USNWR Law School Rankings Shake Up: 2025

Students often ask me, “What makes a great law school application?” I like to flip the question—because it’s just as important to ask, “What makes a law school great?”

At Top Tier Admissions, we guide our students to look beyond prestige and focus on the true value of a law school program—during the application process, throughout their time as students, and after they earn their degree. That means evaluating not only the school’s reputation, but also the strength of its curriculum and the real-world experiences it offers.

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Considering the weight of this decision, I encourage any potential law school applicant to ask questions like these at the start of their journey:

Are contrasting views and perspectives presented to and encouraged by students, faculty and the administration?
Is interdisciplinary inquiry woven into the fabric of the program and to what extent?
Are there new courses on digital commerce, e-commerce law and AI law?
Are journal publication opportunities, on-site experiences, and entrepreneurial opportunities part of the program?
Does the school promote intellectual risk taking?
How about pro bono legislative and policy work?
Do they value and promote a strong code of ethics and social justice efforts?

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THE T-14 LAW SCHOOLS

For students building their target law school list, the “push for prestige” is especially tempting, but we also commonly hear requests for “the T-14.”

The “T-14” has historically referred to the universities that most frequently claim the top 14 spots in the yearly U.S. News & World Report ranking of American law schools. While “T14” is not a designation that U.S. News uses, the term is still surprisingly well known.

Roughly 10% of law students attend a T-14 school annually. What’s interesting is that it’s not actually only 14 schools. Every year schools are tied for a certain spots and #15 changes and moves up or down the list year over year. Georgetown, Cornell, UT Austin and UCLA regularly seem to fight over the same slots.

“The T-14” is a term not just known amongst law school applicants but it’s also used by working professionals. For example, I worked with a law school applicant who received an offer from her NYC-based employer to enroll in law school and her firm would cover tuition, fees and housing (if outside of NYC) in full, plus a stipend. It was quite the offer. The catch? She was obligated to return to the company, plus get into a top 5 law school program, not a T-14, a T-5. Spoiler alert: She got in!

USNWR LAW SCHOOL RANKINGS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Yale and Stanford tied for # 1, which knocked UChicago to #3
Harvard left the top 5
Cornell dropped from #14 to #18, so they are no longer in the T-14
Georgetown kept their #14 position from last year but they’re now tied with UTexas, Vanderbilt and Wash U St. Louis

Given the many ties, there are now 17 law schools in the T-14.

1-Stanford Law School

1-Yale Law School

3-UChicago Law School

4-UVA Law School

5-UPenn Law School

6-Duke Law School

6-Harvard Law School

8-NYU Law School

8-UMichigan Law School

10-Columbia Law School

10-Northwestern Law School

12-UCLA Law School

13-UC Berkeley Law School

14-Georgetown Law School

14-University of Texas Law School

14-Vanderbilt University Law School

14-Wash U St. Louis School of Law

The U.S. News & World Report Top Law School Rankings use a methodology that factors in employment, first time bar passage, ultimate bar passage, peer assessment, lawyer/judge assessment score, median LSAT/GRE, Undergrad GPA, acceptance rate, student-faculty ratio, and library resources.

Yet, I would argue that curricular depth, career landing spots and the overall student experience are also essential to consider; fit matters. Are you seeking input on law schools that are a great match for you? Contact us to learn more.

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Know someone else navigating the grad school application process? Pass it along—they’ll thank you later!

Author
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Dr. Kristen Willmott

Senior Private Counselor & Graduate School Admissions Director at Top Tier Admissions

A former Admissions and Financial Aid Officer for Harvard University, Kristen brings over 20 years of experience working in higher education. Kristen has a PhD in Education with a concentration in Higher Education, an M.S. in Business Management, and a B.A. in English. Her PhD dissertation won the International Susan B. Anthony Institute Dissertation Award. In her role at Harvard, Kristen oversaw admissions for 17 departments and was also responsible for distributing funding from the National Science Foundation Fellowships Program and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Student Research Fellowship Program. Kristen previously worked as a substitute K-12 teacher, as adjunct faculty at three universities in MA and NY, and as an educational researcher. Kristen recently published a book (Information Age Publishing) on faculty and tenure in academia which Stanford University Libraries featured on their recommended "Gender and Education Books" list. Kristen has written for Entrepreneur Magazine and published in journals such as the Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs and the American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Journal. Kristen has also been featured in and interviewed for publications such as U.S. News & World Report, the Washington Examiner, Yahoo News, and Business Insider.

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