What Are the Most Underrated Law Schools in the U.S.?

BYU’s law school is the most underrated in the U.S., according to new research.
Photo: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com

Most future attorneys try to get into the nation’s most competitive law schools—Harvard, Yale, and the like—but there is a whole host of law schools that provide the same degree of preparation for a law career without the massive price tag of an Ivy League school.

While U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of colleges have become a bible of sorts for people applying to colleges and graduate schools in all disciplines, a duo of researchers have discovered another, and perhaps more accurate, ranking of law schools. Their ratings are based on students’ undergraduate GPA and their LSAT scores—in other words, as the Findlaw blog states, it’s “where the smart kids go.”

What are those schools? Brigham Young University got the top spot as the most underrated law school in the U.S., rocketing into the top 20 as judged by the researchers’ ratings. (The US News & World Reports scoring put BYU at #46, giving it the biggest point difference between USNWR and the researchers’ findings.)

BYU Law Dean of Admissions Gayla Sorenson said, “BYU Law attracts outstanding students who are well informed and well prepared. We are pleased but not surprised that a ranking that relies on their assessment of critical factors places us in the Top 20.”

The next six most underrated law schools are Pepperdine, University of Nebraska, William & Mary, Northeastern, Southern Methodist University, and George Mason University.

Paul Caron, the dean of Pepperdine University School of Law, acknowledges that the researchers’ rankings are subjective, but says that “law students’ choices may be a leading indicator” of overall law school rankings. Factors like tuition, student debt, and employment opportunities may also factor into students’ decisions.

What do you think? Are the researchers correct about the underrated law schools? Did you go to one of those underrated law schools? How has it worked out for you? Let me know in the comments.

The full report will be in the next issue of Alabama Law Review. Read the abstract here.