This year’s print edition of the U.S. News “Best Law School Rankings” reveals that the School’s drop in rankings to third place, below Stanford Law School, was due to both Stanford improvements in considered factors and Harvard’s decline in those factors.
According to U.S. News, Stanford’s employment statistics, both at graduation and nine months past graduation, and its bar passage rate improved between 2012 and 2013 while Harvard declined in both of these categories, with the percentage of students employed nine months after graduation decreasing by 2.9 percent. In addition, Harvard’s bar passage rate dropped 3.7 percent between 2012 and 2013.
Harvard also declined in several other categories from 2012 to 2013: its peer assessment score decreased from 4.9 to 4.8, acceptance rate increased from 11 percent to 13 percent, and the student to faculty ratio increased from 12 to 12.4.
