<p>why are top law schools T14? why not top 20 or top 10? I don't get why 14 specifically. I know this is a ridiculous question, but I'm just curious.</p>
<p>The notion of a "top ten" is derived from the anatomical fact that most people have ten fingers. A "top twenty" is favored by those who also count on their toes.</p>
<p>Lawyers, however, consider it undignified to remove our shoes in public. When we run out of fingers, and wish to keep counting, we use other available body parts, within the bounds of modesty. That leaves our well-shod feet, and our ears. </p>
<p>Why not our eyes? Because "justice is blind." And regarding our noses, let me just note that we used to speak of the "top fifteen" law schools until some of our clients in the criminal courts mistook the enumeration of the fifteenth school as an invitation to pay us our fees in powdered contraband.</p>
<p>lol, greybeard. or because there are 14 schools that have consistently been in the US news top 14 since rankings began, while #15 and below have moved around more.</p>
<p>I thought it was because the T14 schools have all cracked the top 10 on the US News list at one point or another. I'm not sure if that is true, I'm just telling you what I heard.</p>
<p>^how can that be the case if the t14 is constantly changing and a new school can break into the t14</p>
<p>theoretically it can, but it hasnt happened in forever, they switch up among themselves but no school has dropped out and thus no new school moved into the top 14 in a lot of years (I forget since when but its a long time ago)</p>
<p>If you really want to be cynical, its in US News interest to keep it that way, since you have to check their rankings to learn who the T14 are. Or you can argue that people get so obsessed with it that those schools end up with the best students and most money in a rich-get-richer sort of way.</p>
<p>It's the top 14 because there are really only 14 schools that are truly national--meaning that they draw from all over the US and their grads practice all over the US. Historically, the 2 schools right below these are UCLA and UTexas. Most attorneys would agree that these schools are every bit as good academically as the schools at the bottom of the 7-14 ranking, but a very high percentage of their grads stay in the area. </p>
<p>When I applied to law school--gulp--30 odd years ago-- there was NO US News ranking. But the "word"---meaning what most attorneys believed--was that there were only 14 law schools which were truly national--and they were the same 14 they are today. And, even back then, the advice was to go to the best law school in your region if you didn't get into one of these national law schools. </p>
<p>Now, it's true that many law schools below this top 14 have become less regional and more national. But these 14 law schools are still at the top of the heap.</p>
<p>The rankings do change within the top 14. In my day, UMichigan was considered a far better law school than NYU, for example. And they change below it--Vandy, WUSTL, and Fordham are all much more hihgly regarded than they were in my day. But the top 14 are still the top 14.</p>
<p>Ah, and all this time I thought it was T14 because the editor of US News and World Report attended Georgetown. . . . Unfortunately, jonri's explanation sounds more accurate.</p>
<p>Greybeard, further to your excellent reason: I had a college professor once who said, tongue obviously in cheek, that if God had wanted us to adopt the metric system, Jesus would have had 10 apostles.</p>
<p>Your post made me chuckle. Without going back to review, I would hazard a guess that when the USNews rankings were instituted, Georgetown was ranked a wee bit higher. </p>
<p>I actually remember the Georgetown Law admissions officer who vistied my undergraduate alma mater and said something close to this " There are a group of 6-8 law schools that are clearly better than the rest. If you get into any of these, you should go. You'd be nuts to choose Georgetown. But below those 6-8 there is a small group of genuinely national law schools, including Georgetown. And I'm here to convince you, that if your choices are among these, Georgetown is the way to go."</p>
<p>A lot of years later, it's still a good argument for Georgetown.</p>
<p>Hope, so, jonri, since that's where our son decided to go this September. He applied to a bunch of schools, but when the G'town acceptance arrived 2 weeks later, he just pulled all his other apps. Not sure it was wise of him, but DC is where he wants to live, so he made the choice that was right for him, I guess (I hope).</p>