In late 2020, I last blogged about the “debt-to-income” ratio of recent law school graduates.

The Department of Education offers data with incredible insights into debt and earnings of university graduates. Recent updates are available, and we can look at the data again. Here’s the data fields from the Department of Education:

Institution-level data files for 1996-97 through 2020-21 containing aggregate data for each institution. Includes information on institutional characteristics, enrollment, student aid, costs, and student outcomes.

Field of study-level data files for the pooled 2014-15, 2015-16 award years through the pooled 2017-18, 2018-19 award years containing data at the credential level and 4-digit CIP code combination for each institution. Includes information on cumulative debt at graduation and earnings one year after graduation.

One intriguing figure is the “debt-to-income” ratio (some people hated this term, but I’m still using it), or how much student debt recent graduates have compared to their annual 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!)

Not all schools are listed due to some data issues—sometimes the Department of Education fails to disclose certain data for some institutions.

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 be enrolled in school during the year when earnings are measured. Median earnings are measured in the fourth 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.

These calculations are based, in part, on calendar year 2020 earnings which may have been impacted by the pandemic and may not be predictive of earnings values in non-pandemic years.

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.

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 20 schools meet that definition among median debt and earnings, and a few others are close. 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.

Many ratios, however, are significantly higher than that. 59 have ratios above 2.00; of those, 13 have ratios above 3.00. Only a couple of schools in the USNWR “top 50” rankings cross the 2.00 ratio.

Many borrowers will be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs, either at the federal level or at their own law schools. 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.

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.

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 a few years ago that schools at the bottom of the list (i.e., with the highest ratio) appeared at a much higher risk of facing “adverse situations.”

This table has been updated with information from Maine. Some schools, including BYU and Texas, do not have complete data reported in the Department of Education data set and cannot be included here.