About Those Law School Rankings Acronyms

If you’ve spoken to other pre-law students about law school rankings, you’ve probably heard some obscure acronyms: HYS, CCN, and T14.

What do they mean? Glad you asked.

HYS

Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, and Stanford Law School have occupied the top three rankings for over a decade. Together, they are called HYS.

CCN

The next three spots are perennially filled by the CCN schools: Columbia Law School, Chicago Law School, and New York University School of Law.

T14

T14 refers to the top 14 law schools. The group is fairly consistent, although the University of Texas at Austin Law School has recently edged out Georgetown Law School for the 14th spot in the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

The traditional T14 schools are as follows:

Yale Law School (always #1)

Harvard Law School (#2–3)

Stanford Law School (#2–3)

Columbia Law School (#4–5)

Chicago Law School (#4–5)

New York University School of Law (#5–6)

University of Pennsylvania Law School (#7–8)

University of Virginia Law School (#7–10)

University of California Berkeley Boalt Law School (#6–9)

Duke Law School (#10–11)

University of Michigan Ann Arbor Law School (#7–10)

Northwestern Law School (#10–12)

Cornell Law School (#13–14)

Georgetown Law School (#13–15)

Now we can add the University of Texas at Austin Law School to that list.