2020 US News Law School Rankings Released!

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer, I really appreciate your input.

If accurate, W&L’s current ranking is much more in line with historic trends. About three years ago, W&L took a nasty tumble in the rankings (dropping from 26 to 43 overnight). This 12-spot jump mostly eradicates those losses.

Hi Morgan,

Just to confirm, Justin is right here–W+L used to be more highly ranked: #24 in 2012 and #26 in 2013. Right now all we have is the early look at the new rankings; we can’t see anything underneath those rankings. Depending on that, we might be able to determine what happened. Law schools can make conscious decisions that affect rankings, such as choosing to take fewer students in order to raise average LSAT scores. That might have happened here, and if so, the likely effect would be that W+L is back up for good.

Hey Rut,

No, the leaks didn’t have the underlying data that would help show why certain moves happened. For example, W+L jumped 12 spots but we can’t see why yet. When the full rankings are released tomorrow by USNews, there should be some insights.

Thanks!

Hey Adam,

At least for the short-term, I think the differential will stay. Dickinson has slightly better numbers, and that’s pushing it up vs University Park. Once you get out 4-5 years, then it’s really tough to tell what will happen. I’ve long thought that the actual Penn State experience presented by University Park will eventually draw better students, but Dickinson has access to better business and political centers currently and that is pulling in higher stats for them. I can’t tell for sure how that plays out over time, but right now Dickinson has the edge. So, short term the difference stays, but maybe no long term.

Thanks!

Hi Marion,

Thanks for the questions! The nice thing about the importance of the rankings to the job process is that we can measure it quantitatively, and thus opinion doesn’t have to play a big role here (although I realize that the rankings in part reflect opinion, but that’s the surveyed opinion of legal-field individuals such as deans and judges by USNWR, not mine). So, I often turn to the job data when answering this question, and I favor the LST Reports for reviewing job data, at: https://www.lstreports.com/national/. To see the true impact of rank, compare job and placement data at individual schools–it becomes readily apparent that with the more highly-ranked schools, the job outcomes are broadly better. More of the coveted biglaw and clerkship positions go to those schools, and typically those carry higher starting salaries. whether the T14 is worth the money is a different question, and one that I have covered in depth with students over at http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/scholarship-vs.-prestige-when-to-take-th… (check out the Comments section for that article–it’s amazing!).

As for GULC’s drop, over the years we’ve seen many a rise and fall in rankings, with some schools dropping or rising double digits. For example, in 2012 Washington and Lee was ranked #24 and then they fell to 26, then 43. In 2015 they crept up to 42, then 40, and then this year they leapt back up to 28. The T14 was notable simply because none of the schools had dropped out of the T14, and then Gtown stumbled this year to #15 (which is hardly a significant drop, and would have received minimal coverage if it wasn’t for the seeming permanency of the 14 in prior years). As a point of reference, I think it’s very possible that next year they are back in the T14, and you can bet they’ll work hard to make that happen, just as Texas will work equally hard to keep their new #14 spot! So, does the International ranking offset that drop? Yes and no, so let’s talk about it in relation to your final question.

For the last question, I often don’t consider specialty programs all that much because in the general legal arena a specialty ranking isn’t typically considered. For example, in a job battle for an environmental position, the Columbia grad is going to have an advantage over the Vermont grad despite the fact that Vermont is ranked #1 by US News in Environmental law. In other words, the general rankings speak louder than the specialty rankings. Now, that doesn’t mean that the specialty rankings are useless. There are schools out there that are well-known for certain specialties, such as NYU in tax and yes, Gtown in International law (that DC location and the excellent School of Foreign Service are a big help there). So, that will definitely help you if that’s your area of interest and you attend Gtown. And as I mentioned above, that rankings drop was just *1* place–it’s virtually meaningless. The bottom line here is that you shouldn’t worry about small moves in rankings. Instead, look for the school where you can excel and where you like the environment. Getting good grades is by far the most important thing you can do for job prospects, and killer first year grades will matter far more than specialty programs or even 5 rankings spots between #10 Northwestern and #15 Georgetown.

