2025 · Best law schools
Every law school, ranked by where applicants actually go.
198 ABA-accredited schools, ranked by cross-admit choices from 139,000+ reported decisions. Compare against US News, Above the Law, and peer assessment.
MethodologyOne data point among many
Rankings help you narrow the field. Fit, scholarship money, location, and career goals decide where you actually apply and attend.
Overview
About the 2025 law school rankings
The 2025 law school rankings on this page compare 198 ABA-accredited law schools across four sources: LSD.Law cross-admit data, U.S. News & World Report, Above the Law, and peer assessment scores. Each listing shows median LSAT, undergraduate GPA, acceptance rates, and employment outcomes including BigLaw placement and federal clerkship rates.
LSD.Law's rankings are built from real cross-admit enrollment decisions. When an applicant is admitted to two schools and chooses one, that choice incorporates career placement, scholarship, location, and fit considerations specific to their case. Aggregated across 139,000+ such decisions, these revealed preferences produce a ranking grounded in applicant behavior. U.S. News uses a different approach: a weighted formula combining peer reputation surveys, per-student expenditures, and outcomes metrics.
Use the source tabs below to switch between methodologies. From this page you can also view the T14 law schools, browse individual school profiles, run the admissions predictor, or compare two schools head-to-head.
2025 Law School Rankings Table
How these rankings work
Methodology
When an applicant is admitted to two schools and chooses one, that decision reflects real information about career outcomes, campus culture, financial aid, location, and everything else that matters to them. LSD.Law rankings aggregate these cross-admit enrollment decisions to produce a ranking based on what applicants actually do when their own time and money are on the line.
What the ranking captures
Because these rankings are based on actual enrollment decisions, they inherently account for every factor applicants consider: career placement, scholarship offers, location, campus culture, class size, and more. An applicant who picks a lower-prestige school because it offered a full ride is reflected in the data. So is one who turns down scholarship money to attend a school with stronger BigLaw placement. The ranking doesn't need to assign weights to these factors because applicants have already done that weighing themselves.
Model
The statistical model behind the rankings is Bradley-Terry, the standard framework for deriving a global ordering from pairwise comparisons (used in chess ratings, sports rankings, and similar systems). When an applicant admitted to School A and School B enrolls at School A, that counts as a win for A. Each school's strength score reflects its position in the overall preference hierarchy across all such matchups.
Weighting and Data Threshold
Recent cycles are weighted more heavily through exponential decay, so the rankings reflect current preferences while still drawing on the full historical dataset. Schools need a minimum amount of cross-admit data to be ranked - those without enough head-to-head decisions appear as unranked at the bottom of the list.
Ties
Schools are tied when their strength scores are too close to meaningfully distinguish. Specifically, if the implied head-to-head win probability between two adjacent schools is near 50/50 (within a 10% margin), they share the same rank.
Yale University
T14
New Haven, Connecticut
Stanford University
T14
Stanford, California
Harvard University
T14
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Harvard, Yale, Stanford - the consensus top tier regardless of annual rank
HYS is the one tier that matters most in practice. Hiring partners at top firms and federal judges still treat these three schools as a class apart, and no amount of US News reshuffling changes that. Yale topped US News rankings for decades; Harvard and Stanford rotate behind it. Methodology changes have introduced volatility at the margin, but the prestige gap between HYS and everyone else remains the most durable line in legal hiring. Median admit profiles run around 173–174 LSAT and 3.96 GPA in the most recent cycle.
HYS Harvard, Yale, Stanford - the consensus top tier regardless of annual rank
HYS is the one tier that matters most in practice. Hiring partners at top firms and federal judges still treat these three schools as a class apart, and no amount of US News reshuffling changes that. Yale topped US News rankings for decades; Harvard and Stanford rotate behind it. Methodology changes have introduced volatility at the margin, but the prestige gap between HYS and everyone else remains the most durable line in legal hiring. Median admit profiles run around 173–174 LSAT and 3.96 GPA in the most recent cycle.
