The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School ranked No. 4 in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report rankings, retaining its position from the previous year.
U.S. News placed Penn Carey Law in a tie for fourth place with Duke University School of Law, Harvard Law School, and the University of Virginia School of Law. The list, released April 9, marks two years since Penn Carey Law first announced that it would stop submitting data to the rankings.
Stanford Law School and Yale Law School shared the top spot this year, with University of Chicago Law School coming in third.
In December 2022, Penn Carey Law announced that it would no longer participate in the U.S. News rankings, expressing concerns with its methodology. This decision followed similar announcements from Yale Law School and Harvard Law School.
“In the interest of greater transparency, we will make relevant data public so that anyone can see the inputs that make Penn Carey Law a leading law school and how our alumni launch careers in every sector of the legal profession,” the school wrote in its announcement.
This year, U.S. News surveyed nearly 200 accredited law schools in the fall of 2023 and early 2024 and received 144 responses. The rankings also used data that law schools are required by the American Bar Association to publicly disclose. Schools that did not respond to the U.S. News survey are noted as such at the top of their profile in the rankings.
The methodology evaluated each school's rank by scoring it on 10 factors, ranging from placement success and bar passage to faculty and library resources. The total scores were then standardized and rescaled so the No. 1 school scored 100. Subsequent rankings received a percentage of the top score.
Continuing changes made last year, U.S. News prioritized outcome metrics and "reduced emphasis on reputation, resources and selectivity," according to its website. Outcome success scores were based on outcomes 10 months after graduation and bar passage rate. The rankings also considered quality assessments provided by other law school deans, lawyers, and judges and the academic profile of accepted students.
U.S. News acknowledged on its website that the ranking only assesses academic quality and graduate success.
"Personal considerations involving location, campus culture, strength of specific programs, and cost after tuition and financial aid are also very important," U.S. News wrote.
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