We study the capillary rise of viscous liquids into sharp corners formed by two surfaces whose geometry is described by power laws
$h_i(x) = c_i x^n$
,
$i = 1,2$
, where
$c_2 > c_1$
for
$n \geq 1$
. Prior investigations of capillary rise in sharp corners have shown that the meniscus altitude increases with time as
$t^{1/3}$
, a result that is universal, i.e. applies to all corner geometries. The universality of the phenomenon of capillary rise in sharp corners is revisited in this work through the analysis of a partial differential equation for the evolution of a liquid column rising into power-law-shaped corners, which is derived using lubrication theory. Despite the lack of geometric similarity of the liquid column cross-section for
$n>1$
, there exist a scaling and a similarity transformation that are independent of
$c_i$
and
$n$
, which gives rise to the universal
$t^{1/3}$
power law for capillary rise. However, the prefactor, which corresponds to the tip altitude of the self-similar solution, is a function of
$n$
, and it is shown to be bounded and monotonically decreasing as
$n\to \infty$
. Accordingly, the profile of the interface radius as a function of altitude is also independent of
$c_i$
and exhibits slight variations with
$n$
. Theoretical results are compared against experimental measurements of the time evolution of the tip altitude and of profiles of the interface radius as a function of altitude.