Harvard Law School has been ranked number four in law school rankings, by U.S. News & World Report, which marks the first time in over three decades that the Boston institute didn’t make it to the top three spots. 

Yale Law School retained its longtime position as number one while Stanford kept its number two spot as well. The University of Chicago Law School moved up a spot, replacing Harvard at third. Columbia Law School tied with Harvard for fourth place, as indicated by the report published Tuesday. 

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Law school consultant Mike Spivey spoke on the issue, saying “Is Harvard worse of a school today than it was tomorrow? Of course not”, and added, “But Harvard will be the buzz.”, Reuters reported. 

US News began ranking American Bar Association-accredited law schools in 1990, which was the first time Harvard didn’t have a top-three spot, as the college was at number five that year. 

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This ranking system relies on a series of conditions including peer assessments by law faculties, ratings by lawyers and judges, Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores, undergraduate grade-point averages, student borrowing, employment and bar passage rates, and per-student expenditures. However, many have criticized it, saying colleges are incentivized to financial aid to applicants with high LSAT scores, rather than to applicants who are in greater need of financial assistance. 

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Other top 14 or T-14 schools saw position changes in the report too. New York University School of Law dropped to seventh place and Georgetown University Law Center rejoined returned to the list, claiming the fourteenth spot, after having dropped to No 15 for the first time, last year. 

University of Montana School of Law saw the largest gains in this year’s rankings, moving up 31 spots to No 103. Meanwhile, the City University of New York School of Law (CUNY) witnessed the steepest decline, falling 21 places to reach No 133.