Yale Law School is ranked as the No. 1 school in 2010 according to U.S. News and World Report. The school has a total of 613 full-time law students in a state-of-the-art facility. The environment around this school is technology-oriented with Internet access available in every classroom, a full-service computer lab, wireless networking in some areas and laser printing. Its Lillian Goldman Law Library provides students with almost 1 million print volumes of law books and cases. It also has a wide range of online legal databases for its students. Yale Law School offers a three-year Juris Doctorate (JD) program. The annual tuition fee for full-time students is $48,500 as of 2011.
Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. According to U.S. News and World Report it is the second highest ranked law school in the country. With more than 400 courses on offer, Harvard Law has more classes and seminars than any other law school. It has a total of 1,771 full-time students and offers three law programs in three areas: the Juris doctorate (JD), Master of Law (LL.M.), and the Doctor of Juridicial Science (SJD). It also offers joint degree programs for students who are interested in pursuing expertise in other fields. The Harvard Law School provides its students the opportunity to study abroad through its numerous exchange programs. The school also comes with a comprehensive law library and legal database. The tuition fee for a full time student is $43,900 per year as of 2011.
Stanford University is a private research university located in Stanford, California. It is No. 3 on U.S. News and World Report's list of top law schools. The law school has 557 full-time law students. The Stanford Law School has an intensive curriculum. The first-year students are required to take nine courses, which include civil procedure
Contracts, Criminal Law, Torts, Legal Research and Writing, Constitutional Law, Property
and Federal Litigation I and II. In the second and third years students are encouraged to take more electives in the area that they wish to specialize in. Some of these include, business and commercial law, civil procedure and litigation, criminal law, environmental law, dispute resolution and family law among others. This school offers a doctor of jurisprudence (JD), master of laws (LLM), master of the science of law (JSM), and a doctor of the science of law (JSD). The 2010-2011 tuition fee is $44,880.
Columbia University, a private research university in New York City, is No. 4 on U.S. News and World Report's list of top law schools. Columbia Law School has 1,309 full time students enrolled as of 2010. The main law programs include the Juris Doctorate (JD), a Master of Law (LL.M.), a Juris Science Doctorate (JSD) program, and an Associate in Law. The JD is offered only on a full-time basis and takes an average of three years to complete. The curriculum for the law degree includes classes in advanced legal methods, alternative dispute resolution, careers in law teaching program, intellectual property law, international law, the law and technologyand legal theory. The annual tuition fee for full time student in this law school is $48,004 as of 2011.