Last year, a treasure trove of data from the Department of Education offered incredible insights into debt and earnings of law school graduates. A recent update for 2018-2019 has been made available, and we can look at the data again.

One intriguing figure is the “debt-to-income” ratio (last year, plenty of people hated this term, but I’m still using it), or how much student debt recent graduates have compared to their earnings. Lower is better. (A slightly better way is to calculate what percentage of your monthly paycheck is required to service your monthly debt payment, or the debt-service-to-monthly-income ratio, but this gives a good idea of the relationship between debt and income.) It’s entirely imperfect, of course—graduates have interest accrued on that debt when they graduate; they may have other debt; and so on. It’s just one way of looking at the data!

I took the raw data file and pulled out all domestic schools that had a concentration in “law” for a “doctoral degree” or “first professional degree.” I then compared the median debt load to the median earnings figures. (Of course, there’s no guarantee these figures are the same person, and there may be other mismatches, like high earners with low debt or low earners with high debt. Again, just one way of looking at the data!)

The Department of Education site defines these figures as follows:

Field of Study Median Earnings

The median annual earnings of individuals who received federal financial aid during their studies and completed an award at the indicated field of study. To be included in the median earnings calculation, the individuals needed to be working and not enrolled in school during in the year when earnings are measured. Median earnings are measured in the second full year after the student completed their award.

These data are based on school-reported information about students’ program of completion. The U.S. Department of Education cannot fully confirm the completeness of these reported data for this school.

For schools with multiple locations, this information is based on all of their locations.

Field of Study Median Total Debt for Loans Taken Out at This School

The median federal loan debt accumulated at the school by student borrowers of federal loans (William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, the Federal Family Education Loan Program, and Graduate PLUS Loans) who completed an award at the indicated field of study. Non-federal loans, Perkins loans, and federal loans not made to students (e.g., parents borrowing from the federal Parent PLUS loan program) are not included in the calculation. Only loans made at the same academic level as the award conferred are included (e.g., undergraduate loans are not included in the median debt calculation for graduate credential levels). Note that this debt metric only includes loans originated at this school, so this metric should be interpreted as the typical debt level for attending this school alone, not necessarily the typical total debt to obtain a credential for students who transfer from another school. For schools with multiple locations, this information is based on all of their locations.

These data are based on school-reported information about students’ program of completion. The U.S. Department of Education cannot fully confirm the completeness of these reported data for this school.

That means debt loads can of course be higher if undergraduate loans were factored in. These count Academic Year 2018-2019 figures.

A number of elite schools are near the top—despite their high debt levels, they translate into high median incomes among their graduates. A number of lower-cost schools also fare well near the top.

A good rule of thumb might be that “manageable” debt loads are those where debt is about equal to expected income at graduation—i.e., a ratio of 1.00 or lower. Only 22 schools meet that definition among median debt and earnings, and a few others are close. But it was 11 in the last data set, so the figure improved. Many ratios, however, are significantly higher than that. That said, law graduates to have higher earnings and see their salaries rise faster than a typical borrower, so maybe it’s not the best rule of thumb, either.

Of course, medians are likely skewed in other ways—the highest-earning graduates likely received the largest scholarships and, accordingly, graduated with the lowest debt (as I mention earlier).

But, the figures are below. I sort by the lowest (i.e., best) debt-to-income ratio. (Due to size of chart, results may be best viewed on a desktop or on a phone turned sideways.) I noted earlier that schools at the bottom of the list (i.e., with the highest ratio) appeared at a much higher risk of facing “adverse situations.”

UPDATE: A helpful commenter noted that many borrowers will be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs. If schools have disproportionately higher percentages of students entering those programs, their debt levels will appear worse than they actually and their salaries will appear on the lower end of the income side. It’s another limitation in thinking about a single-figure metric.