University of Chicago
T14
Chicago, Illinois
Columbia University
T14
New York City, New York
University of Pennsylvania
T14
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Top 6 - near-universal BigLaw and clerkship access regardless of class rank
HYS plus Chicago, Columbia, and NYU. The T6 has been remarkably stable for decades. The distinction between HYS and the rest of the T6 is real but narrow, mostly relevant for academia and Supreme Court clerkships.
T6 Top 6 - near-universal BigLaw and clerkship access regardless of class rank
HYS plus Chicago, Columbia, and NYU. The T6 has been remarkably stable for decades. The distinction between HYS and the rest of the T6 is real but narrow, mostly relevant for academia and Supreme Court clerkships.
University of Virginia
T14
Charlottesville, Virginia
New York University
T14
New York City, New York
University of Michigan
T14
Ann Arbor, Michigan
University of California—Berkeley
T14
Berkeley, California
Duke University
T14
Durham, North Carolina
Northwestern University
T14
Evanston, Illinois
University of California—Los Angeles
T14
Los Angeles, California
Cornell University
T14
Ithaca, New York
Top 14 - the historic prestige boundary for national BigLaw placement
For decades, the same 14 schools held the top 14 spots, hence the name. That streak broke recently as Georgetown dropped out and Texas and UCLA moved in. The term persists because it marks a meaningful employment boundary: T14 graduates can find BigLaw or federal clerkships in any US market. Below the T14, placement becomes increasingly regional.
T14 Top 14 - the historic prestige boundary for national BigLaw placement
For decades, the same 14 schools held the top 14 spots, hence the name. That streak broke recently as Georgetown dropped out and Texas and UCLA moved in. The term persists because it marks a meaningful employment boundary: T14 graduates can find BigLaw or federal clerkships in any US market. Below the T14, placement becomes increasingly regional.
Georgetown University
Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C.
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah
University of Notre Dame
South Bend, Indiana
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
University of Florida (Levin)
Gainesville, Florida
Fordham University
Bronx, New York
Top 25 - strong national programs, often best ROI with scholarships
Schools in the 15-25 range often offer the best return on investment when scholarships are factored in, with similar career outcomes to lower T14 schools at significantly lower cost. Market strength tends to be concentrated in 1-2 geographic regions.
T25 Top 25 - strong national programs, often best ROI with scholarships
Schools in the 15-25 range often offer the best return on investment when scholarships are factored in, with similar career outcomes to lower T14 schools at significantly lower cost. Market strength tends to be concentrated in 1-2 geographic regions.
University of California—Irvine
Irvine, California
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Boston College
Newton, Massachusetts
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Ohio State University
Columbus , Ohio
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia
University of Illinois—Urbana Champaign
Champaign, Illinois
William & Mary Law School
Williamsburg, Virginia
George Washington University
Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C.
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Villanova University
Villanova, Pennsylvania
Texas A&M University
Fort Worth, Texas
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas
Indiana University - Bloomington
Bloomington, Indiana
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
University of Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Temple University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Howard University
Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C.
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan
University of California—Davis
Davis, California
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, Virginia
Top 50 - solid regional placement, class rank matters more
BigLaw placement rates vary widely (from ~10% to ~40%) and class rank matters significantly more than at higher-ranked schools. Many T50 schools are the dominant pipeline for their state's legal market.
T50 Top 50 - solid regional placement, class rank matters more
BigLaw placement rates vary widely (from ~10% to ~40%) and class rank matters significantly more than at higher-ranked schools. Many T50 schools are the dominant pipeline for their state's legal market.
