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Ranked from the top, US law schools are led by the T14, whose exact order shifts a little each year. In the U.S. News 2026-27 rankings they run 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 (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.
The best-known ranking of US law schools is the U.S. News Best Law Schools list, which orders schools by a weighted score rather than a single measure. At the top, fourteen schools known as the T14 trade places within a narrow band each year: Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Penn, Virginia, Berkeley, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, and Georgetown. Their ranked order this cycle runs Stanford 1st; Chicago and Yale 2nd; Penn and Virginia 4th; Harvard 6th; Duke and NYU 7th; Columbia, Northwestern, and Michigan 9th; Cornell 13th; Berkeley 16th; and Georgetown 18th (ties as noted), per U.S. News 2026-27 via LSD.law.
The table lists the top schools with the state where each sits and its median LSAT, so you can see both geography and selectivity at a glance. The rank column follows the U.S. News 2026-27 edition, and rows are in that ranked order.
RankLaw schoolStateMedian LSAT1Stanford Law SchoolCalifornia1732 (tie)University of Chicago Law SchoolIllinois1742 (tie)Yale Law SchoolConnecticut1744 (tie)University of Pennsylvania Carey Law SchoolPennsylvania1734 (tie)University of Virginia School of LawVirginia1736Harvard Law SchoolMassachusetts1747 (tie)Duke University School of LawNorth Carolina1717 (tie)NYU School of LawNew York1729 (tie)Columbia Law SchoolNew York1739 (tie)Northwestern Pritzker School of LawIllinois1739 (tie)University of Michigan Law SchoolMichigan17113 (tie)Cornell Law SchoolNew York17316 (tie)UC Berkeley School of LawCalifornia17018 (tie)Georgetown University Law CenterWashington, DC171
Rankings are from the U.S. News 2026-27 Best Law Schools list (via LSD.law), and median LSAT figures are from each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 report. Ranks skip within the group because the 2026-27 edition places Vanderbilt, UCLA, Washington University in St. Louis, Texas, and UNC among these fourteen.
Small gaps between ranked schools come down to how U.S. News weights a handful of factors. In descending importance they generally are:
The exact percentage on each factor is published in the U.S. News Best Law Schools methodology rather than in the verified data used here, and it changes periodically, which is why order shifts without real quality changes.
Use the ranked order to group schools into rough tiers, not to split hairs between adjacent numbers. A school ranked a few spots lower that offers a large scholarship or dominates the city where you want to practise can be the smarter choice. Anchor every decision to your LSAT and GPA against each school's medians and to employment outcomes in your target market.
The T14 are the fourteen law schools that stay clustered at the top of the U.S. News ranking: Yale, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, Penn, Virginia, Berkeley, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, and Georgetown. Their shared trait is national hiring reach, so graduates compete for jobs anywhere in the country rather than in one region.
The best law schools are those whose bar-passage and employment outcomes are strong enough to justify their cost. At the national level that is the T14 and the tier just below, but for any single applicant the best school is the highest-outcome one that admits them with manageable debt, so the answer shifts with your numbers and budget.
Law school rankings give each school a weighted score built from outcomes such as bar passage and employment, reputation surveys, and selectivity inputs like median LSAT and GPA. U.S. News owns the formula and revises it periodically, so a school can rise or fall several places when the weights change rather than the school itself. The exact current weights are published in the U.S. News Best Law Schools methodology.
The main U.S. News law ranking is published once a year, and the top tier usually moves only slightly, with schools swapping a place or two. Larger jumps tend to follow methodology changes or updated ABA outcome data rather than sudden shifts in a school's quality, so year-to-year noise near a given rank is normal.
Verified August 2026.
August 21, 2026
August 21, 2026