Predicted 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings

With today’s release of the 2023 ABA-required 509 disclosures, we don’t just have the full set of law schools’ new medians and class sizes (compiled data with +/- here), but we can also calculate next year’s upcoming U.S. News law school rankings using the current methodology. Because of the rankings boycott, U.S. News now relies primarily on publicly available data from ABA reports. With today's 509 release, 75% of the current methodology's weight is now available, and the remaining 25% comes from the Assessment Scores (which are, in aggregate, very stable—some schools' will change, but overall they will be much the same as last year). That means it's possible to calculate the upcoming rankings under the current methodology with a good deal of accuracy.

All of the above said, please know that these predictions won’t be 100% accurate. For one, there are a few errors in the ABA data that we expect to be corrected by the time the rankings come out (in those instances, we've used last year's data for the schools in question). U.S. News will also almost certainly make some methodology changes (one such possibility would be introducing a faculty citation metric, as they did with the undergraduate rankings), and again, the below calculated rankings are based on the current methodology.

As you'll see below, our predictions show a lot of big changes. That is a consequence of the new methodology. With so much more weight now assigned to the more volatile Outcome metrics (58% compared to 21% two years ago), expect to see big swings going forward.

Importantly, as we have discussed many times in interviews with journalists, in blogs and podcasts (including this one), and across social media, one-size-fits-all rankings tend to be far more harmful than helpful, and applicants should not rely on them when making decisions about where to matriculate. The human mind craves ordinal rankings, because they allow us to drown out extraneous information, but the problem with law school rankings is that you need that extra information—and you need to decide what kind of information matters to you. Who is better at deciding what is most relevant to you: a singular media source, or your personal life experiences and future goals?

While rankings may, at best, serve as a starting point for looking at some schools to apply to, they should never be used in determining where you ultimately desire to go to school. Nor should one- or two-year fluctuations be over-interpreted. Remember that U.S. News (and any rankings outlet) needs change every year, or there would be no interest in their publications. That change is often arbitrary and vastly overstated.

All of this is a long way of saying that rankings are fun, and they can at times serve as a starting point in your law school journey. But as far as actually aligning with your goals and which school(s) are best for you, they are inherently flawed. That's why we caution anyone to use the below list just for interest and entertainment, not for important life decisions of any kind.

