Florida State University’s College of Law obtained its highest ranking ever in the U.S. News & World Report’s (USNWR) 2025 ranking of the best law schools in the nation, rising ten spots to No. 38.
In 2024, the FSU College of Law narrowly made the top 50 law schools at No. 48.
“The graduate program rankings released this week make it clear: FSU is the school to beat for graduate education in Florida,” second-year law student and Speaker for the 33rd Congress of Graduate Students (COGS) Jack Rowan said. “Being in the top 40 is amazing, but we want to go further. I know my classmates and I will continue to strive to make FSU Law a better place than we found it, and hopefully, we can be a top 30 institution before I graduate next year.
The FSU College of Law now shares a ranking with the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law, which fell ten spots from its previous No. 28 ranking in 2024. Sharing the title of best-ranked law school in Florida may heighten the broader academic rivalry between the universities for the highest rankings in the state.
Some ranking predictors projected the FSU College of Law rising by twenty spots. Notre Dame Law School professor Derek T. Muller placed the FSU College of Law at No. 28 for the 2025 ranking, utilizing the formula USNWR implemented in 2024 and updated data from the American Bar Association.
“A lot of students at FSU Law are excited about the new U.S News & World Report rankings,” third-year law student and article selection editor of the FSU Law Review, James King, said. “My experience so far at FSU Law has lived up to these expectations, and it is nice to see the hard work of everyone here, including students, faculty and alumni reflected in these new USNWR rankings.”
USNWR rankings are given significant consideration by prospective undergraduate and graduate school students when selecting which institutions to apply to and attend.
“While this is a bit of a generalization, the higher ranked the school is, the higher proportion of its students secure jobs in big law or federal clerkships,” third-year law student and FSU Moot Court President Harrison T. Otto said. “An applicant who will likely be going into debt to pursue a legal education might tend to value a higher likelihood of getting a high-paying job post-grad. There’s also, of course, the allure of the prestige and potential future opportunities that come with that.”
For law schools, the institutions in the top 14 positions of the rankings, or “T-14,” and top 30, “T-30,” signify their belonging to a prominent level of prestige and recognition in the legal community. The USNWR rankings, though, have sparked controversy in recent years for promoting gamesmanship between universities, false data reporting by universities and favoring well-endowed schools.
Between late 2022 and early 2023, several law schools boycotted the USNWR rankings, refusing to report their data to the company due to grievances with the previous methodology of rankings.
They argued the USNWR ranking calculation “disincentivize[d] schools from bringing in working-class students, issuing financial aid based on need and helping students pursue public interest careers,” Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken said.
After the boycott, USNWR underwent “the most significant methodological change in the rankings’ history,” claiming to place more weight on “social mobility and outcomes for graduating college students,” according to the USNWR in a 2023 press release.
Despite potential controversy regarding rankings, students at many institutions nationally pay attention to the annual releases of rankings from USNWR. This is true for some students of the FSU College of Law, who were pleased to see the significant increase in their institution’s ranking this year.
“The College of Law has amazing faculty, resources and students,” third-year law student and executive notes and comments editor of the FSU Law Review, Morgan Waltimyer, said. “I was elated to see the new ranking, however, not surprised. FSU is truly a wonderful and unique place that fosters a learning environment that is like no other. I am delighted the College of Law is receiving national recognition for its achievements.”
Rankings, however, may not affect a student’s perception of their school, and some students shared that their experience outweighs the numerical placement of the institution.
“At the end of the day, what matters to me is passing the bar exam and becoming a lawyer,” said Otto. “While rankings reflect certain qualities of a law school based on objective data, they often don’t tell the full story. They also don’t necessarily say a lot about ultimate outcomes for individual students at a given school. In other words, the rank of your law school won’t determine how successful your legal career is going to be — that’s all up to you.”
The ranking of national law schools was released among the other graduate school rankings by the USNWR. Alongside the College of Law, the College of Business’s MBA specialty in real estate, the primary care program of the College of Medicine and the College of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice received the No. 1 placement among the other public universities in FL. Overall, 21 graduate programs at FSU achieved ranks in the top 25 public universities for their program.
“We have risen 18 spots over the past two years, which underscores the strength of our world-class faculty, our robust legal curriculum and our top-notch student support services,” Dean of the FSU College of Law Erin O’Hara O’Connor said in a press release. “We’re thrilled to see these efforts reflected in our rankings.”
FSU Law rises 10 spots in U.S. News & World Report's of the nation's best law schools – FSView & Florida Flambeau
