The Legal Beat

Law Schools Where Starting Salaries For Graduates Exceed Their Student Debt
Posted on Tuesday January 24, 2023

In today’s world, the vast majority of students attending law school have been saddled with seemingly insurmountable six-figure debt loads. Many law students are under the mistaken impression that they’ll be able to pay off that debt quickly; after all, they believe their starting salaries after graduation will be in line with the now-standard starting salary of up to $215,000 at Biglaw firms across the country (depending on office location). Unfortunately, these high-salary positions account for only a small percentage of entry-level jobs for recent law school graduates. The vast majority of law school graduates will be left wondering how they’ll ever be able to pay down their debt in a timely fashion, if at all. What’s a prospective law student to do?

Choose the most cost-efficient law school to which you’ve been accepted, preferably one with a high salary-to-debt ratio, and your starting salary may well meet or exceed your student debt burden. There are several law schools that are not only highly ranked, but whose graduates are very well-compensated after graduation — in fact, they’re so well-compensated that it makes up for the high costs of their education.

U.S. News recently put together a ranking of the 15 schools with the highest debt-salary ratios among 2021 graduates. Did your law school or alma mater make the cut?

Brigham Young University (Clark): 2.05-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $94,300
• Average debt (2021): $46,007

Northeastern University: 1.9-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $172,500
• Average debt (2021): $91,007

Wayne State University: 1.89-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $115,000
• Average debt (2021): $60,850

University of Alabama: 1.84-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $115,000
• Average debt (2021): $62,337

Drexel University (Kline): 1.77-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $125,000
• Average debt (2021): $70,565

Boston University: 1.69-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $190,000
• Average debt (2021): $112,443

Washington University in St. Louis: 1.65-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $160,000
• Average debt (2021): $96,928

University of Minnesota: 1.55-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $140,000
• Average debt (2021): $90,393

Rutgers University: 1.53-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $85,000
• Average debt (2021): $55,531

Indiana University—Bloomington (Maurer): 1.5-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $115,000
• Average debt (2021): $76,755

University of Southern California (Gould): 1.48-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $190,000
• Average debt (2021): $128,073

University of Missouri: 1.48-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $92,500
• Average debt (2021): $62,627

Washington and Lee University: 1.47-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $142,000
• Average debt (2021): $96,721

University of California—Irvine: 1.46-to-1

• Starting median private salary (2021): $180,000
• Average debt (2021): $123,456

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again, but before you decide to shell out tens of thousands of loan dollars to attend a law school in the hope of having a high salary after graduating, it’s worth it to do all of your research beforehand.

15 Law Schools Where You Can Pay Off Your Debt [U.S. News]

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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