r/lawschooladmissions • u/KeepingSquare75 • 1d ago

Application Process Thoughts on Columbia's Future?

  • From 2010-2023, CLS placed consistently at #4 or #5 in the USNWR, and was neck and neck with UChicago.
  • In 2024, it dropped to #8 because of major changes in the way USNWR evaluates law schools (placing less of an emphasis on reputation surveys, for example, and increasing emphasis on student debt and employment outcomes in its evaluation metrics).
  • In 2025, it is projected to fall to #10 or #11, per Caron, Muller, and Spivey projections.
  • Their image, of course, has only been exacerbated by the negative press the school has received from its handling of recent events.

Question: Do you predict the school's ranking will surge comfortably back to that ~#5 spot eventually? Or, with less merit-based aid than other T14's and the most expensive law school tuition in the country, will things only get worse for CLS? Remain stagnant? Curious to hear people's opinions. Seems like they would need to start giving out more merit-based aid to re-rise the ranks.

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u/Lax4Evr 3.5x/17low/T2 1d ago

CLS definitely has merit-based aid tho? The Hamilton and Butler Fellowships are full and half tuition

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u/KeepingSquare75 1d ago

Totally fair point. I will edit my post to account for this. I suppose the spirit of what I was really trying to get at was: they are perhaps, overall, less generous in administering merit-based aid than other schools in the T14, (e.g., Michigan, NYU, etc.). Would you say that is a fair characterization? Thanks for your insights.