The first U. S. News and World Report (USN) ranking of law schools appeared in the November 2, 1987 issue. In this issue, USN ranked their top twenty law schools, their top twenty engineering schools, their top ten medical schools, and their top twenty national business schools. The seond US News ranking appeared in the March 19, 1990 issue and with this issue the ranking became an annual event ocurring in March or April. The number of law schools ranked was twenty-five from March 1990 to March 1993, fifty from March 1994 to April 15, 2002, and one-hundred since April 14, 2003. In some years, ties increased the number of law schools ranked. Also, from year to year, the number of law schools in each category often changed.
PARTITIONING THE LAW SCHOOLS BEFORE THE TOP 100 WAS INTRODUCED
November 2, 1987
Top 20.
March 19, 1990
Top 25.
April 29, 1991
Top 25.
March 23, 1992
Top 25 with rest of Quartile 1 (19), Quartile 2 (44), Quartile 3 (44), and Quartile 4 (43).
March 22, 1993
Top 25 with rest of Quartile 1 (19), Quartile 2 (44), Quartile 3 (44), and Quartile 4 (44).
March 21, 1994
Top 50 with Tier 3 (38), Tier 4 (44), and Tier 5 (44).
March 20, 1995
Top 50 with Tier 3 (39), Tier 4 (44), and Tier 5 (44).
March 18, 1996
Top 51 with Tier 3 (39), Tier 4 (44), and Tier 5 (40).
March 10, 1997
Top 50 with Tier 2 (38), Tier 3 (43), Tier 4 (43)
March 2, 1998
Top 51 with Tier 2 (39), Tier 3 (46), Tier 4 (38)
March 29, 1999
Top 53 with Tier 2 (36), Tier 3 (46), Tier 4 (41))
April 10, 2000
Top 50 with Tier 2 (47), Tier 3 (41), Tier 4 (36)
April 9, 2001
Top 54 with Tier 2 (34), Tier 3 (45), Tier 4 (41)
April 15, 2002
Top 51 with Tier 2 (39), Tier 3 (45), Tier 4 (40)
PARTITIONING THE LAW SCHOOLS AFTER THE TOP 100 WAS INTRODUCED
Since April 14, 2003, US News and World Report has partitioned law schools into the three categories: Top 100, Third Tier, and Fourth Tier.
US NEWS ISSUE
Top 100
Third Tier
Fourth Tier
APRIL 14, 2003
100
37
40
APRIL 12, 2004
104
29
44
APRIL 11, 2005
102
35
43
APRIL 10, 2006
100
36
44
APRIL 9, 2007
104
35
45
104
37
42
THE ORIGINAL USNews TOP TWENTY NOVEMBER 2, 1987
In their November 2, 1987 issue, U.S. News and World Report gave its first law school ranking; this issue ranked their top twenty law schools. We shall follow the progress (or lack of it) of these twenty law schools. The March 19, 1990 issue, U.S. News and World Report ranked their top twenty-six law schools; neither the University of Minnesota nor the University of Wisconsin made the top twenty-six. The top ten and the top sixteen of the November 1987 ranking of law schools are the same as the top ten and the top sixteen, respectively, of the April 2006 ranking of law schools; this statement does not extend to April 2006 because the University of Texas dropped to eighteenth. As we shall now see, there have been some changes within the top ten and within the top sixteen; two law schools have dropped out of the top twenty. Comparing the November, 1987 ranking to the April, 2006 ranking, we see that The big winners during this time period were Stanford University: Rose from being tied for fourth to tied for second New York University: Rose from ninth to fourth University of Pennsylvania: Rose from tenth to tied for sixth Northwestern University: Rose from sixteenth to twelfth The big losers during this time period were Harvard University: Dropped from being tied for first to being tied for second University of Michigan: Dropped from third to tied for eighth University of Texas: Dropped from eleventh to eighteenth University of Illinois: Dropped from being tied for seventeenth to twenty-sixth University of Wisconsin: Dropped from twentieth to thirty-second.
