Record 16 Law Schools Didn’t Report 2015 Graduate Debt to U.S. News

…And for some reason U.S. News didn’t rank law schools by debt, generously offering me an opportunity to do so in its stead.

Each year U.S. News lists the amount of debt law schools’ recent graduates took out. Importantly, the figure excludes accrued interest, which can be quite considerable. However, these figures are probably the best estimate of the cost of attendance at a particular law school, presented in a comparable form. The ABA does not publicize graduate debt in the 509 information reports, making U.S. News an unfortunately necessary source.

Here’s the debt table. A recurring problem in U.S. News‘ debt data is law schools that misreport their graduating students’ annual debt as opposed to their cumulative debt, which is what the magazine asks for. Thus, I include last year’s numbers for illustration and encourage ridicule of law schools that cannot follow basic directions.

#	SCHOOL	2014 DEBT	2015 DEBT	PCT. CHANGE
1.	Thomas Jefferson	172,445	172,726	0.2%
2.	Columbia	154,076	168,627	9.4%
3.	New York University	147,744	166,022	12.4%
4.	San Francisco	154,321	162,434	5.3%
5.	John Marshall (Chicago)	143,518	162,264	13.1%
6.	California Western	151,197	162,260	7.3%
7.	New York Law School	166,622	161,910	-2.8%
8.	Florida Coastal	162,785	160,942	-1.1%
9.	Georgetown	150,529	160,606	6.7%
10.	American	159,316	160,274	0.6%
11.	Vermont	156,713	156,710	0.0%
12.	Miami	143,845	155,796	8.3%
13.	Northwestern	163,065	155,796	-4.5%
14.	Tulane	140,965	153,606	9.0%
15.	Harvard	137,599	149,754	8.8%
16.	Pacific, McGeorge	140,517	149,470	6.4%
17.	Fordham	140,577	149,058	6.0%
18.	Pepperdine	145,525	148,959	2.4%
19.	Widener (Commonwealth)		148,496
20.	Whittier	151,602	148,316	-2.2%
21.	Loyola (CA)	147,701	148,035	0.2%
22.	Virginia	132,182	146,907	11.1%
23.	Charleston	147,031	146,230	-0.5%
24.	California-Berkeley	143,546	144,981	1.0%
25.	Pennsylvania	130,002	144,153	10.9%
26.	Santa Clara	136,990	144,130	5.2%
27.	Golden Gate	146,288	143,740	-1.7%
28.	Michigan	132,473	142,572	7.6%
29.	Lewis and Clark	127,064	140,025	10.2%
30.	Catholic	144,737	139,803	-3.4%
31.	Syracuse	129,249	139,753	8.1%
32.	Suffolk	120,993	138,724	14.7%
33.	Mercer	125,301	138,575	10.6%
34.	Marquette	134,533	138,549	3.0%
35.	Barry	149,175	138,410	-7.2%
36.	Detroit Mercy	132,245	137,047	3.6%
37.	Widener (Delaware)	139,229	136,992	-1.6%
38.	Seattle	131,414	136,889	4.2%
39.	George Washington	141,346	136,662	-3.3%
40.	California-Hastings	129,178	135,886	5.2%
41.	Baylor	116,666	135,817	16.4%
42.	San Diego	128,477	135,433	5.4%
43.	Southern California	137,163	134,673	-1.8%
44.	Ave Maria	132,236	134,071	1.4%
45.	Willamette	136,099	133,318	-2.0%
46.	Loyola (IL)	134,968	133,052	-1.4%
47.	Seton Hall	128,100	133,000	3.8%
48.	Stanford	128,137	132,970	3.8%
49.	Denver	132,083	132,158	0.1%
50.	DePaul	125,895	131,148	4.2%
51.	Duke	125,406	131,073	4.5%
52.	Valparaiso	132,010	131,024	-0.7%
53.	Stetson	148,394	130,079	-12.3%
54.	Penn State (Penn State Law)		129,772
55.	Chicago	144,695	129,636	-10.4%
56.	Elon	132,444	128,407	-3.0%
57.	Northeastern	134,918	127,406	-5.6%
58.	California-Irvine	102,891	125,473	21.9%
59.	Gonzaga	121,281	125,347	3.4%
60.	Hofstra	143,646	125,300	-12.8%
61.	Albany	130,184	125,157	-3.9%
62.	Pace	122,180	124,823	2.2%
63.	Southern Methodist	124,617	124,723	0.1%
64.	Loyola (LA)	117,892	124,143	5.3%
65.	Samford	124,106	124,106	0.0%
66.	Nova Southeastern	136,450	123,798	-9.3%
67.	Roger Williams	128,543	123,332	-4.1%
