In the latest US News and World “Best Graduate Schools” report, Boston College Law School moved up several places to #29 and also enjoyed big gains in a number of speciality categories.
BC Law also improved across a number of metrics. Employment numbers at graduation and at 10 months both improved significantly, particularly among the all-important Bar Passage Required/JD Advantage full-time long-term category. The admissions median GPA improved to 3.69, and the bar passage rate improved to 91.3 percent. BC Law’s peer reputation among lawyers and judges also ticked up to 3.8.
In the legal specialty categories, the Law School’s highest ranking was Tax Law, which rose four places to 14th. Environmental Law gained nine slots and Clinical Training gained three, landing both at 24. Close behind were Intellectual Property at 33, Contracts/Commercial Law at 34, International Law and Constitutional Law at 35, and Business Corporate Law at 36. The BC Law library ranked 8th in its category.
BC Law Dean Vincent Rougeau said he was pleased with the 2022 results in US News, noting that the rankings are indicative of the quality of the education the Law School provides. “Our rankings are consistent with our emphasis on those things that are at the core of our mission,” he explained, citing a rigorous and academically excellent legal education; a commitment to the personal, ethical, and professional formation of students; and a creative and dynamic learning environment rooted in a strong sense of community, mutual support, and respect.
In other recent rankings, the National Law Journal placed BC Law at 19th for job placement in “big law” firms, and the Princeton Review ranked the Law School 8th for “best professors.”
The 2022 edition of the US News rankings includes graduate programs in business, law, medicine, nursing, engineering, and education. According to US News, schools are rated “based on a variety of factors, including acceptance rates, standardized test scores and grade-point averages of incoming students, and academic experts’ opinions about program excellence.”
Read more about BC’s graduate school rankings in BC News.