How Harvard Law Beat Yale In A New Law School Ranking

At the opposite end, you could argue that schools that score higher on U.S. News and lower on Above the Law are likely doing less with more. To put it another way, they aren’t capitalizing on their advantage to convert higher inputs into better jobs. These schools include: Emory University (45th on U.S. News vs. 19th on Above the Law), Indiana University (31st vs. 46th), George Washington University (22nd vs. 40th), Arizona State (26th vs. 36th), and the University of Alabama (22nd vs. 32nd).
MODERATE CHANGES IN ABOVE THE LAW RANKINGS OVER THREE YEARS
Above the Law’s ranking reflects which schools are placing the highest percentage of students in more stable, law-oriented jobs with less debt. And no school has done that better than the University of Iowa, whose rank has skyrocketed 20 spots over the past three years to 17th. The school produced a 94 percent placement rate for the Class of 2014, with 77 percent requiring bar passage (though only 15 percent end up in big law). Like many law schools based in “college towns,” Iowa’s costs are reasonable, with in-state residents paying just $23,760 in tuition and $143,297 total over three years, making student debt burden far more reasonable. At the same time, the school is slashing tuition and implementing a 3+3 program to make itself more financially attractive to students.
Ohio State (+17 to 29th), Arizona State (+14 to 36th), and the College of William & Mary (+10 to 24th) have also improved their outputs over the past three years based on Above the Law’s ranking. Conversely, Wake Forest (-17th to 47th), Emory University (-16 to 45th), Southern Methodist (-15 to 37th), and the University of Georgia (-8 to 27th) have all slipped in recent years.
DON’T MISS: Stanford Tops Tipping the Scales’ 2015 Ranking
2015 Above the Law Ranking (1-25)

ATL 2015 Rank	School	ATL 2014 Rank	ATL 2013 Rank	Difference Between 2015 and 2014 ATL Rank	2016 U.S. News Rank	2015  ATL Difference with U.S. News Rank	Three Year ATL Average	ATL Rank Change Over 3 Years
1	Harvard University	2	3	1	2	1	2.00	2
2	Stanford University	3	2	1	2	0	2.33	0
3	University of Chicago	5	4	2	4	1	4.0	1
4	University of Pennsylvania	8	5	4	7	3	5.67	1
5	Yale University	1	1	-4	1	-4	2.33	-4
6	University of Virginia	9	7	3	8	2	7.33	1
7	Duke University	7	6	0	8	1	6.67	-1
8	Columbia University	4	8	-4	4	-4	6.67	0
9	Cornell University	13	11	4	13	4	11.0	2
10	New York University	6	10	-4	6	-4	8.67	0
11	University of California-Berkeley	12	9	1	8	-3	10.67	-2
12	University of Michigan	10	12	-2	11	-1	11.33	0
13	Northwestern University	11	13	-2	12	-1	12.33	0
14	University of Texas-Austin	15	14	1	15	1	14.33	0
15	Vanderbilt University	14	15	-1	17	2	14.67	0
16	Boston College	21	21	5	34	18	19.33	5
17	University of Iowa	18	37	1	22	5	24.0	20
18	University of New Mexico	22	26	4	71	53	22.0	8
19	UCLA	19	17	0	16	-3	18.33	-2
20	Georgetown University	16	16	-4	14	-6	17.33	-4
21	Boston University	30	23	9	26	5	24.67	2
22	Brigham Young University	24	28	2	34	12	24.67	6
23	University of Notre Dame	17	18	-6	22	-1	19.33	-5
24	College of William & Mary	39	34	15	29	5	32.33	10
25	Washington University (MO)	26	25	1	18	-7	25.33	0

Source: Above the Law and U.S. News & World Report
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