Georgia State University’s College of Law has risen in the ranks for the nation’s most successful law schools, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The college rose eight spots to No. 56 out of 198 ranked schools in the annual U.S. News & World Report graduate rankings, according to Georgia State’s College of Law.
Georgia State is now tied with with Baylor University in Waco, Texas and the University of Nebraska Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska, according to the report’s rankings.
Rankings are based on the college’s tuition, enrollment, LSAT scores and acceptance rate. Georgia State also currently has 435 full-time law students enrolled, according to the report.
President of Georgia State’s Student Bar Association William Pannell said the law school’s jump in ranking displays how Georgia State’s College of Law is improving rapidly compared to other law schools in the region.
“It shows how under-ranked we are,” he said. “We should be ranked higher, especially when it comes to Emor.”
Emory University School of Law is ranked 19th on the report, but Pannell said he thinks the ranking does not imply that Emory has a better law school than Georgia State.
Pannell said one feature Georgia State’s College of Law has that sets them apart from other law schools is its pass rate for first-time bar exam takers.
Georgia State had a first-time pass rate of 92 percent on the bar exam. Emory had a first-time pass rate of 87.3 percent, according to the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Office of Bar Admissions reports from July 2014.
This places Georgia State’s first-time bar exam takers’ average above the state average, which is 84.5 percent, according to the Office of Bar Admissions.
Pannell also said Georgia State’s location in metropolitan Atlanta puts the university’s law school in a prime location.
“They’re in Atlanta. They’re near the capital. They’re near the federal courts. They’re near the state courts,” he said. “And the new law facility will be one of the best in the state.”
Luke Donohue, Georgia State second-year law student, said the new ranking shows a positive trend.
“It’s a good sign of things to come,” he said. “As one of the younger schools in the top sixty, it shows that Georgia State is going to continue to rise as their students and programs get better.”
