[kenjackson]

UIUC and Cornell are both historically strong. UW (Washington) and UCSD (San Diego) both seem like exceptional up and comers that are probably much better schools than historically ranked.

With that said, there's a pretty big dip from #4 to #5.

[hga]

"[...] there's a pretty big dip from #4 to #5."

And that is exactly my sub-point. The fact that no one can list a clear #5 probably proves it.

Going further, it you agree with the above there's no sense in making a top 5 list, so replying to joeyo, it's not axiomatic in terms of cardinality. It only makes sense to list the top 4, and then something like the top dozen or so.

My greater point is that someone who doesn't know this isn't likely to make good judgments on the topic of this essay.

[pw0ncakes]

For law students and lawyers, there's a "top 14". This is because the USN&WR top 10 has varied over the years, but the USN&WR top 14 has been stable for practically forever. The same is true of 17, 18, and maybe a couple of other integers.

So "top 14" is the meaningful distinction due to this observed property of 14 in the rankings, which could be an artifact of chance. But it has become self-perpetuating at the prestige drop between #14 and #15 is enormous. Also, law as a profession cares obsessively about where one went to school. Attending #14 means you went to a "national law school"; #15 makes it very difficult for you to get a good job more than 200 miles from your law school.

I wish I were making this up. I'm not.

[hga]

Hmmmm, all the talk about the I-95 Supreme Court would support what you're saying.