PRELAW HANDBOOK - Prestigious

LAW SCHOOL RANKING: PRESTIGIOUS
TOPICS

There are numerous rankings of the top law schools but for pre-law students who are looking for a little bit more, the Prelaw Handbook has its Ranking of Prestigious Law Schools. The prestigious law schools are, by definition, rated highly by deans, law faculty, lawyers, and judges while the corresponding university is also rated highly. A prestigious law schools, by definition, limits itself to the highest achieving applicants; the ones with a high GPA and a high LSAT.

TOPICS

PRESTIGE AT THE UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL

THE TOP FIFTY PRESTIGIOUS LAW SCHOOLS

THE FIFTEEN LAW SCHOOLS BUBBLING UNDER THE TOP FIFTY

SOME COMMENTS

DOES THE PRESTIGE OF THE UNIVERSITY AFFECTS THE
    PRESTIGE OF THE LAW SCHOOL?

LAW SCHOOL RANKING: PRESTIGIOUS
THE HOTTEST LAW SCHOOLS

It is not a bad idea to look at the undergraduate component of any law school to which you are applying.

Newsweek (August 20/August 27, 2007 gave praise to the undergraduate component of some law schools:
Hottest Ivy: Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). Cornell "boasts a world-class engineering college and top-flight liberal arts, science, and fine arts."
Hottest for Sport Fans: University of Florida. Awarded for winning the national football championship and two consecutive basketball titles.
Hottest for Rejecting You: Harvard University. No surprise here.
Hottest on the Rebound: Tulane University (New Orleans).
Hottest Mega-University: UCLA.
Hottest Catholic School: Fordham University (New York City).
Hottest Big-City School: Georgetown University (Washington, DC). "Georgetown is a leader in international studies."
Hottest for Liberal Arts: Princeton University
Hottest for First-Generation Students: Queens College (CUNY), Queens, New York
Hottest for Saving America's Schools: University of Texas (Austin)
Hottest Big State School: University of Wisconsin (Madison)
Hottest for International Studies: University of Richmond (Virginia)

LAW SCHOOL RANKING: PRESTIGIOUS
THE TOP-FIFTY LAW SCHOOLS

The Prestige Rank Column (yellow) is the weighted average of the last six columns.

