The Over-Under 2008

The question sometimes comes up, "Which law schools are most under or overrated by the US News ranking system?" We might make a good start on an answer by looking at the difference between the ranks of schools by their US News reputation scores alone vs. their overall rank. Due to the vagaries of the ranking formula, differences of less than five spots probably mean little. But some schools seem over or under ranked by far more (as many as 33 spots, in the case of Georgia State). Below appear 24 candidates for "most underrated" and 34 for "most overrated" schools in the US News Tiers 1 and 2. Green marks schools new to each list since last year. Northeastern, Maryland, Richmond, and Utah dropped off the overrated list; Toledo fell into Tier 3; American, LSU, Nebraska, and both Rutgers campuses dropped off the underrated list; Penn State (marked in red) switched from under to overrated.

AR Academic Reputation
PR Practitioner Reputation
REP Combined Reputation (AR + PR)
PCTL Reputation Percentile
RANK Reputation Rank
USNWR US News Overall Rank
O-U Over / Under Rating (USNWR - RANK)

Negative numbers (indicating "overrating") appear in parentheses. Equal REP scores receive equal RANK.


UNDERRATED

AR / PR / REP / PCTL / RANK / USNWR / O-U
3.10 2.90 6.00 73.2 50 82 32 University of Oregon
3.20 2.40 5.60 62.2 66 95 29 St. Louis University
3.20 2.60 5.80 68.8 55 77 22 Santa Clara University (CA)
2.90 2.80 5.70 65.0 62 82 20 University of Miami (FL)
2.90 2.80 5.70 65.0 62 82 20 University of San Diego
3.80 3.50 7.30 88.5 19 38 19 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
3.10 2.70 5.80 68.8 55 73 18 University of Kansas
3.10 2.30 5.40 55.1 78 95 17 Marquette University (WI)
3.20 2.70 5.90 71.0 51 68 17 Villanova University (PA)
2.90 2.40 5.30 53.0 84 100 16 Syracuse University (NY)
3.70 3.40 7.10 85.2 26 38 12 University of California (Hastings)
3.50 3.40 6.90 83.0 32 44 12 University of California-Davis
2.80 2.40 5.20 49.1 88 99 11 Hofstra University (NY)
3.00 2.50 5.50 58.4 71 82 11 Loyola University Chicago
2.90 2.80 5.70 65.0 62 73 11 University of Pittsburgh
2.90 2.50 5.40 55.1 78 88 10 Catholic University of America (Columbus) (DC)
3.10 2.70 5.80 68.8 55 63 8 Case Western Reserve University (OH)
3.20 2.70 5.90 71.0 51 59 8 University of Missouri-Columbia
3.60 3.40 7.00 83.6 29 36 7 University of Wisconsin-Madison
3.20 2.90 6.10 73.7 46 52 6 Arizona State University (O’Connor)
3.10 2.60 5.70 66.6 62 68 6 Indiana University-Indianapolis
3.50 3.10 6.60 79.2 38 44 6 Tulane University (LA)
3.30 3.20 6.50 78.1 40 46 6 University of Florida (Levin)
3.90 3.40 7.30 88.5 19 25 6 Washington and Lee University (VA)


OVERRATED

AR / PR / REP / PCTL / RANK / USNWR / O-U
2.60 2.30 4.90 39.8 110 77 (33) Georgia State University
2.40 2.10 4.50 28.9 127 100 (27) Stetson University (FL)
2.80 2.60 5.40 55.1 78 52 (26) University of Cincinnati
2.50 2.20 4.70 33.3 118 95 (23) University of the Pacific (McGeorge) (CA)
2.70 2.50 5.20 52.4 88 68 (20) University of New Mexico
2.80 2.50 5.30 53.0 84 66 (18) Seton Hall University (NJ)
2.80 2.30 5.10 44.2 95 82 (13) Seattle University
2.70 2.40 5.10 44.2 95 82 (13) University of Hawaii (Richardson)
2.70 2.70 5.40 55.1 78 66 (12) Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago-Kent)
2.60 2.20 4.80 38.2 112 100 (12) Mercer University (GA)
2.40 2.40 4.80 36.6 112 100 (12) University at Buffalo-SUNY
3.00 2.50 5.50 58.4 71 59 (12) University of Kentucky
2.50 2.30 4.80 36.6 112 100 (12) University of Louisville (Brandeis) (KY)
2.80 2.80 5.60 62.2 66 55 (11) Florida State University
2.90 2.40 5.30 53.0 84 73 (11) Lewis and Clark College (Northwestern) (OR)
2.90 2.30 5.20 49.1 88 77 (11) Pennsylvania State University (Dickinson)
3.30 2.90 6.20 75.9 43 32 (11) University of Alabama
3.10 3.10 6.20 76.5 43 32 (11) University of Colorado-Boulder
3.00 2.60 5.60 62.2 66 55 (11) University of Houston
2.90 2.70 5.60 62.2 66 55 (11) Yeshiva University (Cardozo) (NY)
3.30 3.10 6.40 77.5 42 32 (10) University of Georgia
2.70 2.30 5.00 40.9 104 95 (9) University of South Carolina
3.60 3.40 7.00 83.6 29 21 (8) Boston University
2.80 2.70 5.50 58.4 71 63 (8) Brooklyn Law School (NY)
3.30 2.80 6.10 73.7 46 38 (8) George Mason University (VA)
2.90 2.60 5.50 58.4 71 63 (8) Loyola Marymount University (CA)
3.20 2.40 5.60 62.2 66 59 (7) Pepperdine University (CA)
2.70 2.40 5.10 44.2 95 88 (7) St. John’s University (NY)
2.80 2.30 5.10 44.2 95 88 (7) University of Nevada-Las Vegas (Boyd)
3.50 3.20 6.70 80.3 37 30 (7) University of Washington
3.50 3.30 6.80 80.8 33 27 (6) Fordham University (NY)
4.30 4.10 8.40 92.8 14 9 (5) Northwestern University (IL)
3.20 2.70 5.90 71.0 51 46 (5) Southern Methodist University (TX)
3.00 2.90 5.90 71.0 51 46 (5) University of Connecticut