Warning

Info

Warning

Info

Law School Tiers

It's not a perfect science
Tags: Choosing a Law School, Law School Tiers, Tier 1 Law Schools, Tier 2 Law Schools, Tier 3 Law Schools, Tier 4 Law Schools
May 13, 2024

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. What are the Tier 1 Law Schools?
  3. What are the Tier 2 Law Schools?
  4. What are the Tier 3 Law Schools?
  5. What are the Tier 4 Law Schools?
  6. Are there schools that don’t fall into the 4 Law School Tiers?
  7. Related Articles

Introduction to Law School Tiers

First an important note. There is no universally agreed upon neat chart that outlines each law school and their ‘tier.’ Instead, terms like “tier 1 law schools” or “tier 3 law schools” are general categorizations of law schools. These tiers typically originate from the USNews annual rankings of law schools.

Although law school tiers aren’t a hard and fast rule, the general idea of “tier 1 law schools,” “tier 2 law schools,” “tier 3 law schools,” or “tier 4 law schools” (typically people accept that there are 4 tiers) has caught on, and the idea has created a bit of a reinforcing circle.

So in this article I will try to breakdown the four tiers of law schools and identify some other things you should think about when considering if a law school is a “tier 1 law school.”

What are the Tier 1 Law Schools?

It is generally accepted that the Tier 1 Law Schools are the same as the T14 Law schools. 

T14 law schools are the schools that are consistently ranked between 1 and 14 by USNews. 

Traditionally the T14 schools are:

  1. Yale Law School (always #1)
  2. Stanford Law School (#2–3)
  3. Harvard Law School (#2–4)
  4. University of Chicago Law School (#3–5)
  5. Columbia Law School (#4–5)
  6. New York University School of Law (#5–6)
  7. University of California Berkeley Law School (#6–9)
  8. University of Pennsylvania Law School (#7–8)
  9. University of Virginia Law School (#7–10)
  10. University of Michigan Ann Arbor Law School (#7–10)
  11. Duke Law School (#10–11)
  12. Northwestern Law School (#10–12)
  13. Cornell Law School (#13–14)
  14. Georgetown Law School (#13–15)

Special mention: University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) which sometimes pops up to #14. 

Some people/sites/reddit will expand the Tier 1 schools to cover any school ranked top-50 by USNews. This is usually a simplification made to simply break the ~200 law schools into equal groups of 50 i.e. Tier 1 Law schools = 1-50, Tier 2 Law Schools = 51-100, Tier 3 Law schools = 101 - 150, Tier 4 law schools = everything left.

Unsolicited recommendation from LSD: take advice from anyone who simplifies law school comparisons this much with a grain of salt. 

What are the Tier 2 Law Schools?

Going to a T14 school will let you work pretty much anywhere in the US and make BigLaw money, if you want to work BigLaw hours. However, about ⅔ of all law school graduates in ABA accredited law schools in the US end up working in the state where they graduated, so going anywhere in the country might not really matter.

There are schools that are lower ranked by USNews that have great employment outcomes and therefore could be considered Tier 1. However, it's a little harder to get a job anywhere in the country from these schools. This means that you can make BigLaw money, if you want to work BigLaw hours AND you don't mind sticking around in the state or region when you went to school.

Below are the schools that we consider tier 2 law schools because the students are getting top-tier, but typically local jobs. There are quite a few of these law schools and the above the law (ATL) rankings are a good spot to start. Any school that you see on ATL rankings that you don’t see on USNews T14 can safely be called a Tier 2 School. 

This means that the tier 2 law schools include:

  1. Vanderbilt University
  2. Washington University in St. Louis
  3. Northwestern University
  4. University of Texas at Austin
  5. University of Georgia
  6. University of Notre Dame
  7. University of Southern California
  8. University of Illinois—Urbana Champaign
  9. University of North Carolina
  10. Wake Forest University
  11. Brigham Young University
  12. University of California—Los Angeles*
  13. University of Florida (Levin)
  14. Boston College
  15. Washington and Lee University
  16. Stanford University
  17. University of Kansas
  18. University of Minnesota
  19. Georgetown University
  20. University of Iowa
  21. Boston University
  22. Villanova University
  23. University of Utah
  24. University of Kentucky
  25. Ohio State University
  26. University of Alabama
  27. University of Missouri
  28. Wayne State University
  29. University of Houston
  30. Florida State University
  31. Texas A&M University
  32. University of Tennessee
  33. University of Wisconsin
  34. Drexel University

So a safe understanding of Tier 2 Law schools is the schools with great outcomes that USNews doesn’t recognize as T14. 

What are the Tier 3 Law Schools?

