Is 14 a common cutoff for classifying academic institutions? Because I am interpreting this as 'the 14th best law school' and it seems that I shouldn't just assume this. It's an odd manner of delimiting a set and I am curious if there is some sort of legacy/esoteric set that I am oblivious to. Thanks.
Top 14 is specific to law schools. It is extremely arbitrary, but it's the equivalent of a "top 10 list" in basically every other situation you'd rank things in. I don't like rankings, the only reason I quote them is to demonstrate that I did well in "school."
Because lists differ, I have often referred to my having graduated from "one of the forty top-twenty law schools." The other reply just posted at this level appears to correctly explain why the person to whom you are replying chose "top 14," but anyway I don't always take strictly rank-ordered lists of higher education institutions very seriously. Rankings are debatable.
