Boston College Law School rose to No. 28 in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2024–2025 law school rankings, a one-spot increase from last year.
“Boston College Law School continued its strong upward trajectory, moving up one slot to #28 in the US News and World Report’s latest edition of best law schools and putting it nine places ahead of its ranking just two years ago” a BC Law Magazine article reads.
After an eight-spot drop in U.S. News’ 2022–2023 law school rankings, this marks the second consecutive year in which BC Law’s rankings have risen under Odette Lienau, who started as dean of BC Law in January 2023.
After significant changes to its methodology last year, U.S. News maintained a similar methodology this year, the article said.
“The company’s most recent approach to calculating schools’ overall scores has shifted in some categories to two-year averages, presumably to mitigate the fallout from the earlier decision to weigh outcomes more heavily,” the article reads.
In addition to BC Law’s increase in the overall rankings, it also posted top-30 rankings in three specialty categories—business law, contract law, and international law—and a top-15 ranking in tax law.
BC Law also rose in rankings conducted by several other outlets.
“The school moved up one spot to #15 in National Law Journal’s ‘Go-to Law Schools’ for big firm hiring,” the article reads. “Princeton Review ranks BC Law #8 for Best Professors and #9 for Best Quality of Life, while Boston College Law Review is ranked #16 in Washington & Lee’s ranking of top journals.”
BC Law partially attributes this increase to its strong postgraduate outcomes.
“96.7 percent of the Class of 2023 was employed in full-time, long-term, bar-passage required or JD advantage positions, the gold standard for law jobs,” an April 10 BC Law Magazine article reads.
The rankings boost did not, however, translate into more applicants. Despite a report from the American Bar Association that law school enrollment has been relatively steady over the last several years, BC Law saw a 5.8% decrease in applications.
