The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
Until recently, law school was commonly considered to a safe bet for smart college graduates, and parents often encouraged their children to study law. That changed during the Great Recession, a time when many law graduates struggled to find jobs. The effects of the recession have lingered in the legal sector, and jobs for law graduates remain scarce.
The enormous pay gap between the wealthiest law graduates and their cash-strapped peers is dividing the profession between the haves and have-nots, some legal industry analysts say.
Law graduates at the top of the pay scale are making more than ever. According to the National Association for Law Placement, first-year associate salaries at big law firms are rising, but these lucrative jobs account for only 17 percent of entry-level jobs.
[Pick a cost-efficient law school.]
Graduates of some law schools have better odds of getting high-salary jobs and paying off their student loans.
At the 10 U.S. ranked law schools with the highest salary-debt ratios, the median starting salary of recent graduates who work in the private sector greatly exceeds the average student’s school debt. At some of these schools, a newly minted J.D. graduate who works in the private sector can expect to earn a six-figure salary.
For instance, at the University of California–Los Angeles, Yale University and the University of Texas–Austin, the median private sector starting salary is $160,000.
[Explore law school costs and J.D. salaries.]
All three of these law schools are highly ranked in the U.S. News rankings. That prestige comes with a price tag. The typical student debt burden at these three schools is more than $100,000, but students are generally so well-compensated after graduation that they can usually afford the cost of tuition.
Law school can still lead to a highly profitable career for the most fortunate law graduates.
Below is a list of the 10 law schools where the salary-debt ratio was highest among 2014 graduates. Unranked law schools, which do not submit enough data for U.S. News to calculate a rank, were not considered for this report.
| School (name) (state) | Median private sector starting salary (2014 grads) | Average student debt (2014 grads) | Salary-to-debt ratio | U.S. News law school rank |
| University of Texas–Austin | $160,000 | 100,868 | 1.59 | 15 |
| University of Alabama | $105,000 | 69,440 | 1.51 | 28 (tie) |
| Boston College (MA) | $145,000 | 97,006 | 1.49 | 30 (tie) |
| Brigham Young University (Clark) (UT) | $79,813 | 54,203 | 1.47 | 38 (tie) |
| University of Wisconsin–Madison | $115,000 | 79,373 | 1.45 | 33 (tie) |
| University of Hawaii–Manoa (Richardson) | $77,500 | 56,266 | 1.38 | 92 (tie) |
| Yale University (CT) | $160,000 | 117,093 | 1.37 | 1 |
| University of Connecticut | $95,000 | 70,139 | 1.35 | 65 (tie) |
| Boston University (MA) | $145,000 | 107,850 | 1.34 | 20 (tie) |
| University of California–Los Angeles | $160,000 | 121,066 | 1.32 | 17 |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Law School Compass to find median private-sector starting salaries and student debt data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 205 ABA-accredited law schools for our 2015 survey of law programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Law Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The salary and debt data above are correct as of Nov. 1, 2016.
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