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona
University of Colorado—Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
University of Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Tulane University
New Orleans, Louisiana
University of California (Hastings)
San Francisco, California
Yeshiva University (Cardozo)
New York City, New York
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio
University of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Loyola Marymount University—Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
University of Nevada—Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Marquette University
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
University of Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
University of San Diego
San Diego, California
University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma
Pennsylvania State - Dickinson Law
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Florida
University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
University of Mississippi
Oxford, Mississippi
Illinois Institute of Technology (Kent)
Chicago, Illinois
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Below Top 50 - fewer cross-admit matchups, rankings are directional
Below around rank 50, cross-admit data becomes sparser. Rankings here are directionally useful but shouldn't be read as precise ordering. Focus on bar passage rates, regional employment strength, and scholarship offers alongside rank.
75+ Below Top 50 - fewer cross-admit matchups, rankings are directional
Below around rank 50, cross-admit data becomes sparser. Rankings here are directionally useful but shouldn't be read as precise ordering. Focus on bar passage rates, regional employment strength, and scholarship offers alongside rank.
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
Loyola University—Chicago
Chicago , Illinois
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Drake University
Des Moines, Iowa
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, Missouri
Seton Hall University
Newark, New Jersey
Lewis And Clark College
Portland, Oregon
University of Detroit Mercy
Detroit, Michigan
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Arkansas
University of Houston
Houston, Texas
St. John's University
Queens, New York
Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia
Rutgers University
Camden, New Jersey
Stetson University
Gulfport, Florida
Drexel University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Baylor University
Waco, Texas
University of New Hampshire
Concord, New Hampshire
Pennsylvania State - Penn State Law
State College, Pennsylvania
Mercer University
Macon, Georgia
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, Ohio
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Albany Law School Of Union University
Albany, New York
University of Tulsa
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Belmont University
Nashville, Tennessee
CUNY
Queens, New York
Pepperdine University
Malibu , California
University of Maine
Portland, Maine
Chapman University
Orange, California
Campbell University
Raleigh, North Carolina
University of Denver
Denver, Colorado
Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York
Gonzaga University
Spokane, Washington
Florida International University
MIami, Florida
University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn, New York
Pace University
White Plains, New York
Catholic University Of America
Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C.
American University
Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C.
University of Baltimore
Baltimore , Maryland
New York Law School
New York City, New York
University of the Pacific (Mcgeorge)
Sacramento, California
Suffolk University
Boston, Massachusetts
Quinnipiac University
North Haven, Connecticut
DePaul University
Chicago, Illinois
University of Illinois—Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
Seattle University
Seattle, Washington
Western New England University
Springfield, Massachusetts
Hofstra University
Hempstead, New York
Southwestern Law School
Los Angeles, California
New England Law | Boston
Boston, Massachusetts
California Western School Of Law
San Diego, California
Santa Clara University
Santa Clara, California
Appalachian School of Law
Grundy, Virginia
Atlanta's John Marshall Law School
Atlanta, Georgia
Ave Maria School Of Law
Ave Maria , Florida
Barry University
Orlando, Florida
Capital University
Columbus, Ohio
Charleston School Of Law
Charleston, South Carolina
Cooley Law School
Lansing, Michigan
Creighton University
Omaha, Nebraska
Elon University
Greensboro, North Carolina
Florida A&M University
Orlando, Florida
Florida Coastal School Of Law
Jacksonville, Florida
Golden Gate University
San Francisco, California
Indiana University - Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
Inter American University School of Law
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Jones School of Law
Montgomery, Alabama
Liberty University
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lincoln Memorial
Knoxville, Tennessee
Loyola University—New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
Mississippi College
Jackson, Mississippi
Mitchell Hamline
St Paul, Minnesota
North Carolina Central University
Durham, North Carolina
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, Illinois
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights, Kentucky
Nova Southeastern University
Davie, Florida
Ohio Northern University
Ada, Ohio
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Pontifical Catholic University
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Regent University
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Roger Williams University
Bristol, Rhode Island
Rutgers State University Newark (old)
Newark, New Jersey
Samford University
Birmingham, Alabama
South Texas College Of Law—Houston
Houston, Texas
Southern Illinois University—Carbondale
Carbondale, Illinois
Southern University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
St. Mary's University
San Antonio, Texas
St. Thomas University (Florida)
Miami Gardens, Florida
Texas Southern University
Houston, Texas
Touro College
Central Islip, New York
University of Akron
Akron, Ohio
University of Arkansas, Little Rock
Little Rock , Arkansas
University of Buffalo—SUNY
Buffalo, New York
University of Dayton
Dayton, Ohio
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Dartmouth, Massachusetts
University of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
University of Missouri—Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
University of Montana
Missoula, Montana
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, North Dakota
University of North Texas at Dallas
Dallas, Texas
University of Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
University of South Dakota
Vermillion, South Dakota
University of the District of Columbia
Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C.
