In the US News & World Report 2024 edition of the Best Graduate Schools released this morning, BC Law has moved up eight spots to #29. The School also ranked among the top 30 in several categories in the publication’s specialty rankings, landing at #16 in tax and #27 in both Contracts/Commercial Law and in Business Corporate Law.
Originally due in April, US News delayed the launch of their law school rankings because of an “unprecedented number of inquiries from schools during the graduate rankings’ early release period,” according to the publication. Others have speculated that the delay was due to data errors pointed out by schools after the initial embargoed list was circulated to school contacts.
US News made significant changes to their methodology this year, using publicly available data through the ABA and increasing weighting on outcomes in response to criticism from a number of law schools, many of which refused to submit data through their annual survey. A more comprehensive description of the methodology changes can be found on the US News website.
“Since arriving in January, I have seen very clearly how special this place is among schools nationwide,” said BC Law Dean Odette Lienau in a recent statement. “My job is to protect and build on those unique qualities, provide students with the very best possible education and outcomes, support faculty who shape legal knowledge inside and outside the classroom, and further our mission of placing law in service of the greater good.”
US News, plagued by similar problems with its medical school rankings, released those this morning along with law. The rest of their graduate program rankings, which included business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, library studies, nursing, public affairs, science, and social sciences and humanities programs, were released earlier in April.
BC Law is currently ranked #25 in Above the Law’s Top 50 Law Schools list, and #16 in National Law Journal’s ‘Go-To’ schools for large firm hiring.