Penn law, medical schools rise on U.S. News rankings after opting out of submitting data

This year’s rankings use an updated formula after U.S. News faced criticism

SARA FORASTIERI Senior Reporter

The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and Perelman School of Medicine each rose to higher spots in the U.S. News & World Report rankings for the first time since each school stopped submitting data.

Penn Carey Law — previously ranked No. 6 — is tied with Harvard Law School for the No. 4 spot on the preview of the 2023-24 U.S. News Best Law School Rankings. The Medical School was tied for the No. 6 spot last year and is now ranked No. 2 on the 2023-24 U.S. News Best Medicine School Rankings — only behind Johns Hopkins University.

During December and January, both schools opted out of submitting data to the rankings following withdrawals of other top law and medical schools. The schools each criticized the methodology used by U.S. News to create its rankings.

A spokesperson for Penn Carey Law wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian that the rankings are "one of several metrics" that are used to assess the school, which continues to evaluate itself "among multiple variables."

"While we await the final rankings and more information on the methodology to be released on April 18, we are gratified to see that U.S. News considered collective feedback and modified its rankings this year, and that our strong, positive student outcomes are reflected in their ranking released today," the spokesperson wrote.

For law schools like Penn Carey Law that did not submit statistical data, U.S. News used figures that schools publicly disclose to the American Bar Association, according to its website. For medical schools that did not share data, U.S. News relied on

See RANKINGS, page 3