University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
University of Wyoming
Laramie, Wyoming
Vermont Law School
South Royalton, Vermont
Washburn University
Topeka, Kansas
West Virginia University
Morgantown, West Virginia
Western State College Of Law
Irvine, California
Widener University—Delaware
Wilmington, Delaware
Widener University—Pennsylvania (Commonwealth)
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Willamette University
Salem , Oregon
Overview
About the 2025 law school rankings
The 2025 law school rankings on this page compare 198 ABA-accredited law schools across four sources: LSD.Law cross-admit data, U.S. News & World Report, Above the Law, and peer assessment scores. Each listing shows median LSAT, undergraduate GPA, acceptance rates, and employment outcomes including BigLaw placement and federal clerkship rates.
LSD.Law's rankings are built from real cross-admit enrollment decisions. When an applicant is admitted to two schools and chooses one, that choice incorporates career placement, scholarship, location, and fit considerations specific to their case. Aggregated across 139,000+ such decisions, these revealed preferences produce a ranking grounded in applicant behavior. U.S. News uses a different approach: a weighted formula combining peer reputation surveys, per-student expenditures, and outcomes metrics.
Use the source tabs below to switch between methodologies. From this page you can also view the T14 law schools, browse individual school profiles, run the admissions predictor, or compare two schools head-to-head.
Methodology
How LSD ranks law schools
Most law school rankings are built top-down: a committee picks weights — peer reputation 25%, lawyer surveys 15%, bar passage 3%, and so on — then plugs in numbers and publishes a list. The weights are arbitrary, the inputs are mostly self-reported, and the results barely move year to year.
LSD takes a bottom-up approach. We collect cross-admit decisions from real applicants: when someone is admitted to both Columbia and NYU, which do they choose, and how often? Across 139,000+ reported decisions, those choices reveal a market-clearing ranking — schools rise when applicants pick them over their competition, fall when they don't.
The Bradley-Terry model fits a single strength score per school from the matrix of pairwise wins. Recent cycles weigh more heavily through exponential decay, but every cycle from 2005 forward contributes to the result. Schools without enough head-to-head matchups against ranked peers stay unranked rather than guessed. The result reflects the priorities of real applicants making real decisions — career outcomes, fit, cost — rather than a committee's weights.
Sources compared
LSD vs. US News vs. Above the Law vs. peer assessment
Four sources, four philosophies. Use whichever matches the question you're trying to answer.
| Dimension | LSD | US News | Above The Law | Peer Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built on | Cross-admit choices | Weighted formula | Outcomes only | Faculty surveys |
| Best for | Where applicants actually go | Prestige consensus | Job placement | Academic reputation |
| Updated | Weekly | Annually | Annually | Annually |
| Sample | 139k+ decisions | Self-reported by schools | ABA outcome data | Surveyed deans & faculty |
| Watch out for | Cycle-to-cycle volatility | Self-reporting incentives | Ignores fit/scholarship | Lag, halo effects |
T14 explained
What “T14” means and why it matters
The T14 names the fourteen law schools that held the top of US News rankings nearly without interruption from the magazine's earliest law school list through the early 2020s: Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, Penn, NYU, Michigan, Duke, Virginia, Cornell, Northwestern, Berkeley, and Georgetown. Recent US News methodology changes have shuffled the boundary — Texas and UCLA now rank above some of the original T14 in some years — but the term still names the original cohort, and legal hiring still treats it as one.
