Mean Salaries Of First Year Law School Graduates

For the first time ever, The Department of Education has released these figures (source). Disclaimer: This is just a sliver of data of average salaries that is not broken down at all. Please do not use to make any law school matriculation choice based on this data alone. For a great deal more data on every ABA-accredited law school to help you make your law school decision, check out My Rank.

Three caveats to this data:

(1) It only tracks students who took out student loans, not all students.

(2) It's based on 2016 data.

(3) Relatedly, any school that sends a lot of people to clerkships or PI is going to suffer in this kind of metric, so the students with the lowest clerkship+PI+Gov (NYU and Columbia) may look better, while schools with high clerkship+PI+Gov may look worse.

1. Columbia $180,300

2. NYU $175,800

3. Cornell $175,200

4. Penn $175,100

5. Northwestern $171,900

6. Chicago $170,500

7. Duke $162,200

8. Harvard $158,200

9. Stanford $156,700

10. Virginia $151,500

11. UC Berkeley $135,400

12. Yale $128,900

13. Michigan $126,800

14. Vanderbilt $108,800

15. Georgetown $105,000

16. Fordham $99,000

17. UCLA $96,600

18. Texas $90,100

19. USC $89,300

20. Boston College $88,300

21. Boston University $81,200

22. Washington University in St. Louis. $79,800

23. SMU $75,600

24. Notre Dame $75,500

25. George Washington $74,300

26. UC Irvine $68,700

27. Connecticut $68,600

28. Illinois $67,700

29. Houston $67,600

29. UC-Hastings $67,600

31. UC-Davis $67,100

32. George Mason $66,900

33. Baylor $66,800

33. Emory $66,800

35. Santa Clara $66,200

36. Brooklyn $66,100

37. Cardozo $66,000

38. St. John's $65,900

38. UNLV $65,900

40. Loyola-Chicago $64,400

41. Washington & Lee $64,200

42. Loyola-Los Angeles $63,700

43. Washington $63,000

44. Iowa $62,700

45. Georgia State $62,400

46. San-Diego $62,100

47. Pepperdine $61,400

48. Temple $61,300

49. Pace $60,700

50. Texas Tech $60,200

51. William and Mary $59,800

52. Chicago-Kent $59,300

52. New York Law School $59,300

54. Catholic University $58,900

55. University of Minnesota $58,700

56. Wayne State University $58,300

57. Ohio State University $58,100

58. University of Utah $57,800

59. University of Georgia $57,600

60. Chapman University $57,100

61. Syracuse University, $57,000

62. Villanova University $56,900

62. University of Florida $56,900

62. South Texas- Houston $56,900

65. Arizona State University $56,800

65. Tulane University $56,800

67. University of Colorado $56,600

68. Brigham Young University $56,200

68. University of Hawaii $56,200

70. University of Wisconsin $56,000

71. Touro Law Center $55,800

72. Wake Forest University $55,400

72. University of Maryland $55,400

74. University of North Carolina $55,300

74. American University $55,300

76. Seton Hall University $55,200

77. Indiana University- Bloomington $55,100

78. University of Denver $55,000

78. Hofstra University $55,000

80. CUNY School of Law $54,800

81. Concordia University $54,500

82. University of Kentucky $54,400

83. Quinnipiac University $54,300

84. Indiana University McKinney School of Law $54,100

85. Albany Law School $53,900

85. University of San Francisco $53,900

87. Texas A&M $53,800

88. University of Oklahoma $53,600

89. University of Richmond $53,500

90. Mitchell Hamline $53,200

91. Marquette University $53,100

92. University of Tennessee $53,000

92. Rutgers $53,000

92. McGeorge School of Law $53,000

95. University of Arizona $52,900

95. Suffolk University $52,900

97. University of Baltimore $52,800

97. Howard University $52,800

99. Seattle University $52,600

100. St. Louis University $52,200

100. Drake University $52,200

100. DePaul University $52,200