The Law Schools With The Most Graduates Who Aren't Using Their Degrees

Which law schools are in the top 10 of this unfortunate new ranking?

gradenfreudeWhy go to law school if you aren’t going to use your degree? If you’re going to accumulate up to six figures of student-loan dollars, you may as well bite the bullet and start practicing law. Thanks to the vagaries of the entry-level job market, however, try as they might, many recent law school graduates simply aren’t able to work as lawyers. Finding a job as an attorney after graduation wasn’t as easy as they were led to believe, and many of them are now working in positions where bar passage isn’t a requirement and having a law degree isn’t even considered an advantage.

Graduates of some law schools have been hit harder by this depressing trend than others, and thanks to a new ranking from StartClass that’s sure to make law school administrators cringe, we now know which schools are pumping out the most graduates who’ve been unable to make the transition from would-be lawyers to practicing lawyers.

Using the most recent jobs data compiled by the American Bar Association, StartClass pulled information on graduates of each of the 205 law schools accredited by the ABA, finding the percentage of graduates who were employed, but not in positions where bar passage is required or a JD served as a demonstrable advantage. For the purposes of this ranking, “[t]he percentage of graduates not using their law degrees includes those who are employed in professional, non-professional and undeterminable positions.”

Here are the top 10 law schools where graduates aren’t using their degrees:

1) Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Law (51.3 percent aren’t using their degree)

2) Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law (45.5 percent aren’t using their degree)

3) Florida A&M University College of Law (29 percent aren’t using their degree)

4) Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law (27.9 percent aren’t using their degree)

5) University of Puerto Rico School of Law (25.4 percent aren’t using their degree)

6) Appalachian School of Law (23.9 percent aren’t using their degree)

7) Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School (23.3 percent aren’t using their degree)

8) Widener University School of Law (Wilmington) (22.2 percent aren’t using their degree)

9) Thomas Jefferson School of Law (21.7 percent aren’t using their degree)

10) Widener University School of Law (Harrisburg) (21.2 percent aren’t using their degree)

Three ABA-accredited law schools in Puerto Rico that our readers have likely never heard of all landed in the top 5 of the StartClass ranking, followed by some of the usual suspects, like Thomas M. Cooley Law School and Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

Since StartClass actually ranked the top 25 law schools whose graduates aren’t using their degrees, even further up on the list we see schools like Western State (No. 23; no, being a porn star isn’t a preferred usage of a law degree), Ave Maria (No. 20; let’s face it, this school is used to bringing up the rear), and Florida Coastal (No. 17; quick stints on reality TV dating shows don’t count as attorney work).

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If there’s anything to be learned from this ranking at all, it’s that attending a law school that’s well-regarded pays dividends in terms of career success. The vast majority of the law schools do not have their ranks published by U.S. News & World Report. You aren’t likely to see such high percentages of graduates who aren’t using their degrees at schools that are highly ranked by U.S. News and other publications, like Above the Law. If you’d like the chance to use the law degree you’ve likely debt financed at high cost, then perhaps you should consider attending a different law school, if you’re able to do so.

Disclosure: My own alma mater, Western New England University School of Law, sits comfortably at No. 11 on the StartClass ranking, with 20.5 percent of recent graduates not using their degrees. What a remarkable achievement. My condolences.

Law Schools Whose Grads Don’t Use Their Degrees [Arizona Daily Star]
These law schools had the highest percentage of employed students not using their degrees [ABA Journal]

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