A new study, performed by NerdWallet, analyzed the top 50 law schools in the United States and also used data from the American Bar Association and the schools’ salary reports. The study from NerdWallet shows that private sector salaries still make tuition at law schools justifiable but on the other hand, the decreased amount of employment prospects make finding a job difficult if the law students are not at a top ranked law school.
NerdWallet also made a Law School Comparison tool that cross compares the top 50 law schools in the country so students can compare possible schools they wish to attend. The Law School Comparison tool uses data from post-graduates of 34,000 law schools from the classes of 2009, 2010 and 2011.
The most important data discovered by the study includes the following: Just 80 percent of students found full-time jobs that were long-term. Amongst individual schools, employment rates fell from 97 to 57 percent. The average salary for a law school graduate is $104,992 and it does not matter what job category the graduate is working in at the time of the study. Yale has the highest amount of compensation for its law school graduates, at $158,259. The law school with the lowest compensation for its graduates is the University of Utah, at $77,713.
