GW Law dropped 10 spots in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of the best law schools in the country this year.
The school’s ranking fell from No. 25 last year to No. 35 this year, tied with Emory University, the University of Alabama, the University of California, Irvine and the University of Iowa. At least two of the school’s 14 ranked law programs rose in ranking.
The international law program rose from No. 10 last year to No. 7 this year, tied with the University of California, Berkeley, according to a Hatchet analysis of archived and current pages of the office’s website. GW’s intellectual property law program rose from No. 5 last year to No. 4 this year, tied with Santa Clara University.
The school’s part-time law program also ranked No. 2 for the second consecutive year, placed only behind Georgetown University.
The University of Notre Dame and the University of Alabama, which tied for No. 25 for best law schools with GW Law last year, fell to No. 27 and No. 35 this year, respectively.
The U.S. News rankings for law schools use factors like schools’ success rates with students starting in jobs after graduation, academic credentials of incoming students and the overall quality of the program to evaluate placement on the list.
U.S. News & World Report released its rankings for law schools a week later than all other rankings because the publication received a large number of questions from universities about shifts in their placement on the list as a result of increased focus on the bar exam and employment after graduation, according to a Reuters report.
The report states U.S. News focused on these criteria in response to almost a quarter of law schools refusing to provide internal data on their law schools, like admissions’ test scores, because emphasizing test scores discourages schools from looking for a wide range of students with other strengths.
U.S. News also added “ultimate bar passage rates” as criteria for determining rankings this year, which measures the number of students who passed the bar within two years of graduating from the law school. The ultimate bar passage rate for students who graduated from the GW Law in 2019 was 95.5 percent, according to the rankings.
All universities that tied for No. 35 for best law schools this year had an ultimate bar passage rate above 85 percent for 2019 graduates, with Emory University’s rate at 86.7 percent and the University of Alabama’s rate at 99.2 percent, the report states.
