Law School Rankings Released by US News

The US News law school rankings for this year were officially published online on Thursday, even though they were leaked a few days ago. It's good to be aware of them, but take them with a grain of salt.

A few articles accompanying the rankings on the US News site:

"Law School Rankings Methodology"

"Part-Time Law School Rankings Methodology"

"Attractions of Part-Time Law School"

"How to Use Our Lists Wisely"

"FAQ Law School Rankings"

Analysis:
Law School Almanac created an excellent chart showing changes in the US News rankings of the top 14 law schools from 1987-2009.

Wall Street Journal Law Blog discusses some changes to the rankers' methodology.

Law Librarian Blog links to a few useful posts about law schools' reputational scores and the biggest rank changes.

TaxProf Blog covers a few potential errors in the rankings.

Finally, LawSchoolHeadlines (defunct) did the legwork to calculate ALL changes in the top 100 law school rankings from last year:

Rank School +/-
1 Yale
2 Harvard
3 Stanford -1
4 Columbia
5 NYU
6 Berkeley
6 Chicago +1
8 Penn -1
9 Michigan
10 Duke +2
10 Northwestern -1
10 UVA -1
13 Cornell -1
14 GULC
15 UCLA +1
15 Texas +1
17 Vanderbilt -2
18 USC
19 WUSTL
20 BU +1
20 Emory +2
20 Minnesota +2
23 IU - Bloomington +13
23 Illinois +4
23 Notre Dame -1
26 BC
26 Iowa +1
28 William and Mary +2
28 GWU -8
30 Fordham -3
30 Alabama +2
30 UNC +8
30 U of Washington
30 Washington and Lee -5
35 OSU -3
35 UC - Davis +9
35 Georgia -3
35 Wisconsin-Madison +1
39 UC - Hastings -1
40 Wake Forest +2
41 BYU +5
41 GMU -3
43 Arizona -8
43 Maryland -1
45 American +1
45 Tulane -1
45 CU - Boulder -13
45 Utah +6
49 SMU -3
49 Cardozo +6
51 U of Florida -5
52 Florida State +3
52 U of Cincinnati
52 Uconn -6
55 Arizona State -3
55 Case Western +8
55 Pepperdine +4
55 Kentucky +4
59 Houston -4
59 Tennessee -7
61 Brooklyn +2
61 Lewis & Clark +12
61 San Diego +21
61 Villanova +7
65 Baylor -10
65 Georgia State +12
65 Penn State +12
65 Temple -6
65 U of Kansas +8
65 U of Missouri -6
71 Loyola LA -8
71 Miami +11
71 Oklahoma -3
71 Pitt +2
75 Louisiana State +13
75 UNLV +13
77 Chicago-Kent -11
77 Rutgers Camden
77 Seattle +5
77 Seton Hall -11
77 Denver +11
77 New Mexico -9
77 Oregon +5
77 Richmond -9
85 Santa Clara -8
85 SUNY-Buff +15
87 DePaul +1
87 Indiana-Indianapolis -19
87 Loyola Chicago -5
87 Marquette +8
87 Rutgers Newark -10
87 St. John’s +1
87 South Carolina +8
94 Catholic -6
94 Northeastern -6
94 St Louis +1
94 Arkansas Fayetteville NEW
98 Louisville +2
98 USF NEW
100 Gonzaga NEW
100 Hofstra -1
100 UMaine NEW

The top 10 part-time law schools are below: (full list here)

1. GULC
2. GW
3. Fordham
4. American
5. GMU
6. Maryland
7. Temple
7. San Diego
9. Denver
10. Chicago Kent



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