             Law     Law Law     Univer-

           Law School School School Univer- sity

School     Peer Rank by    Rank sity Peer

LAW SCHOOLS Rank     Rank Lawyers     by Rank Rank

    Pres- Pres- from     from Judges Select- from from

tige    tige USN     USN    USN    ivity USN USN

Rank Score    20%     20%    10%    20%    10%    20%

Yale University (CT) 1 100.0 1 1.5 1.0 1 2.0 2.0

Harvard U (MA) 2 97.66 3 1.5 2.5 2 1.0 2.0

Stanford U (CA) 3 95.34 2 3.0 2.5 3 3.0 2.0

Columbia U (NY) 4 88.60 4.5 4.5 5.0 5 6.5 6.5

U Chicago 5 87.98 6 4.5 5.0 6 6.5 4.5

UC Berkeley 6 82.94 9 8.5 8.0 11 15.0 4.5

U Pennsylvania 7 82.89 7 10.0 10.0 9 4.0 9.0

U Michigan 8 80.99 9 6.5 8.0 13 17.5 9.0

U Virginia 9 80.56 9 8.5 5.0 7 17.5 12.5

Duke University (NC) 10 80.14 11 12.0 11.5 12 5.0 9.0

Cornell University 11 78.29 13 12.0 14.0 14 8.5 6.5

New York University 12 78.00 4.5 6.5 8.0 4 25.0 27.0

Northwestern U (IL) 13 77.73 12 14.5 14.0 8 10.0 11.0

Georgetown U (DC) 14 74.19 14 12.0 11.5 10 16.0 17.5

UCLA 15 70.97 15 16.0 17.5 15 19.0 12.5

Vanderbilt University 16 68.34 17.5 17.5 16.0 17 12.5 17.5

U Texas, Austin 17 67.21 16 14.5 14.0 19 33.0 17.5

U Southern California 18 63.84 17.5 17.5 35.5 16 20.5 23.0

Washington U (MO) 19 62.92 20 22.5 26.0 29 8.5 17.5

U North Carolina 20 61.82 29 19.5 17.5 35 20.5 14.5

Washington and Lee 21 60.43 23.5 27.0 20.5 25 11.0 27.0

U Notre Dame (IN) 22 59.81 23.5 31.5 26.0 24 14.0 23.0

Emory University 23 59.76 26 27.0 20.5 36 12.5 20.5

U Wisconsin 24 57.37 32.5 22.5 35.5 51 25.0 14.5

U Minnesota 25 57.21 20 19.5 26.0 26 44.5 27.0

U Illinois UC 26 57.02 29 27.0 26.0 33 28.0 20.5

George Washington 27 55.66 20 22.5 20.5 20 35.0 39.5

William and Mary 28 55.19 29 31.5 31.0 32 23.0 27.0

Boston College 29 54.59 29 31.5 26.0 27 25.0 34.5

U Washington 30 53.98 29 36.5 42.0 28 29.0 23.0

U California, Davis 31 52.91 35 27.0 31.0 37 33.0 31.0

U Iowa 32 52.72 23.5 22.5 20.5 46 43.0 34.5

Boston University 33 52.66 23.5 27.0 35.5 21 39.5 44.0

Wake Forest (NC) 34 49.82 39.5 42.5 35.5 34 22.0 39.5

Ohio State U 35 49.82 39.5 36.5 31.0 48 39.5 31.0

U Florida 36 49.59 41 36.5 35.5 40 33.0 34.5

Indiana, Bloom... 37 49.54 37.5 36.5 26.0 62 47.5 27.0

Fordham U (NY) 38 47.09 32.5 36.5 42.0 18 47.5 55.5

Tulane U (LA) 39 46.66 46 36.5 35.5 55 30.5 44.0

U Georgia 40 46.32 35 40.5 39.0 44 42.0 44.0

U Maryland 41 46.12 42 45.5 52.5 43 36.5 31.0

U Colorado 42 45.83 46 42.5 42.0 31 50.0 39.5

U Arizona 43 45.03 46 40.5 52.5 41 60.5 34.5

UC Hastings 44 44.69 46 31.5 26.0 38 56.0 55.5

Brigham Young U 45 43.95 35 52.0 42.0 22 47.5 55.5

Case Western 46 41.26 51.5 52.0 52.5 83 27.0 39.5

U Connecticut 47 40.00 50 45.5 52.5 56 44.5 50.0

Villanova U (PA) 48 39.84 62 65.0 69.0 42 39.5 39.5

Southern Methodist U 49 38.74 46 65.0 46.0 54 47.5 50.0

Cardozo-Yeshiva 50 38.53 54.5 59.5 73.5 30 30.5 59.0

LAW SCHOOL RANKING: PRESTIGIOUS
THE FIFTEEN LAW SCHOOLS
BUBBLING UNDER THE TOP FIFTY

U Pittsburgh
Baylor U (TX)
U Alabama
American U
U Miami (FL)
U Missouri
U Kansas
U Tennessee
Florida State U
George Mason U (VA)
U San Diego
IIT Chicago-Kent
Rutgers, Camden (NJ)
U Nebraska, Lincoln
U Utah

LAW SCHOOL RANKING: PRESTIGIOUS
SOME COMMENTS

Many state universities did their worst on the USN Best National Universities ranking; in particular this applies to the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and the University of Texas. Many private universities did their best on the USN Best National Universities ranking; in particular, this applies to the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, and Washington University (St. Louis).

USN ranks the New York University School of Law as fourth in the nation, tied with the Columbia University School of Law, but in its ranking of national universities, USN ranks New York University thirty-fifth, tied with Boston College, the University of Rochester, and the University of Wisconsin. Our Prestige Law School Ranking ranks NYU twelfth.

UC Hastings is the only law school in this top fifty sans a university (an orphan) albeit, it is part of the University of California system.

LAW SCHOOL RANKING: PRESTIGIOUS
DOES THE PRESTIGE OF
THE UNIVERSITY AFFECTS THE
PRESTIGE OF THE LAW SCHOOL?

What is more impressive: Being accepted by the University of Iowa College of Law or being accepted by the Princeton University School of Law? Note that the University of Iowa College of Law is ranked 22nd (tie) by USN. With but few major exceptions, I believe that people would be more impressed by a person accepted by the Princeton University School of Law. What groups of people would favor Iowa over Princeton? Two groups would be long-time residents of Iowa and graduates of the University of Iowa. A third group would be the people who know that Princeton University has no law school (Princeton University also has no medical school and also has no business school). Just as the prestige of the football team affects the prestige of the university so, perhaps even more, the prestige of the university affects the prestige of its law school.