The US News and World Report rank US law schools every year. Result for 2017 top US law schools was released on March 14. Yale topped the annual ranking once again for the 23rd time.
Yale Law School stayed at the top rank, a record that has never been broken in the past 23 years. Stanford Law School maintained its second place after tying with Harvard last year while Harvard slipped to rank number three this year.
To get the overall ranking of the different US law schools, the deans were invited to rate each school. The average rating contributed to the final ranking. Other factors that were considered in the ranking were selectivity, employment rate and bar passing rate.
Selectivity refers to qualifications standards set by the school for a student to be accepted. Employment rate refers to the percentage of graduates who get employed after graduation and bar passing rate refers to the percentage of students who pass the bar exam, according to Business Insider.
The competition among three US law schools, which are Yale, Stanford and Harvard, has been very close in the past 22 years. However, Yale steadfastly held on to its title and it had to do so. Losing the title might affect its attractiveness to students who plan to study law.
Two US law schools showed great improvements in their rankings and they felt happy about their achievement. After missing the top 10 list in the past years by just fractional points, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law broke through the ranks to occupy the 10th post, according to National Law Journal.
The greatest leap was taken by the Rutgers School of law, with an overwhelming jump from number 92 to number 62. The results justified the merger of Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden.The jump was the biggest among all US law schools this year and the largest in the history of US News.
