What are debt and expected earnings like for those in non-JD legal education programs?
I recently looked at median debt loads and median earnings for law degree recipients. But the Department of Education data has far more than that.
Non-JD legal education has seen extraordinary growth in the last few years—and it has minimal oversight from the American Bar Association. I’ve wondered about the value proposition of such programs, given what little information we have about them.
The DOE data gives us a few tools to start looking at it. It codes several Classification of Instructional Programs Codes (CIP Codes)—2201 is “Law,” 2202 is “Legal Research & Advanced Professional Studies,” 2203 is “Legal Support Services,” 2299 is “Legal Professions & Studies, Others.” There are other codes that might be law-related (3028 “Dispute Resolution” and 5216 “Taxation” among others), but these CIP Codes include subfields like “Intellectual Property Law” and “Comparative Law.” These map onto the hundreds of non-JD degrees that law schools now offer.
Now, this is all imperfect. Schools may code some of these degrees differently. Some students may pursue these degrees at the same time they pursue a JD, which may skew debt/earnings figures.
But I decided to look at all these CIP Codes for (1) Undergraduate Certificates or Diplomas (specifically, not Bachelor’s Degrees), (2) Post-baccalaureate Certificates, (3) Master’s Degrees, (4) Doctoral Degrees, (5) First Professional Degrees, and (6) Graduate/Professional Certificates. I excluded all 2201 “Law” codes from those in the “Doctoral Degree” or “First Professional Degree” categories, which I included in the recent post and took to be overwhelmingly JDs. From there, I looked at median debt, mean debt, and mean earnings among schools that reported data (a lot did not have reported data). And I included only schools that had a law school. Admittedly, some of these law-related degrees could be run out of the undergraduate or another professional school (particularly 2203 codes). But I still think it’s worth considering non-JD legal education generally at institutions with a law school, even if it’s not all housed within the law school.
Whew. With all those caveats (ed.: so will this even tell us anything?), here we go. The CIPCode is on the left if you want to refer back to it. (Due to size of chart, results may be best viewed on a desktop or on a phone turned sideways.)
| CIPCode | Undergraduate Cert. or Diploma | Median Debt | Mean Debt | Median Earnings |
| 2203 | Hofstra Univ. | $4,250 | $5,535 | $40,500 |
| 2203 | Liberty Univ. | $9,500 | $10,802 | $29,700 |
| 2203 | Hamline Univ. | $18,250 | $18,726 | $42,500 |
| 2203 | Tulane Univ. of Louisiana | $32,121 | $32,076 | n/a |
| 2203 | Widener Univ. | n/a | $11,989 | n/a |
| 2201 | Florida Coastal Sch. of Law | n/a | n/a | $22,900 |
| CIPCode | Post-baccalaureat Cert. | Median Debt | Mean Debt | Median Earnings |
| 2203 | Loyola Univ. Chicago | $12,500 | $15,021 | $41,000 |
| 2203 | Univ. of Richmond | n/a | $14,099 | n/a |
| CIPCode | Master's Degree | Median Debt | Mean Debt | Median Earnings |
| 2202 | Temple Univ. | $34,500 | $46,331 | $65,300 |
| 2299 | West Virginia Univ. | $34,694 | $32,719 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore | $36,549 | $36,474 | n/a |
| 2203 | George Washington Univ. | $40,917 | $40,941 | $54,500 |
| 2299 | Stevenson Univ. | $41,000 | $38,816 | $57,200 |
| 2202 | Seton Hall Univ. | $41,000 | $40,013 | $94,300 |
| 2202 | Widener Univ. | $41,000 | $42,780 | $58,400 |
| 2299 | Regent Univ. | $41,000 | $45,164 | n/a |
| 2201 | St. Mary's Univ. | $41,000 | $48,363 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of Florida | $41,776 | $54,464 | $82,000 |
| 2201 | Northeastern Univ. | $41,963 | $40,571 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of Tulsa | $42,331 | $47,479 | $49,300 |
| 2202 | The Univ. of Alabama | $43,300 | $58,033 | $89,500 |
| 2202 | Univ. of Washington-Seattle Campus | $47,104 | $69,719 | $71,300 |
| 2202 | Univ. of Houston | $49,748 | $49,397 | $46,000 |
| 2202 | Arizona State Univ.-Tempe | $49,843 | $58,925 | $45,000 |
| 2202 | Arizona State Univ.-Downtown Phoenix | $49,843 | $58,925 | $45,000 |
| 2202 | Loyola Univ. Chicago | $50,390 | $53,258 | $91,400 |
| 2202 | Southern Methodist Univ. | $52,305 | $66,438 | n/a |
| 2202 | Nova Southeastern Univ. | $54,664 | $59,097 | $72,300 |
| 2202 | Washington Univ. in St Louis | $54,824 | $59,043 | n/a |
| 2299 | Drexel Univ. | $55,518 | $51,834 | n/a |
| 2299 | Northwestern Univ. | $57,530 | $65,664 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of San Diego | $58,842 | $102,331 | $73,500 |
| 2202 | Emory Univ. | $60,106 | $72,124 | $61,200 |
