke University | 6 | -2 |
| Harvard University | 6 | -2 |
| New York University | 8 | +1 |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | 8 | +1 |
| Columbia University | 10 | -2 |
| Northwestern University | 10 | -1 |
| University of California–Los Angeles | 12 | +1 |
| University of California–Berkeley | 13 | -1 |
| Georgetown University | 14 | – |
| University of Texas-Austin | 14 | +2 |
| Vanderbilt University | 14 | +5 |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 14 | +2 |
Talk about a shakeup in the rankings. As we mentioned previously, this version of the T14 sure looks different, with Harvard officially out of the Top 5, Cornell out of the T14 altogether, and a four-way tie at No. 14. Inclusion may no longer be en vogue, but this is the most inclusive T14 yet, with 17 schools included in the ranking of the top 14 law schools in the nation. Congratulations to UT-Austin, Vanderbilt, and Wash U. on their ascent into greatness. Let’s see how long these law schools will be able to retain their places at the tippy top of the rankings.
Now, let’s take a gander at the law schools outside of the T14. Like years past, we’re faced with yet another rankings orgy, with nothing but ties, ties, and more ties. There are five ties in this segment of the rankings alone (three ties and two three-way ties), with more to follow. Here are the schools ranked 16 – 28:
| Cornell University | 18 | -4 |
| University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill | 18 | +2 |
| University of Minnesota | 20 | -4 |
| University of Notre Dame | 20 | – |
| Boston University | 22 | +2 |
| Texas A&M University | 22 | +4 |
| University of Georgia | 22 | -2 |
| Boston College | 25 | +3 |
| University of Southern California (Gould) | 26 | -6 |
| Wake Forest University | 26 | -1 |
| Brigham Young University (Clark) | 28 | – |
| Ohio State University (Moritz) | 28 | -2 |
| University of Wisconsin–Madison | 28 | +8 |
The biggest winners here were Wisconsin (up eight places and into the Top 30) and Texas A&M (up four places, and inching closer and closer to the Top 20). Nicely done. USC and Minnesota both fell out of the Top 20, which must sting. The biggest loser here was of course Cornell, which finds itself out of the T14 for the first time since the 90s. Yikes.
Now, for the rest of the law schools in the Top 50, where there are seven ties (noticing a trend within these rankings yet?). As you can see, there was A LOT of movement here:
| George Mason University (Scalia) | 31 | -3 |
| George Washington University | 31 | +10 |
| University of Alabama | 31 | +2 |
| University of Utah (Quinney) | 31 | -3 |
| William & Mary Law School | 31 | +5 |
| University of Iowa | 36 | – |
| Washington & Lee University | 36 | -3 |
| Emory University | 38 | +4 |
| Florida State University | 38 | +10 |
| Fordham University | 38 | -5 |
| University of California-Irvine | 38 | +4 |
| University of Florida (Levin) | 38 | +10 |
| Baylor University | 43 | +3 |
| Southern Methodist University (Dedman) | 43 | -1 |
| Arizona State University (O’Connor) | 45 | -9 |
| Indiana University-Bloomington (Maurer) | 46 | -4 |
| University of Colorado–Boulder | 46 | +2 |
| University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign | 48 | -12 |
| Villanova University (Widger) | 48 | – |
| Temple University (Beasley) | 50 | +4 |
| University of California-Davis | 50 | +5 |
| University of Connecticut | 50 | +5 |
| University of Kansas | 50 | -9 |
| University of Washington | 50 | -2 |
The biggest winners here were George Washington (+10), Florida State (+10), and University of Florida (+10). The biggest losers here were Arizona State (-9), Kansas (-9), and Illinois (-12). Whatever some of the schools here are doing, they’d better shape up, because some have almost been shipped out of the Top 50.
The rest of the rankings are available on the next page.
