Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Georgetown Study: Return On Investment At 186 Law Schools
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Press Release: At Nearly 1 in 5 Law Schools, Graduates Earn Less Than $55,000 Net of Debt Four Years After Graduation, Georgetown University Report Says
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, A Law Degree Is No Sure Thing: Some Law School Graduates Earn Top Dollar, but Many Do Not (pdf):
Is law school worth it? A Juris Doctor (JD) offers high median earnings and a substantial earnings boost relative to a bachelor’s degree in the humanities or social sciences—two of the more common fields of study that lawyers pursue as undergraduate students. However, graduates of most law schools carry substantial student loan debt, which dims the financial returns associated with a JD.
A Law Degree Is No Sure Thing: Some Law School Graduates Earn Top Dollar, but Many Do Not finds that the return on investment (ROI) in earnings and career outcomes varies widely across law schools. The median earnings net of debt payments are $72,000 four years after graduation for all law school graduates, but exceed $200,000 at seven law schools. By comparison, graduates of 33 law schools earn less than $55,000 net of debt payments four years after graduation.
Here are the 50 law schools with the highest return on investment:
- Columbia
- Penn
- Chicago
- Connecticut
- Stanford
- Harvard
- Northwestern
- Virginia
- Duke
- Yale
- UC-Berkeley
- Michigan
- USC
- Vanderbilt
- Fordham
- UCLA
- Boston College
- Georgetown
- Washington University
- Boston University
- Notre Dame
- UC-San Francisco
- George Washington
- UC-Irvine
- George Mason
- SMU
- Illinois
- Cardozo
- Houston
- Emory
- Seton Hall
- UC-Davis
- Connecticut
- San Diego
- Brooklyn
- Loyola-Chicago
- Santa Clara
- Florida
- UNLV
- Pepperdine
- St. Johns
- Villanova
- University of Washington
- Catholic
- Loyola-L.A.
- Rutgers
- Texas Tech
- Iowa
- North Carolina
- Temple
- ABA Journal, Is Law School Worth It? At 33 Low-Tier Schools, Median Income After Student Debt Is $55K or Below
- Law.com, Where Do Law Grads Get the Most Bang for Their Buck?
- Reuters, Law Grads' Median Earnings of $72,000 After Debt Show 'Vast Gulf' in Pay, Study Finds
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2024/06/georgetown-study-return-on-investment-at-186-law-schools-.html