| 2202 | American Univ. | $63,164 | $75,197 | $58,900 |
| 2202 | St John's Univ.-New York | $65,187 | $73,475 | $22,800 |
| 2201 | Stetson Univ. | $65,823 | $103,025 | $52,700 |
| 2202 | Univ. of Southern California | $66,221 | $61,765 | n/a |
| 2202 | Boston Univ. | $67,467 | $65,399 | $99,200 |
| 2202 | Univ. of Missouri-Columbia | $67,831 | $69,838 | n/a |
| 2202 | George Washington Univ. | $69,520 | $65,770 | $77,800 |
| 2201 | Liberty Univ. | $71,534 | $77,325 | $36,200 |
| 2202 | Vermont Law Sch. | $74,768 | $111,137 | $48,800 |
| 2202 | Univ. of Miami | $77,634 | $102,398 | $52,000 |
| 2202 | Univ. of Denver | $82,000 | $121,430 | $52,200 |
| 2202 | Georgetown Univ. | $85,716 | $97,566 | $110,200 |
| 2299 | New York Univ. | $85,964 | $76,299 | $123,200 |
| 2299 | Univ. of Washington-Seattle Campus | $109,707 | $108,071 | n/a |
| 2202 | The John Marshall Law Sch. | $137,165 | $147,635 | $72,100 |
| 2202 | Duke Univ. | $170,276 | $164,470 | $133,200 |
| 2202 | Univ. of Georgia | n/a | $32,947 | n/a |
| 2202 | Florida International Univ. | n/a | $37,821 | n/a |
| 2201 | Thomas Jefferson Sch. of Law | n/a | $38,367 | n/a |
| 2202 | California Western Sch. of Law | n/a | $39,374 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of Oklahoma-Norman Campus | n/a | $41,039 | n/a |
| 2201 | Univ. of Houston | n/a | $41,104 | n/a |
| 2299 | Univ. of Arizona | n/a | $41,691 | n/a |
| 2299 | Arizona State Univ.-Tempe | n/a | $45,168 | n/a |
| 2299 | Arizona State Univ.-Downtown Phoenix | n/a | $45,168 | n/a |
| 2202 | Southern Illinois Univ.-Carbondale | n/a | $46,797 | n/a |
| 2201 | Univ. of the Pacific | n/a | $46,847 | n/a |
| 2202 | Drexel Univ. | n/a | $48,720 | n/a |
| 2201 | Wake Forest Univ. | n/a | $49,113 | n/a |
| 2299 | Univ. of Baltimore | n/a | $53,544 | n/a |
| 2202 | St. Thomas Univ. | n/a | $56,204 | n/a |
| 2202 | Tulane Univ. of Louisiana | n/a | $57,043 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of California-Los Angeles | n/a | $58,858 | n/a |
| 2202 | Cleveland State Univ. | n/a | $59,314 | n/a |
| 2202 | Yeshiva Univ. | n/a | $62,442 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of California-Berkeley | n/a | $64,460 | n/a |
| 2201 | Loyola Marymount Univ. | n/a | $66,094 | n/a |
| 2299 | Yeshiva Univ. | n/a | $69,700 | n/a |
| 2202 | Columbia Univ. in the City of New York | n/a | $77,468 | n/a |
| 2202 | Golden Gate Univ.-San Francisco | n/a | $82,001 | n/a |
| 2299 | Univ. of Denver | n/a | $83,102 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of Missouri-Kansas City | n/a | $84,878 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of Nevada-Las Vegas | n/a | $85,383 | n/a |
| 2201 | Univ. of Florida | n/a | $86,052 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of St Thomas | n/a | $90,741 | n/a |
| 2202 | Lewis & Clark Coll. | n/a | $92,860 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of San Francisco | n/a | $93,665 | n/a |
| 2202 | Loyola Marymount Univ. | n/a | $129,372 | n/a |
| CIPCode | Doctoral Degree | Median Debt | Mean Debt | Median Earnings |
| 2202 | Suffolk Univ. | n/a | $105,158 | n/a |
| CIPCode | First Prof. Degree | Median Debt | Mean Debt | Median Earnings |
| 2299 | Univ. of Baltimore | $39,950 | $36,087 | n/a |
| 2299 | Regent Univ. | $45,000 | $57,134 | $44,000 |
| 2299 | Fordham Univ. | $64,114 | $68,720 | n/a |
| 2202 | Northwestern Univ. | $71,667 | $69,973 | $96,400 |
| 2202 | W. Mich. Univ.-Thomas M. Cooley Law Sch. | $130,683 | $136,168 | $54,500 |
| 2202 | Vermont Law Sch. | $144,363 | $141,223 | $45,400 |
| 2202 | Georgetown Univ. | $146,758 | $136,871 | $71,200 |
| 2202 | Georgia State Univ. | n/a | $26,063 | n/a |
| 2202 | Florida State Univ. | n/a | $30,052 | n/a |
| 2202 | Univ. of Connecticut | n/a | $39,025 | n/a |
| 2202 | Fordham Univ. | n/a | $72,230 | n/a |
| 2202 | Louisiana State Univ. & Ag. & Mech. Coll. | n/a | $93,265 | n/a |
| 2202 | Golden Gate Univ.-San Francisco | n/a | $99,851 | $66,100 |
| 2202 | Chapman Univ. | n/a | $119,306 | n/a |
| CIPCode | Graduate/Prof. Certificate | Median Debt | Mean Debt | Median Earnings |
| 2203 | Univ. of San Diego | $14,654 | $15,197 | $40,600 |
| 2203 | Univ. of California-Los Angeles | $16,000 | $13,460 | $43,500 |
| 2203 | George Washington Univ. | $28,367 | $33,918 | n/a |
| 2299 | Univ. of Southern California | $122,693 | $120,582 | $88,600 |
| 2299 | Tulane Univ. of Louisiana | $128,507 | $128,495 | $58,700 |
| 2201 | Oklahoma City Univ. | $132,586 | $124,086 | $42,900 |
| 2202 | Univ. of Southern California | n/a | $57,669 | n/a |
| 2202 | Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ.-Indianapolis | n/a | $88,775 | n/a |
| 2202 | Tulane Univ. of Louisiana | n/a | $135,734 | n/a |
| 2299 | St. Thomas Univ. | n/a | $144,110 | n/a |