For applicants, the T14 distinction is shorthand for a labor-market reality: BigLaw firms recruit from the T14 nationally, and federal clerkship hiring concentrates there. Outside the T14, recruiting tends to be regional — a strong school in Texas places into Texas BigLaw; a strong school in the Pacific Northwest places into Pacific Northwest BigLaw.
None of this means a non-T14 school is the wrong choice. If you want to practice in a specific market, the regional powerhouse there often outperforms a lower-ranked T14 for that market — and at a fraction of the cost. Compare schools head-to-head →
The numbers
Reading median LSAT and GPA
LSAT median
The 50th-percentile LSAT among admitted students. Above the median is competitive; at the median is a coin flip; below the median needs a soft-pull elsewhere — strong GPA, splitter status, or a compelling personal statement.
GPA median
The 50th-percentile undergraduate GPA. Lower-LSAT/higher-GPA applicants ("reverse splitters") fare better at some T14 schools than others — the data on this page lets you spot them.
Acceptance rate
Admits divided by applicants. A relative signal, not a probability — schools admit on a profile, not by lottery. Use the predictor for personalized odds.
BigLaw %
Share of graduates taking jobs at firms of 501+ attorneys. The cleanest proxy for market-rate first-year salary outcomes.
Federal clerk %
Share of graduates clerking for federal judges immediately after graduation. The most prestige-loaded outcome in legal hiring.
Tuition
Sticker price per year. Most students pay less — scholarship rates and median discount vary widely. See individual school profiles for net price.
Outcomes
Employment and clerkship — what to look for
ABA Standard 509 reports give every law school's employment outcomes ten months after graduation. The relevant categories for applicants are: BigLaw (firms of 501+ attorneys), federal clerkships, public interest, and school-funded positions (a category worth scrutinizing — temporary roles funded by the school can inflate "employed" rates).
For most applicants, BigLaw % and federal clerk % are the two metrics that matter most for return-on-investment. A school placing 50%+ into BigLaw is a national feeder; 30–50% is a strong regional school; below 30% means the median graduate is doing something else — which can be the right fit if that's your goal, but should not be confused with "missed BigLaw."
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How often are LSD rankings updated?
Final rankings recompute every Sunday morning. While a cycle is in progress, the in-flux ranking refreshes hourly as new decisions are reported. The order shifts slightly between cycles; the broad tiers stay stable.
Why is school X ranked higher on LSD than US News?
Because applicants chose it over its peers more often than its US News profile would predict. Rankings disagree most where market reality and reputation diverge — typically at strong regional schools and at schools whose scholarship strategy attracts cross-admits from higher-ranked programs.
Are these the official ABA rankings?
No. The ABA does not rank schools. The ABA accredits law schools and publishes the underlying employment, admissions, and bar passage data via Standard 509 reports. Every ranking — LSD, US News, ATL, peer assessment — is built on top of that data plus its own methodology.
Can I see how a school ranked in past years?
Yes — use the Year selector at the top of the table. LSD has cycle-by-cycle rankings going back to 2005, recomputed independently for each cycle (no interpolation).
Should I pick the highest-ranked school I get into?
Probably not, blindly. Rank is one signal. Scholarship offers, location, intended practice area, and personal fit usually matter more — especially below the T14, where regional placement dominates national prestige. Compare schools head-to-head before deciding.
Keep exploring
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Admissions consulting informed by the data behind these rankings. Former admissions officers, backed by LSD.Law analytics. Launching for the 2026–2027 cycle.
Also see: Best Law Schools