Law School Moves Up in U.S. News Rankings, Receives Record Number of Applications
The Law School moved up in this year's U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best graduate programs in the nation. According to the report released Friday, March 28, the Law School came in this year at 30th, tied with the University of Washington. Last year, the school was ranked at 31st in the nation, tied with Ohio State and the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
"We are pleased to see that we went up one place but continue to view these rankings with some skepticism," said Lynda Butler, interim dean of the Law School and the Chancellor Professor of Law. "This year only one point separates us from three schools ranked 27th," continued Butler, "while two points separate us from the 26th ranked school. What we do know is that the Law School is more vibrant and healthy than ever."
The Law School, which is celebrating its 228th year, has consistently ranked among the best law schools in the country in the U.S. News survey. The movement in the rankings continues a strong spring for the nation's oldest law school. The Law School received a record number of applications - receiving 4,561 applications for approximately 200 seats available in the school's juris doctor program. That total reflected a 7.3 percent increase from last year while the national law school applicant pool dropped 1.3 percent.
U.S. News annually ranks graduate and professional school programs in engineering, law, medicine, education and business using a variety of scoring categories, such as peer assessments, student/faculty ratios and funding for faculty research.