The anticipation is building for prospective law students, current law students, and law school alumni as they eagerly await the release of the 2025 U.S. News Law School Rankings. Last year’s rankings were marred by controversy, with many schools boycotting and withdrawing from consideration, and errors in the preview rankings that were later removed due to methodology changes.
Will U.S. News make changes to its rankings methodology after last year’s debacle? While we wait for the official rankings, Dean Paul Caron of Pepperdine University School of Law has provided an admissions-based “preview” of the rankings. Using data on acceptance rates, median undergraduate GPAs, and median LSAT scores, Caron has created two rankings that showcase the top law schools based on these criteria.
The top 14 schools in each of Caron’s rankings include prestigious institutions such as Yale, Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia. Interestingly, some schools like Harvard and Washington University fare better in the admissions-based rankings, while others like UC Berkeley and Michigan may be grateful for a more comprehensive ranking methodology.
As we eagerly await the official release of the 2025 U.S. News Law School Rankings, it’s clear that the admissions profiles of these schools play a significant role in their overall rankings. Stay tuned this spring to see how closely Caron’s partial rankings align with the official rankings, and in the meantime, check out the Above the Law Top 50 Law School Rankings for a different perspective on law school excellence.