Law School Moves Up in Top 100 Ranking

Carlisle, PA (March 31, 2006) — The Penn State Dickinson School of Law’s ranking in the just-released 2007 U.S. News and World Report ranking of all ABA-approved law schools remained in the Top 100 and improved from 90 to 87. Additionally, our Law School was named one of "The Most Diverse Law Schools" in the United States. The Law School's Dispute Resolution Program retained its ranking as one of the Top Ten in the United States. Notably, the Law School's reputation score among lawyers and judges is higher this year than Temple's, Pitt's, and Villanova's and is second among Pennsylvania law schools only to the University of Pennsylvania Law School (ranked number 7).

Here are a few of the reasons we expect the Law School's national standing to continue to rise significantly in the future:

This year almost 3,300 students applied for admission to The Dickinson School of Law. This represents nearly a 100 percent increase in the number of applicants since 2002.

In 2002 DSL was one of only four law schools in the United States at which applications were in decline. Today DSL is one of the only law schools in the United States at which applications are increasing. As of this month, law school applications nationally are down approximately 10 percent in comparison to last year; applications to The Dickinson School of Law are up approximately 35 percent over last year.

In 2002 DSL was one of the least diverse law schools in the United States and not even close to the rest of the Big Ten. Today DSL is one of the most diverse law schools in the United States and in the top half of the Big Ten. Student body diversity at our law school has more than tripled during this period, from under 8 percent to approximately 25 percent. At the same time, the average academic credentials of our student body have improved dramatically.

In 2002 the top quartile LSAT score of our entering class was lower than the bottom quartile LSAT score is likely to be of next year’s entering class (even though both scores are solid — the point is the trend).

In addition to these trends, 13 internationally renowned scholars have joined our already-terrific faculty during the last four years; our recent senior staff appointments have included top professionals from counterpart positions at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Yale Law School, Penn State, and the University of Michigan; and, Penn State University, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and several incredibly generous DSL alumni are investing $110 million in new signature facilities for our Law School.