The latest U.S. News and World Report ranking of law schools nationwide showed a significant jump for Texas A&M.
Texas A&M’s School of Law is now No.26 in the nation — tying with Ohio State University’s Michael E. Moritz College of Law — and second in Texas, according to the 2024 list. The assessment is based on various metrics, 60% of which hinge on graduates’ success in the labor market.
In 2013, the law school program at Texas A&M was not ranked. Since then, it has made steady gains and is now ranked below only the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law, which currently sits at No.16.
“When I worked to acquire this law school a decade ago, even I did not dream it would move up in the rankings this fast,” Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp said in a news release obtained by the Fort Worth Report.
Texas A&M Law School Dean Bobby Ahdieh said that officials’ focus on producing a better law school is behind the rise in rankings. He added that the program focuses on three core areas: the quality of students admitted to the school, the quality of the education provided, and the results seen on bar exams.
“Each year, we are seeing further progress, further increases in the direction of the quality of institution that we’re building,” Ahdieh said. “The fact that there’s underlying substance behind it is really awesome.”
He added that Texas A&M’s School of Law boasts the nation’s highest graduation employment rate and GPA. The U.S. News and World Report has also highlighted its dispute resolution program, program for intellectual property law, and legal analysis research and writing program — all of which ranked in the top 11 nationally.
“Lawyers choose where to go to law school,” Ahdieh said. “As far as I can tell, human beings are pretty well programmed. We care about which football team is better. We care about who gets more votes.”
Having cracked the top 30 nationwide is not the final goal, Ahdieh said. He said that students and faculty alike are devoted to creating a better program with the ultimate goal of making it into the top 10 programs nationwide and overtaking UT Austin as the best program in Texas.
“If you ask the Aggie what the goal is at this stage … the Aggies can almost smell it,” Ahdieh said.
Ivy League schools featured heavily at the top of U.S. News and World Report’s latest law school ranking.
The programs at Stanford University and Yale tied for first place, followed by those at The University of Chicago, Duke University, and Harvard. All law schools rounding out the top five boast tuition costs above $75,000, while Texas A&M offers in-state students a tuition of just $32,634.
Texas Career Check shows that the demand for lawyers in the state is projected to grow at a tremendous rate of 19.4%, more than double the anticipated national growth published by The Bureau of Labor Statistics.
With an average annual income above $166,000, lawyers in Texas are set to have a robust job market with high-paying career options, a potential driving factor behind the rapid ascension of Texas A&M’s law school program.