Also, as has been mentioned, rankings beyond the top 14 schools do not matter. I had a friend break a lease and move to another state to go from the #62 law school to be at the #52 law school. Ironically, the graduates from her old class at the #62 ranked school wound up with jobs while she graduated with no job offers. Moral of the story, rankings outside of the nationally recognized top 14 schools really do not matter.
It is crazy how many students make that mistake I almost did the same thing, which would have resulted in giving up $80,000 in scholarship money. Thankfully, people talked some sense into me more importantly I imagine the #52 school your friend transferred to is now ranked #62 and the school they transferred from is #52.
For any potential law student reading this board I just want everyone to use common sense when making the life altering decision of where to attend law school and not make a life altering decision based on a magazine. Harvard is a good school and would be well regarded if U.S. News ranked them dead last.
To take Burning Sands example there is no #52 or #62 ranked school this year, but 3 school tied for 51 and 3 schools tied for 61.
Schools Ranked 61st in 2014 and past five year rankings.
61* 56* 58* 61* 72* 65* Temple U (PA) -
61* 68* 89* 84* 86* 94* U of Arkansas-Fayetteville -
61* 76* 69* 77* 60* 71* U Miami (FL
Schools Ranked 51st in 2014 and past five year rankings
51* 54* 51* 56* 64* 65* Baylor U (TX) -
51* 64* 76* 60 72* 65* Pennsylvania State U -
51* 53 58* 67* 86* 77* U Richmond (VA)
I guarantee you Miami Grad will have an easier time finding employment than a Baylor Grad in Miami despite being ranked 10 schools lower.
You can also see how drastically rankings change from year to year. The class that entered Richmond in 2010 was attending the 86th best law school then graduated from the 51st.
If someone enrolled at Miami n 2010 they enrolled in the 60th best school when they graduated in 2013 it was 76th then a year later it was back to 61.
I guarantee nothing significant changed at any of these schools and it is just terrible to see people make life altering decisions based on this magazine. U.S. News is not at fault for this they are a magazine offering an opinion, but people need to be smarter.