Law School	2024-2025 Calculated Ranking	2023-2024 Ranking
Stanford University	1	1
Yale University	2	1
University of Chicago	3	3
University of Virginia	4	8
Harvard University	4	5
University of Pennsylvania (Carey)	4	4
Duke University	7	5
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor	8	10
Columbia University	8	8
Northwestern University (Pritzker)	10	10
University of California–Berkeley	10	10
New York University	10	5
University of California–Los Angeles	13	14
Washington University in St. Louis	14	20
Georgetown University	14	15
University of Texas–Austin	16	16
Cornell University	16	13
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill	18	22
University of Minnesota	18	18
University of Notre Dame	20	27
Vanderbilt University	20	16
Boston University	22	27
University of Georgia	22	20
University of Southern California (Gould)	22	16
University of Wisconsin–Madison	25	40
University of Utah (Quinney)	25	32
Wake Forest University	25	22
University of Alabama	28	35
Texas A&M University	28	29
Boston College	28	29
University of Florida (Levin)	28	22
William & Mary Law School	32	45
University of Iowa	32	35
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	34	43
Washington and Lee University	34	40
George Mason University (Scalia)	34	32
Ohio State University (Moritz)	34	22
Indiana University–Bloomington (Maurer)	38	45
Fordham University	38	29
Brigham Young University (Clark)	38	22
University of Colorado–Boulder	41	56
SMU (Dedman)	41	45
Baylor University	43	49
George Washington University	43	35
Arizona State University (O'Connor)	43	32
Florida State University	46	56
University of California–Irvine	46	35
University of Connecticut	48	71
University of Washington	48	49
Emory University	48	35
University of California–Davis	51	60
Villanova University (Widger)	51	43
Pennsylvania State University Dickinson Law	53	89
University of Missouri	53	71
University of Tennessee–Knoxville	53	51
University of Kansas	53	40
Pennsylvania State University–University Park	57	80
University of San Diego	57	78
Marquette University	57	71
Yeshiva University (Cardozo)	57	69
Temple University (Beasley)	57	54
Pepperdine University (Caruso)	57	45
Northeastern University	63	71
University of Kentucky (Rosenberg)	63	60
Wayne State University	63	56
University of Arizona (Rogers)	63	54
University of Nevada–Las Vegas (Boyd)	67	89
University of Cincinnati	67	84
Loyola Marymount University	67	60
University of Richmond	67	60
University of Oklahoma	67	51
University of Maryland (Carey)	67	51
University of Nebraska–Lincoln	73	89
University of South Carolina	73	60
Seton Hall University	73	56
The Catholic University of America	76	122
Loyola University Chicago	76	84
Drexel University (Kline)	76	80
Tulane University	76	71
Drake University	80	88
Georgia State University	80	69
St. John's University	80	60
University of Houston Law Center	80	60
University of Pittsburgh	84	89
University of California–San Francisco	84	60
Florida International University	84	60
University of Maine School of Law	87	146
Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge (Hebert)	87	99
University of New Mexico	87	96
Lewis & Clark College (Northwestern)	87	84
University of Denver (Sturm)	87	80
University of Oregon	87	78
University of Missouri–Kansas City	93	135
Samford University (Cumberland)	93	131
University of New Hampshire (Pierce)	93	105
Belmont University	93	105
Case Western Reserve University	93	80
Texas Tech University	93	71
Regent University	99	125
University of Dayton	99	111
Cleveland State University (Cleveland-Marshall)	99	111
Rutgers University	99	109
Indiana University–Indianapolis (McKinney)	103	99
Duquesne University (Kline)	103	89
University of Miami	103	71
University at Buffalo–SUNY	106	125
Michigan State University	106	111
Seattle University	106	111
Chapman University (Fowler)	106	109
Mercer University (George)	106	99
American University (Washington)	106	89
Saint Louis University	106	89
West Virginia University	113	111
Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent	113	99
University of Montana (Blewett)	113	96
Brooklyn Law School	116	111
Stetson University	116	84
University of Hawaii–Manoa (Richardson)	118	135
Suffolk University	119	133
New York Law School	119	125
University of Mississippi	119	111
University of Arkansas–Fayetteville	119	105
Hofstra University (Deane)	123	140
DePaul University	123	135
Syracuse University	123	122
Washburn University	123	111
University of Tulsa	123	111
Albany Law School	123	105
University of St. Thomas	123	96
Willamette University College of Law	130	155
University of Akron	130	150
Howard University	130	125
University of Arkansas–Little Rock (Bowen)	133	150
University of South Dakota (Knudson)	133	122
University of Wyoming	133	111
South Texas College of Law Houston	136	162
University of Detroit Mercy	136	141
Loyola University New Orleans	136	111
St. Mary's University	139	153
Gonzaga University	139	99
Quinnipiac University	141	146
University of Baltimore	141	135
Pace University (Haub)	141	131
Campbell University (Wiggins)	141	125
Ave Maria School of Law	145	180-196
Creighton University	145	155
CUNY School of Law	145	154
Northern Illinois University	148	162
University of Idaho	148	141
University of Memphis (Humphreys)	150	125
Northern Kentucky University (Chase)	151	149
Liberty University	151	135
Vermont Law School	153	164
Santa Clara University	153	158
Southwestern Law School	153	141
University of Toledo	156	141
St. Thomas University	157	180-196
University of North Dakota	157	180-196
Lincoln Memorial University (Duncan)	157	175
University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth	157	167
Mitchell Hamline School of Law	157	167
Oklahoma City University	157	150
Ohio Northern University (Pettit)	157	146
Elon University	157	133
University of Louisville (Brandeis)	157	99
New England Law Boston	166	155
University of Puerto Rico	167	180-196
University of Illinois--Chicago	167	159
Southern Illinois University–Carbondale	169	174
University of San Francisco	169	155
Western New England University	171	180-196
Mississippi College	171	165
University of the Pacific (McGeorge)	173	141
Roger Williams University	174	171
Touro University (Fuchsberg)	174	167
University of North Texas--Dallas	174	167
Capital University	177	175
Widener University–Pennsylvania (Commonwealth)	177	159
Florida A&M University	179	180-196
Charleston School of Law	179	180-196
Appalachian School of Law	180-196	180-196
Atlanta's John Marshall Law School	180-196	171
Barry University	180-196	180-196
California Western School of Law	180-196	175
Faulkner University (Jones)	180-196	159
Golden Gate University	180-196	180-196
Inter-American University	180-196	180-196
North Carolina Central University	180-196	175
Nova Southeastern University (Broad)	180-196	171
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico	180-196	180-196
Southern University Law Center	180-196	180-196
Texas Southern University (Marshall)	180-196	180-196
University of the District of Columbia (Clarke)	180-196	180-196
Western Michigan University (Cooley)	180-196	180-196
Western State College of Law at Westcliff University	180-196	180-196
Widener University–Delaware	180-196	175