How to rank law schools?
Asked by: Prof. Danielle Schroeder II | Last update: July 2, 2025Score: 4.9/5 (36 votes)
Law school faculty members who teach in each specialty area rated the other law schools in that specialty area on a 5-point scale. Schools are ranked in descending order from highest to lowest based on their average peer assessment scores in their specialty area.
What determines a law school ranking?
Like college and university rankings, law school rankings can be based on empirical data, subjectively-perceived qualitative data (often survey research of educators, law professors, lawyers, students, or others), or some combination of these.
How to calculate law school rank?
Based on school reported data and student surveys. School data include: the median starting salaries of graduating students, the percent of students employed in a job that requires bar passage (and not employed by the school) and the percent of these students who pass the bar exam the first time they take it.
What is a Tier 1 law school?
Tier 1 schools are known as the best law colleges. They typically stand out because of their strong academic reputation, high bar passage rates, and excellent graduate employment outcomes.
What are the T6 law schools?
T6 Law Schools are those that are consistently ranked between 1 and 6 by US News. Generally, T6 schools applies to Yale, Stanford, Harvard, UChicago, Columbia, NYU, and UPenn. BUT THAT IS 7 SCHOOLS! True, T6 is more of a loose term and the USNews Rankings are fluid.
How to Choose the Right Law School For You
What is a Tier 4 law school?
Tier 4 Law schools are every school that we haven't mentioned yet that has been accredited by the ABA. USNews includes some of these schools in their rankings in a big group (147-192) and doesn't rank others.
How rare is a 170 LSAT?
170 score: Scoring a 170 on the LSAT is almost always considered a good score — that means you are in the 2-3% of test-takers.
What is a soft tier law school?
LSAT score and GPA are "hard" data. Softs refer to everything in your application that isn't "hard" data. Softs are inherently unquantifiable. That's why they're called softs. The tiers below are very rough guidelines for putting a number on something that really can't be quantified.
What are T3 law schools?
US News & World Report divides the approximately 200 accredited law schools in the US into four “tiers,” each of which contains about 50 law schools. Tier One contains the schools ranked 1–50. Tier Two contains the schools ranked 51–100. Tier Three contains the schools ranked 101–150.
What does T14 law school mean?
The term “T14” refers to the top 14 law schools in the United States, consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report. This designation has become a benchmark for aspiring lawyers seeking the best legal education and career opportunities.
Do law schools rank their students?
At the end of each semester, or sometimes at the end of the school year, law schools generally release the rankings for each class. Class rankings are a distribution of the entire class based on each student's overall GPA. A school may choose to release ranks as "top 10%," "next 20%," and so on.
How do lawyer rankings work?
Ratings fall into two categories: Legal Ability and General Ethical Standards. Legal Ability Ratings take into consideration the standard of ability for the area in which the lawyer practices, the attorney's expertise, the nature of the attorney's practice, and other professional qualifications.
What is a good GPA in law school?
The average GPA for law school is between 3.91. However, like LSAT scores, it's important to understand that the specific average GPA can differ depending on the law school and its level of competitiveness. Top-ranking law schools often expect higher average GPAs, typically ranging from 3.8 to 4.0 or even higher.
Is Vanderbilt a Tier 1 school?
Tier 1 is comprised of major private research universities, including MIT, UChicago, Stanford, John Hopkins, Northwestern, California Institute of Technology, Duke, Vanderbilt, and Rice (among many others).
What is a perfect LSAT score?
The LSAT scale ranges from 120 to 180, with 120 being the lowest possible score and 180 being the highest possible score.
Is Georgetown a tier 1 law school?
Georgetown University 2024 Law & Specialties Rankings
Georgetown University is ranked No. 14 (tie) out of 196 in Best Law Schools and No. 1 out of 68 in Part-time Law. Schools were assessed on their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.
How do law school rankings work?
Law school faculty members who teach in each specialty area rated the other law schools in that specialty area on a 5-point scale. Schools are ranked in descending order from highest to lowest based on their average peer assessment scores in their specialty area.
Is NYU tier 1?
With obvious perks like its Manhattan location and elite academic programs, the impressive New York University rankings are no surprise. As a tier-two school, NYU is an excellent choice for many students. Whatever your chosen field, NYU will give you boundless opportunities to pursue your goals.
Is it worth going to a lower tier law school?
Unless they have personal connections or career experience, graduates of lower-ranked schools face steep odds on the job market. Graduates of top-ranked law schools have a leg up on securing legal internships, clerkships, and job interviews—even with mediocre grades.
What is a Tier 1 law firm?
Tier 1 firms tend to be the most powerful and well-known firms nationally and in a given market. A Tier 1 firm will be regularly called upon to represent the largest companies, government entities, and others in the most important and high-profile legal matters in that market.
What is the most difficult class in law school?
First-year law school classes tend to be the most difficult of any that you will experience in your three years of law school, as you are getting used to new subject matter and heavier readings. Some of the hardest classes in law school, according to current and former students, are: Constitutional Law. Civil Procedure.
What was Obama's LSAT score?
The easiest to predict, by far, is Barack Obama's score, mostly because we have some data. Based on admissions records, we can deduce — somewhat reliably — that Barry-O scored between the 94th and 98th percentile on his LSAT. Using today's grading system, that would place him somewhere around a 170.
Will a 180 LSAT get you in anywhere?
Here is a breakdown of what counts as a good enough score for law schools based on the school's rank: Top-five law schools: 170 to 180. Schools like Harvard and Yale, which are the top two, rarely accept applicants with less than 172 on the LSAT. Law schools ranked between 5 and 10: 165 to 170.
What did Elle Woods get on her LSAT?
Elle Woods, a fictional character portrayed by Reese Witherspoon in the movie Legally Blonde, is known for her remarkable LSAT score—179 out of 180. Portrayed as a stereotypical "valley girl," she embarks on a journey to Harvard Law School in the movie that has since become a cult favorite.