The University of Southern California Law School (Goul School of Law), located in Los Angeles, California, is a graduate school within the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law had its beginnings in 1896, and was officially established as a school of the university in 1904. It currently has about 630 J.D. students (200 per year), and also has a growing LL.M. program of about 90 students. Law School 100, a ranking scheme that purports to use qualitative criteria instead of quantitative, ranks the law school fourteenth overall, tied with Duke, UCLA, and the University of Texas. The 2009 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Graduate Schools" ranks USC Law School at number eighteen.