Which Law Grads Have the Best Shot at Reducing Debt?

U.S. News & World Report is just overflowing with law school data these days, just as Vault will be in a couple months with the release of our law firm rankings! The latest from U.S. News is a list of law schools with the highest salary-to-debt ratios. In other words, which law grads have the best chance of reducing their loan burden? The ratios were calculated by comparing median private sector salaries of 2012 grads to average debt among 2013 grads. The schools with the top five highest ratios are:

1. Brigham Young University (Clark)—$100,000 median starting salary, $56,053 average debt

2. University of Texas, Austin—$160,000 median starting salary, $92,180 average debt

3. Stanford—$160,000 median starting salary, $108,391 average debt

4. Boston University—$160,000 median starting salary, $110,309 average debt

5. Yale—$160,000 median starting salary, $111,961 average debt

Something to consider when choosing a law school, certainly. (See the full list from U.S. News.) After all, the inflated price of law school coupled with the weak job market has led to an all-time low in law school enrollment. Of the ten schools on the above-mentioned list, three of them also made U.S. News’ list of top 10 law schools with the highest yield rate: Yale (#1, with an 80.6 percent yield rate), Brigham Young University (Clark) (#3, with a 64.1 percent yield rate) and Stanford (#6, with a 45.7 percent yield rate). See that full list here, also from U.S. News. Savvy applicants are hopefully researching debt figures associated with law schools, and weighing this factor carefully when making their decision. The good news is that none of the ten highest-yield schools appear on the list of schools ranked highest for soul-crushing debt—that would be quite an unfortunate overlap. Keep making those good decisions, prospective law student loan borrowers, by studying employment, salary and financial aid statistics of any law school you are considering!

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