Top 20 Most Affordable Law Schools

Summary: Choose wisely which law school you attend by using this data of the 20 most affordable law schools so you pay back your student loans as quickly as possible.

Any smart student, especially law student, will be looking at ways to reduce the costs of school. The amount of debt a law school student can accumulate and graduate with can easily be over $100,000. Student Loan Hero estimates that the average amount that students owe to be $111,572. In order to make the debt gained from law school worth it, minimizing the total amount is important. One way of doing this is by attending a school with low tuition.

Student Loan Hero looked at the costs for 116 law schools, finding the 20 cheapest law schools. They did this by comparing the cost of tuition, post-graduation employment rates and salaries, and indebtedness. They wanted to find law schools that cost less money but had students graduating and making decent salaries.

The 20 most affordable law schools:

1. Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School has an annual tuition of $12,310 for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nonmembers pay $24,620 each year. The average starting salary is $75,872. With such a low cost, roughly 31 percent of the students are able to avoid going into debt altogether.
2. Georgia State University College of Law has an annual tuition of $16,858 for in-state students. The average starting salary for the graduates is $83.427. Out-of-state tuition is $36,456 a year.
3. Rutgers Law School in-state students pay $27,269 a year. The average student debt at graduation is $56,173. Their students have the lowest student loan balance of all the 20 schools on the list.
4. University of Iowa College of Law students pay $24,930 for in-state tuition. The average total debt at graduation and the average starting salary at the school is around $74,000.
5. University of Houston Law Center students are able to graduate on average with less than $100,000 of debt. The average starting salary is slightly higher than their debt at $102,153. Over a third of the law school’s graduates are able to graduate from the law school with no student loans at all.
6. University of Texas School of Law at Austin has an in-state tuition of $33,995 per year. The students see an average starting salary of $105,647 and an average student loan debt at graduation of $103,417. U.S. News & World Report even ranks the school as being the No. 1 for the ratio between starting salaries to annual tuition costs.
7. University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law has an in-state tuition of $25,525. The average starting salary is a little lower at only $76,664. With a lower tuition, 62 percent of the students are able to graduate without loans.
8. University of Nebraska College of Law – Lincoln has a low tuition for in-state students of $15,036. Average starting salaries are lower at $58,614.
9. University of Wisconsin Law School – Madison has an in-state tuition of $21,450. The average starting salary is $72,089.
10. University of North Carolina School of Law – Chapel Hill students have a slightly higher average starting salary of $88,781 and just a tuition rate of $23,551 for in-state students.
11. University of North Dakota School of Law has the lowest annual tuition of $11,434 of the list. The average starting salary is lower though at only $55,470.
12. Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center has an annual in-state tuition of $22,520. The school also boasts a 93.7 percent employment rate.
13. George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School has a higher debt amount at $118,056 but students are able to earn an average starting salary of $83,669. Even with the higher debt amount, only 63 percent of the students have loans with the school. The school also has a high employment rate of 96.7 percent.
14. Ohio State University Moritz College of Law has an employment rate of 97.7 percent. The average starting salary is $74,820.
15. Boston College Law School has a high annual tuition of $50,620. However, the average debt at graduation is $108,873. With an average starting salary of $103,147, students are able to repay their loans quickly.
16. University of California School of Law – Los Angeles has a high starting salary, annual tuition and average debt amount, balancing things out. Of the schools on the list, UCLA Law has the highest average starting salary and has a high employment rate.
17. University of Florida Levin College of Law has an annual tuition of $22,299. With the lower tuition, students are able to keep their debt down. However, average starting salaries are lower at $69,032.
18. Wayne State University Law School has a high starting salary when looking at their student debt. The average starting salary is $74,879.
19. University of Arkansas Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law has a low annual tuition of $15,121 for in-state students.
20. William & Mary Law School has an annual tuition for in-state students of $32,000. The average starting salary is less than the average debt so paying back loans will take a bit longer but not impossible.

Do you think attending a law school with lower tuition should be a top priority? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

To learn more about law school rankings, read these articles:

• Forbes Ranks America’s Most Expensive Law Schools
• Top 10 Law Schools Based on Social Life Ranking
• 2017 Law School Rankings by U.S. News & World Report

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