Harvard, Stanford & Yale Don't Do So Well On A New Law School Ranking

The National Law Journal has come out with a new law school ranking that could be useful for young people thinking of taking on tons of law school debt.

The "go-to" list ranks the law schools that send their grads to the nation's 250 largest law firms. Since the big firms are not only prestigious but tend to pay more, this ranking can shed light on the value of a degree from these schools.

The top five NLJ "go to" schools are University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago Law School, Columbia Law School, New York University Law School, and Northwestern University School of Law.

The top three law schools on the U.S. News and World Report's list – Yale, Stanford, and Harvard – are conspicuously absent from the top five spots on NLJ's "go-to" list.

(Yale is 14 on the NLJ's list, while Stanford is eight and Harvard is six.)

Still, big law firms are obviously not the only career destination for ambitious law students.

Yale, Stanford, and Harvard all help students repay their massive loans if they go into careers in public service or work as lawyers for the government.