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Ranked law schools are the ABA-approved schools ordered each year by publishers like U.S. News, from the T14 at the top through about 174 individually ranked schools, with the remainder grouped as Rank Not Published. In the U.S. News 2026-27 list the leaders are Stanford 1st, then Chicago and Yale tied 2nd and Penn and Virginia tied 4th, per U.S. News 2026-27 (via LSD.law).
By Ali Unar, JD candidate at Georgetown Law and founder of Lovare Institut. Last updated August 2026. Every figure on this page was verified in August 2026 against the sources listed below.
A ranked law school is one that a publisher, most influentially U.S. News and World Report, has placed in an ordered list against its peers. There are roughly 196 ABA-approved law schools, and U.S. News assigns most of them an individual number while grouping the lowest-scoring cluster together as Rank Not Published. A ranking is a comparative signal of reputation and outcomes, not an official quality stamp from the ABA.
The table shows the current top of the U.S. News list with the two admissions numbers that most affect your odds. The rank column reflects the U.S. News 2026-27 edition and the medians come from each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report.
RankLaw schoolMedian LSATMedian GPA1Stanford Law School1733.962 (tie)University of Chicago Law School1743.972 (tie)Yale Law School174See ABA 509 report4 (tie)University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School1733.954 (tie)University of Virginia School of Law173See ABA 509 report6Harvard Law School1743.967 (tie)Duke University School of Law171See ABA 509 report7 (tie)NYU School of Law1723.929 (tie)Columbia Law School1733.929 (tie)Northwestern Pritzker School of Law1733.96
Rankings are from the U.S. News 2026-27 Best Law Schools list (via LSD.law); median LSAT and GPA come from each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report, and where a school does not report a median UGPA in that set (Yale, Virginia, Duke), the figure is in its ABA Standard 509 disclosure. The full ranked list continues through every individually ranked ABA school below the top 10.
Law school rankings are not official; U.S. News and World Report produces the list most applicants follow, and the ABA neither ranks schools nor endorses any ranking. U.S. News weighs reputation surveys, LSAT and GPA medians, employment and bar-passage outcomes, and financial resources, with weights that shift each cycle and are published in the U.S. News Best Law Schools methodology. For hard numbers, go straight to each school's ABA Standard 509 report.
Use the ranking to sort schools into reach, target, and likely, but anchor each label to how your LSAT and GPA compare to that school's medians (each school publishes its median LSAT and GPA in its 2025 ABA Standard 509 report) rather than the headline rank alone. Then weigh employment in the market where you want to practice and cost after scholarships. A balanced list usually mixes a few reaches with several targets and at least two likely schools.
U.S. News ranks most of the roughly 196 ABA-approved law schools individually and places the lowest-scoring group together as Rank Not Published rather than giving each a number. In the U.S. News 2026-27 edition about 174 schools receive an individual rank, and the count changes yearly, per U.S. News 2026-27. All ABA-approved schools, ranked or not, qualify graduates to sit for a bar exam.
The T14 refers to the fourteen law schools that have effectively always ranked in the U.S. News top 14: Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Penn, NYU, Virginia, Berkeley, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, and Georgetown. They are grouped because they hire nationally rather than regionally. Their internal order changes yearly; in U.S. News 2026-27 it runs Stanford 1st; Chicago and Yale tied 2nd; Penn and Virginia tied 4th; Harvard 6th; Duke and NYU tied 7th; Columbia, Northwestern, and Michigan tied 9th; Cornell tied 13th; Berkeley tied 16th; and Georgetown tied 18th, per U.S. News 2026-27.
The schools usually called the best are the T14; in the U.S. News 2026-27 list the top five are Stanford 1st, Chicago and Yale tied 2nd, and Penn and Virginia tied 4th, per U.S. News 2026-27. The best school for you, though, is the one where your LSAT and GPA are competitive and that places graduates in the market you want to work in.
Law school rankings are compiled by private publishers, mainly U.S. News, not by the ABA or any government body. U.S. News scores each school on reputation surveys, incoming LSAT and GPA medians, graduate employment and bar-passage rates, and per-student spending to produce the rank. The exact weights change periodically and are published in the U.S. News Best Law Schools methodology.
Verified August 2026.
August 21, 2026
August 21, 2026