Law Schools, Money, Rankings

The Best Law Schools For Making Money (2014-2015)

Was your law school one of the 55 institutions to make the list?

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When it comes to choosing a law school, conventional wisdom dictates that one should attend the best school possible — that usually means a law school that’s perched atop the prestigious heights of the U.S. News rankings. Conveniently, going to an elite law school also means that one’s salary will usually be quite high, but just how high are we talking?

According to the latest salary rankings produced by PayScale, the answer is “pretty damn high” — so high, in fact, that at the midpoints of their careers, alumni of certain law schools beat out graduates from almost every other graduate school in the country.

So which law schools were ranked the highest? You may be surprised by some that made the cut…

Before we dive in, please take note of this helpful information from PayScale’s rankings press release:

Lawyer salary potential varies wildly depending on where you attend law school, but JD alumni report a median mid-career salary of $139,300, making a juris doctor the tenth most lucrative graduate degree on PayScale’s list.

It’s not hard to believe that salary potential in the legal profession “varies wildly” based on school these days, but it’s worth taking a step back to note that while some lawyers may be rich by the midpoint of their careers, there are nine other professional degrees ranked on PayScale’s list where people are even richer.

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That said, here are the top 10 graduate schools for salary potential, as ranked by PayScale:

Methodology
Annual pay for alumni with a graduate degree (MBA, Master’s, PhD or JD), grouped by their highest degree level (indicated by school name). Typical early career graduates have 0 to 5 years of experience; mid-career graduates have 10 years or more. See full methodology.

As you can see, law schools dominate this list, but they’re not the law schools that you would suspect. While Harvard tops the list in first place with a $201,000 per year salary, it’s followed close behind by Emory ($200,6000) in second place, and Santa Clara ($197,700) in third place. Other elite law schools like Georgetown ($180,800) and Columbia ($177,100) can be found at the bottom of the list. For what it’s worth (perhaps not much), 66 percent of Harvard graduates think they’re making the world a better place, which is the highest rating of all law schools that appeared in the top 10 of the general list for salary potential.

What happened to the rest of the T14? PayScale has data on only 55 law schools, and just four of those schools are ranked in the top 14 by U.S. News. Three of most prestigious law schools can be found in ranking above, while the fourth, UC Berkeley ($163,400), can be found at No. 16 on the general list.

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Here’s the PayScale ranking for salary potential as applied to the 55 law schools the company has info on:

Methodology
Annual pay for alumni with a JD. Typical early career graduates have 0 to 5 years of experience; mid-career graduates have 10 years or more. See full methodology.

The world looks different when the majority of the most vaunted law schools are taken out of the picture. Administrators from these law schools must be jumping for joy that so many of their alumni self-reported salary information that they were able to create a sample size large enough to be included in the rankings.

Here’s a little fun fact: Western State produces the most pitiful 10-year monetary outlook for alumni, with an average salary of $89,800. At the midpoints of their careers, Western State alumni aren’t even making what it costs to pay for a J.D. from their law school ($118,800 for tuition and fees alone). 🙁

Congratulations to all of the high salary earners out there. We’re glad you’ll be able to pay off your law school debts by the midpoints of your careers. To everyone else, sorry about that — we sincerely hope you’ll be able to make it through life while you complain about your low six-figure salary.

Was your law school one of the 55 institutions to make the list?

2014-2015 PayScale College Salary Report [PayScale]
Harvard Law Graduates Top Salary Survey [Capital Journal / Wall Street Journal]
Law Schools Rankings by Mid-Career Salaries [TaxProf Blog]

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