Tier 3 Law schools are generally all of the other law schools that USNews takes the effort to individually rank. These tend to change year over year quite a bit. The best way to determine an actual list is to look at the USNews rankings for any law school that is ranked better than the bottom mass grouping. In the 2022 law school rankings this tier 3 grouping includes any school not listed by name in tier 1 and tier 2 law schools that was ranked 146 or above by USNews. 

So, what are the Tier 3 Law schools? Honestly, there are about 100 so there are too many to list. However, if you look at the LSD rankings you can just look for any school that we haven't mentioned in the previous two tiers that is ranked 146 or better.   

What are the Tier 4 Law Schools?

Tier 4 Law schools are every school that we haven’t mentioned yet that has been accredited by the ABA. USNews includes some of these schools in their rankings in a big group (147-192) and doesn’t rank others. You could argue that USNews unranked law schools are worse than those that USNews ranks 147-192, but most likely the benefit is marginal. Our belief is that the important distinction comes down to: ABA accredited or not.  

Are there schools that don’t fall into the 4 Law School Tiers?

In short, yes. Schools that are not ABA accredited do not fall into these 4 tiers of law schools. I would consider any law school that is not ABA accredited below any tier-4 law school. Anyone attending a non-accredited law school should question if they are getting their money’s worth before paying money to go.

Final word on Law School Tiers.

We broke down the value of USNews rankings in an article already. Bottom line on USNews ranking helpfulness is “Ehhhhhh.” Therefore, the value of ‘law school tiers’ is the same. Sure it is easy to look at 4 groups instead of all schools. But in reality, each school has its own incoming and outgoing class profile, that you should consider before you paying tuition to that law school. 

Related Articles

  1. When Should I Apply to Law School?
  2. What law school should I go to practice _____ law?
  3. What is the LSAT?
Windsor MIT '22, Harvard College Advisor

I am the half of LSD that didn't take the LSAT, or go to law school (Sorry about that). But I did go to MIT business school while surrounded by law students and lawyers, so I am somewhat qualified to talk about the intricacies of law school apps and finances.

Windsor (the dog) didn't write this but he WAS a Resident Tutor and career advisor at Harvard College with me, so deserves some credit.

Warning

Info

General

General chat about the legal profession.
main_chatroom
👍 Chat vibe: 0 👎
Help us make LSD better!
Tell us what's important to you
18:34
Ahh well what you are telling me makes sense and it's not like something that's being blown out of proportion. I will have to consider this new information. You made a persuasvie argument today.
supreme court overrules korematsu but in trump v hawaii justice sotomeyer wrote in the dissent that the majority essentially reinforced the legal foundation for exclusionary acts. while i doubt under current circumstances something as bad as concentration camps could happen there is a legal framework and a fomenting political anger in the right that genuinely makes me fearful for any minority groups. we might not see concentration camps but we very well could see targeted legislation. i think even reductions in gender affirming care qualify and despite the harm they cause are not even the worse legislation i could reasonably see being passed
18:37
I agree, the possibility is indeed there. I just see no indication of it happening.
18:40
Man, so do you guys think if Trump gets back in office he is going to halt gender affirming surgery in the military again?
18:42
i believe so. he did it once, he could do it again
18:42
i feel like his takes on trans people have only gotten worse since 2017
18:42
Yeah, seems obvious to me. That may be true. He's kinda angry rn cus of the whole prosecution thing.
laura gooner for conservative vp
18:47
laura gooner indeed. I still know nothing about that woman
she’s just a twitter content farmer
18:48
That's terrible. Gross.
OverconfidentSpookyFerret
19:50
Laura looner looks like jigsaw from the saw movies
20:32
when has he not been angry tho
[] baddestbunny
21:54
hi guys I just got home from work really glad you used that time without me constructively
22:24
Yeah, I gues so. I guess so.
[] baddestbunny
22:26
dk did you miss me
22:31
No, I did not. I am too sick to think about other people besides myself rn and you haven't answered any of my questions all day.
[] baddestbunny
22:45
Awww :(
22:48
It will be okay. Maybe tomorrow will be better day.
StandingOnBusiness
22:52
dog aint no way you are beefing in the lsd law general
StandingOnBusiness
22:52
lock in bruh chill out lmao
22:55
I don't even know what that's supposed to mean.
[] baddestbunny
23:01
https://youtu.be/K68VFDOlkps
23:49
My OU status went to accepted today but no call/email. Is that normal?
StandingOnBusiness
23:57
From what I hear, that's what happened to most who were admitted today.
StandingOnBusiness
23:58
They typically like to call to tell someone they were admitted but maybe they didn't for whatever reason?
0:09
Thank you! I’m just hoping it’s not a fluke.
StandingOnBusiness
0:17
Oh I don't think it's a fluke at all! Congratulations!!!
0:18
Thank you!!!
LSD+ is ad-free, with DMs, discounts, case briefs & more.