Harvard Law School is the best law school in the world! That is, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by subject. So for all you law-minded kids out there, now there's a concrete number letting you know Harvard Law is #1. That is, if "Legally Blonde" didn't already have you convinced.
The QS ranking considers three indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, and citations per paper. In this most recent ranking, HLS received a perfect score of 100 for its academic reputation, 93.8 percent for its employer reputation, and had an average of 35.4 citations per paper, resulting in a final score of 91.7.
The University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Yale University, and Stanford University rounded out the top five law programs.
Conversely, US News and World Report ranked Harvard the second best law school in America after Yale in 2011; their rankings consider reputation, selectivity, placement success, and faculty resources.
QS is the first international ranking organization to rate universities by subject.
The 2011/2012 QS World University Ranking placed Harvard second overall after the University of Cambridge. Our math and science-minded neighbors down the street came in third, and Yale took fourth place.