Here are the new 2011 U.S. News Tax Rankings, along with last year’s rankings:

2011 Rank	Tax Program	2010 Rank
1	NYU	1
2	Georgetown	2
3	Florida	3
4	Northwestern	4
5	Miami	6
6	Boston University	6
6	San Diego	11
8	Harvard	5
9	Loyola-L.A.	16
10	Virginia	11
11	UCLA	6
12	Denver	19
13	Stanford	10
14	Columbia	13
14	SMU	19
16	Michigan	9
16	USC	n/r
18	Boston College	23
18	UC-Hastings	n/r
18	Texas	13
21	Chicago	15
21	Villanova	n/r
n/r	Chapman	17
n/r	Pennsylvania	17
n/r	U. Washington	19
n/r	Yale	19
n/r	G. Washington	23

Here are the upward moves from last year in the overall tax rankings:

	Tax Program	2011 Rank
+7	Loyola-L.A.	9
+7	Denver	12
+5	San Diego	6
+5	SMU	14
+5	Boston College	18
+1	Miami	5
+1	Virginia	10

In addition, USC, UC-Hastings, and Villanova were unranked last year and rank #16, #18, and #21, respectively, this year.

Here are the downward moves from last year in the overall tax rankings:

	Law School	2011 Rank
-7	Michigan	16
-6	Chicago	21
-5	UCLA	11
-5	Texas	18
-3	Harvard	8
-3	Stanford	13
-1	Florida	3
-1	Columbia	14

In addition, Chapman, Pennsylvania, U. Washington, Yale, and George Washington ranked #17, #17, #19, #19, and #23, respectively, last year and are unranked this year.

Here are the rankings of the graduate tax programs, along with last year’s rankings:

2011 Rank	Grad Tax Program	2010 Rank
1	NYU	1
2	Georgetown	2
3	Florida	2
4	Northwestern	4
5	Miami	5
6	Boston University	5
6	San Diego	7
8	Loyola-L.A.	8
9	Denver	10
10	SMU	10
11	Villanova	n/r
n/r	Chapman	9
n/r	U. Washington	10

This ranking does not include USC, which is launching a graduate tax program in Fall 2011.

Here are the upward moves from last year in the graduate tax rankings:

	Grad Tax Program	2011 Rank
+1	San Diego	6
+1	Denver	9

In addition, Villanova was unranked last year and ranks #11 this year.

Here are the downward moves from last year in the graduate tax rankings:

	Grad Tax Program	2011 Rank
-1	Florida	3
-1	Boston Univ.	6

In addition, Chapman and U. Washington ranked #9 and #10, respectively, last year and are unranked this year.

The U.S. News tax survey instrument states that it is intended “to identify the law schools having the top programs in tax law.” The survey is sent “to a sample of law school faculty listed in the AALS Directory of Law Teachers 2007-2008 as currently teaching a course or seminar in tax law.” Recipients are asked “to [i]dentify up to fifteen (15) schools that have the highest-quality tax law courses or programs. In making your choices consider all elements that contribute to a program’s excellence, for example, the depth and breadth of the program, faculty research and publication record, etc.”

As Donald Tobin (Ohio State) has noted, it is more than strange that NYU has finished ahead of Florida and Georgetown each year that U.S. News has conducted the survey.  Because the survey ranks the schools by how often they appear on the respondents’ “Top 15” lists, this means that some folks list NYU, but not Florida and Georgetown, among the Top 15 tax programs.