According to versions of the 2010 U.S. News and World Report Law School rankings reported on various blogs this morning, Marquette’s overall ranking has risen from 95th to 87th among the 184 ABA accredited law schools.  Furthermore, its peer rating by law professors increased from 2.3 to 2.4 (out of a possible score of 5.0).  Although the reliance of the applicant pool on these rankings is much deplored within the legal academy, there is no doubt that it is better to be going up in the rankings rather than down.

The overall ranking of “tied for 87th” places Marquette in exactly the same spot in the rankings as its two Catholic peers to the South, DePaul and Loyola of Chicago. Also tied for spots 87 through 93 are Rutgers-Newark, IU-Indianapolis, South Carollina, and St. John’s.  For all practical purposes, Marquette remains squarely in the middle of the ratings.  Although the peer rating rose from 2.3 to 2.4 the median for peer ratings also rose from 2.3 to 2.4.