Harvard, BU Top New List of Best Law Schools in the Country

Both schools made U.S. News and World Report's top 20.

Photo by Anne on Flickr/Creative Commons

The BU Law Tower. | Photo by Anne on Flickr/Creative Commons

Both Harvard and Boston University cracked the top 20 in U.S. News & World Report‘s newly released list of the best law schools in the country.

Harvard tied with Stanford University for second, while BU tied with the University of Iowa for 20th. Yale took top honors. Other Boston area schools on U.S. News’ list included Boston College (30) and Northeastern University (T-82).

Also representing New England in the top 100 was UConn, stuck in a seven-way tie for 65th with Loyola Maramount University, Pepperdine University, Seton Hall University, University of Kansas, University of Missouri, and University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

Broken down by field, Harvard—which counts among its alumni both President Barack Obama and his latest Supreme Court nomination, Merrick Garland—ranked third in international law, fourth in dispute resolution, and seventh in tax law. BU, meanwhile, tied for second in healthcare law.

U.S. News compiled the list by studying 196 law schools fully accredited by the American Bar Association using data collected between fall 2015 and early 2016. Criteria included a peer assessment, median LSAT scores, and acceptance rate.

You can check out U.S. News’ full ranking here.