I hope that helps a bit, and good luck with the decision. Please let me knwo what you decide. Thanks!

Hi Claire,

There are some fairly clear reasons why they’ve been dropping, but I’d put it down to: they chose revenue over numbers, meaning they kept the law school the same size (protecting revenue) at the cost of lower GPA/LSAT metrics (the numbers). For example:

Enrollment data (from Standard 509 Reports directly from the law school: http://www.abarequireddisclosures.org )

2012 enrollment = 619 total enrollment / 196 new matriculants
2013 enrollment = 623 / 226
2014 enrollment = 631 / 213
2015 enrollment = 645 / 199
2016 enrollment = 633 / 236

Aside from the 2015 report, classes stayed relatively the same size, and actually are larger now than at any time in the last 5 years. That keeps the revenues at the school high, but it comes at a cost when you look at who they accepted:

2012 LSAT / GPA medians: 164 / 3.74
2013 LSAT / GPA medians: 164 / 3.73
2014 LSAT / GPA medians: 163 / 3.79
2015 LSAT / GPA medians: 163 / 3.69
2016 LSAT / GPA medians: 162 / 3.75

That doesn’t tell the whole story since it’s only about those offered admission, not those who actually attended. But, look at the 75th and 25th LSAT percentiles, you see some interesting things:

2012 LSAT 75%/25%: 166 / 161
2013 LSAT 75%/25%: 165 / 161
2014 LSAT 75%/25%: 165 / 157
2015 LSAT 75%/25%: 164 / 158
2016 LSAT 75%/25%: 164 / 157

See how the 75th drops down slowly but then the 25th nosedives? that paints a picture where they let in a lot more people in the 157-160 range then they did before, and that definitely affected their rankings numbers.

Is there more to this? Sure, there are any number of other reasons that could affect their rankings that aren’t discussed above, but as to what happens over the next few years, that depends on W&M admin. If I were you, I’d call them up and ask them this question: why have rankings dropped and what are you going to do about it? Be prepared for some stock answer that mentions faculty changes or a temporary hiring blip, but ask them about declining numbers vs similar class sizes and see what they say. It’s your future, make them convince you 🙂

By the way, across the state is another top-rated law school that didn’t drop in rankings: UVA. What happened with their numbers:

2012 LSAT 75/50/25: 171 / 170 / 164
2016 LSAT 75/50/25: 170 / 169 / 164

2012 GPA 75/50/25: 3.93 / 3.87 / 3.53
2016 GPA 75/50/25: 3.94 / 3.86 / 3.48

2012 enrollment = 1078 total enrollment / 356 new matriculants
2016 enrollment = 619 total enrollment / 893 new matriculants

The story at UVA is pretty clear: they protected their numbers (the slight drops you see happened everywhere but theirs is much smaller a drop than at W&M) but they did by dropping class size (and hence revenue).

The better schools protected numbers by shrinking in size, but not all schools did that, and the ones that kept class sizes similar to the “old” days typically saw a decline in numbers, which often then translates into a rankings decline.

Whether W&M reverses this trend is up to them, but it will cost them money to do so. Call and ask them about it, and please let me know what they say.

If this has been helpful, please let other people know that PowerScore was helpful to you. We’d really appreciate it no matter what forum or site it’s on. Thanks!

I was wondering about your thoughts about the University of GA. I am thinking about attending there in the fall and they seem to be consistently moving up in rank. Do you think this trend will continue?

Hi there! I know this is an old article, but I have kind of a niche question. I was wondering when the rankings are usually released. I noticed this article from 2017 was published on March 8, but the rankings last year weren’t officially released until March 20. The reason I’m asking is because I was accepted to Pepperdine, and as you know, they were left off of the rankings this year as a result of their reporting error. Pepperdine is my top choice currently, as I got in with a full tuition scholarship and my desired market is Southern California; however, I’d like to take a peak at their 2020 ranking before pulling the trigger. Thanks.