Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Law School Rankings
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National Jurist: Top Schools for Government Law
PreLaw has released its annual honor roll for “top law schools for government law.” The list included thirteen schools. PreLaw Editors, Top Law Schools for Government Law, The National Jurist, March 18, 2026. You can find the list on the next page.
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Updated ABA Bar Data: 1-Year Pass Rate Increased 1 Percentage Point; 6 Law Schools Failed 2-Year 75% Pass Rate Accreditation Threshold
Update: The University of Baltimore School of Law let me know after last week’s post that they had submitted incorrect ultimate bar passage data to the ABA showing them falling short of the 75% accreditation threshold. Baltimore has sent me corrected data showing them meeting the 75% threshold. The ABA uploaded the corrected data on
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Resources
Following up on my previous posts: In the current 2025-26 methodology, resources count 7% in the overall ranking: Student-faculty ratio (5%): This is the ratio of law school students to law school faculty members for the 2023 to 2024 school year. It is a proxy for the amount of attention from faculty that may be available
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New ABA Bar Data: 1-Year Pass Rate Increased 1 Percentage Point; 7 Law Schools Failed 2-Year 75% Pass Rate Accreditation Threshold
Update: The University of Baltimore School of Law emailed to let me know they had submitted incorrect ultimate bar passage data to the ABA showing them falling short of the 75% accreditation and send me corrected data showing them meeting the 75% threshold. The ABA uploaded the corrected data on March 22 and I have
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Justice & Opportunity Honor Roll (National Jurist)
National Jurist‘s preLaw has a new honor roll for the “more than 35 law schools [that] are expanding access through admissions innovation, program design and community-centered pathways — strengthening justice through opportunity.” The “Justice & Opportunity Honor Roll recognizes law schools for leadership in expanding access to legal education.” As the introduction to the article
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2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings
U.S. News & World Report, Coming Soon: Law Schools, Business Schools and Other Graduate Programs: U.S. News will formally release the 2026 edition of Best Graduate Schools on April 7. The updated rankings include school profiles and search tools for prospective doctoral, master’s and J.D. students in the areas announced last year [“Law (J.D.): Overall, Part-Time,
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Overall
Derek Muller (Notre Dame), Updated Projected 2026-2027 USNWR Law School Rankings (To Be Released April 2026 Or So): The updated 509 data from the American Bar Association discloses a good deal of public information about law school admissions and law school faculty that is ultimately used in the USNWR law school rankings. We now have about 75% of the information
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Employment
In the current 2025-26 methodology, employment counts 33% in the overall ranking: Outcomes 10 months after graduation (weighted 33%): This measures the extent to which graduates obtain the most in-demand jobs – namely those that are long term, full time and requiring (or taking advantage of) bar passage. Maximum credit was assigned for graduates with school-funded fellowships
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Ultimate Bar Passage
In the current 2025-26 methodology, ultimate bar passage counts 7% in the overall ranking: Ultimate bar passage rate (7%): While passing the bar on the first try is optimal, passing eventually is critical. Underscoring this is the ABA’s accreditation standard that at least 75% of a law school’s test-taking graduates must pass a bar exam within two
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage
In the current 2025-26 methodology, first-time bar passage counts 18% in the overall ranking: Bar passage rate for first-time test-takers (18%): U.S. News used its treatment of bar passage rates to incorporate all graduates who took the bar for the first time, and not just those from the state with the most test-takers. This de-emphasized the impact
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
In the current 2025-26 methodology, law school admissions count 10% in the overall ranking: Rank School Accept. Rate Rank UGPARank LSATRank Weighted Rank 1 Chicago 7 3 2 2.90 2 Yale 1 5 2 3.10 3 Harvard 6 5 2 3.60 4 Virginia 8 2 5 4.10 5 Stanford 2 5 5 4.70 6 Wash. U.
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National Jurist: Top Law Schools for Social Justice
From The National Jurist website: “As social justice becomes central to legal education, students are learning not just doctrine, but how the law affects real people, real communities and their own career paths:” preLaw examined how social justice is embedded across legal education, from classroom instruction and experiential learning to clinics, centers and career support.
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The Top 100 Law Schools, Based On 5-, 10-, And 15-Year Rolling Average U.S. News Rankings
Bradley A. Areheart (Tennessee), The Top 100 Law Reviews: A Reference Guide Based on Historical USNWR Data: The best proxy for how other law professors react and respond to publishing in main, or flagship, law reviews is the US News and World Report (USNWR) rankings. This paper utilizes historical USNWR data to rank the top
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Law School Rankings Season
The 2026 rankings are starting to appear, including the Times Higher Education, QS World University, and PublicLegal-ILRG’s rankings. As with all rankings, there are limitations, anomalies, and they emphasize or focus on different areas. On the next page, are the top 25 rankings for the Times Higher Education Best Law Schools in the U.S. –
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Best law schools for practical training
Everyone seems curious about law school rankings. Last March, National Jurist ranked the “Best law schools for practical training.” These were the top 10: 1 Northeastern University A+ 11 54.8 Yes Yes 287.9 95 0.53 4 2 Baylor University A+ 12 24.3 Yes 19.6 27 4.75 68 3 University of St. Thomas – Mn. A+
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Muller: Impact of the Law School Applicant Surge on Discount Rates, Class Sizes, and 50th & 25th Percentile LSATs & UGPAs
Derek Muller analyzes the impact of the surge in law school applicants on discount rates, class sizes, median & 25th percentile LSATs & UGPAs on all 197 law schools
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Could Yale Really Drop to #5 in the 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings?
Yale could drop to #5 in the forthcoming 2026-27 U.S. News law school rankings because the quantity of jobs, rather than the quality of jobs, counts 33% in the overall ranking
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More on the Best Online Law School Programs In America (2026)
Law schools have been toying with online education. Earlier this week, Above The Law posted The Best Online Law School Programs In America (2026) from University Magazine. As Jeremy Paul blogged last month, here are the Top 10 online legal education programs on that list: There obviously been movement on the online law school market.
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Above the Law: Law School Boycotts Made the U.S. News Rankings a Joke
Law school boycotts made the U.S. News rankings a joke
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Top 10 best law schools for government work
There are lots of rankings of law schools out there. preLaw Magazine rank the top 10 best law schools for placing graduates in government work.
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Projected 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings
Projected 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings for the Top 100 law schools
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Princeton Review’s Top 10 “Quality of Life” Law Schools
There are many reasons for applicants to pick a law school. Employment possibilities, prestige, education, geography, bar passage rate, diversity of faculty and student body, and much more. Quality of life can factor into the decision-making process. Princeton Review 2025 Law School Rankings rates the following schools as the Top 10 in “Quality of Life.”
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Ranking of On-line and Flex JD Programs
University Magazine has released it’s ranking of the nation’s online and Flex JD Programs. You can find it here. universitymagazine.ca/best-online-law-schools-america Of course, I was delighted to see Northeastern at number one.
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2026 Law School ROI Rankings
2026 law school rankings on return on investment (cost, bar passage, and jobs)
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U.S. News and World Report: Law Schools With the Most Graduates in Public Interest Law
This has been out for a long while but I seem to have missed it (or forgot that I saw it). I have no excuse as the ranking was even reviewed critically on Above the Law. Here are the top law schools on the U.S. News and World Report list of Law Schools With the