68.	Notre Dame	111,310	122,822	10.3%
69.	Yale	117,093	122,796	4.9%
70.	St. Mary’s	116,782	122,560	4.9%
71.	Western State	120,350	122,315	1.6%
72.	George Mason	126,723	121,910	-3.8%
73.	South Texas	113,748	121,767	7.0%
74.	Oklahoma City	121,476	121,607	0.1%
75.	Emory	108,690	121,278	11.6%
76.	Cardozo, Yeshiva	121,644	119,294	-1.9%
77.	California-Los Angeles	121,066	118,874	-1.8%
78.	Illinois	89,852	118,731	32.1%
79.	Creighton	126,586	117,980	-6.8%
80.	Penn State (Dickinson Law)	123,842	116,717	-5.8%
81.	Capital	113,434	116,283	2.5%
82.	Dayton	113,486	115,740	2.0%
83.	St. John’s	111,959	115,666	3.3%
84.	Campbell	90,065	115,128	27.8%
85.	Chicago-Kent, IIT	119,884	115,040	-4.0%
86.	Maryland	102,183	114,493	12.0%
87.	Vanderbilt	122,327	114,447	-6.4%
88.	California-Davis	93,498	113,765	21.7%
89.	St. Louis	128,764	113,070	-12.2%
90.	Boston College	97,006	112,439	15.9%
91.	Baltimore	114,725	112,008	-2.4%
92.	Washington	105,990	111,003	4.7%
93.	Villanova	95,297	110,792	16.3%
94.	Richmond	110,380	110,665	0.3%
95.	William and Mary	98,487	110,140	11.8%
96.	Washington and Lee	109,422	110,067	0.6%
97.	Washington University	111,345	109,232	-1.9%
98.	Brooklyn	114,953	108,942	-5.2%
99.	New Hampshire	121,469	108,896	-10.4%
100.	William Mitchell	110,738	108,678	-1.9%
101.	District of Columbia	73,175	108,095	47.7%
102.	Drake	108,857	107,679	-1.1%
103.	Hamline	113,173	107,359	-5.1%
104.	Colorado	116,280	107,080	-7.9%
105.	Oregon	105,900	106,540	0.6%
106.	Arizona State	97,431	106,426	9.2%
107.	Indiana (Indianapolis)	96,651	106,114	9.8%
108.	Case Western Reserve	131,724	105,854	-19.6%
109.	Duquesne	107,496	104,623	-2.7%
110.	Pittsburgh	103,461	104,484	1.0%
111.	Texas A&M [Wesleyan]	103,500	104,200	0.7%
112.	Chapman	148,429	103,956	-30.0%
113.	North Carolina	92,475	102,828	11.2%
114.	Massachusetts — Dartmouth	105,415	102,603	-2.7%
115.	Ohio Northern	107,764	102,414	-5.0%
116.	Boston University	107,850	102,329	-5.1%
117.	Texas	100,868	102,101	1.2%
118.	St. Thomas (MN)	100,401	101,950	1.5%
119.	Arizona	95,533	100,902	5.6%
120.	Drexel	91,915	100,362	9.2%
121.	Maine	101,749	99,617	-2.1%
122.	Wake Forest	107,532	97,550	-9.3%
123.	Quinnipiac	119,956	97,335	-18.9%
124.	Missouri (Kansas City)		96,639
125.	Ohio State	97,021	96,253	-0.8%
126.	Lincoln Memorial		95,495
127.	Florida International	89,815	95,331	6.1%
128.	Toledo	96,924	94,295	-2.7%
129.	Cleveland State	89,879	93,865	4.4%
130.	Michigan State	95,494	93,245	-2.4%
131.	Regent	125,158	93,142	-25.6%
132.	Minnesota	104,733	92,179	-12.0%
133.	Indiana (Bloomington)	89,785	91,020	1.4%
134.	Southern Illinois		90,727
135.	Louisiana State	89,471	90,609	1.3%
136.	Houston	88,664	87,602	-1.2%
137.	Temple	97,323	86,999	-10.6%
138.	SUNY Buffalo	76,010	86,970	14.4%
139.	Louisville	90,195	86,880	-3.7%
140.	Southern University	77,067	86,708	12.5%
141.	Washburn	83,396	86,621	3.9%
142.	Georgia	88,825	86,515	-2.6%
143.	Iowa	92,373	86,373	-6.5%
144.	West Virginia	84,727	85,063	0.4%
145.	Rutgers-Camden		85,054
146.	Rutgers-Newark	89,507	85,054	-5.0%
147.	South Carolina	84,590	85,006	0.5%
148.	Northern Kentucky	82,989	84,714	2.1%
149.	Wisconsin	79,373	84,650	6.6%
150.	Florida	82,410	84,580	2.6%
151.	Cincinnati	76,663	82,988	8.3%
152.	Tulsa	99,305	82,954	-16.5%
153.	Oklahoma	81,789	82,818	1.3%
154.	Wayne State	79,881	82,397	3.1%
155.	Florida State	80,375	82,102	2.1%
156.	Nevada	99,678	81,579	-18.2%
157.	Missouri (Columbia)	67,289	81,149	20.6%
158.	Kansas	74,890	80,884	8.0%
159.	Montana	71,216	79,304	11.4%
160.	Utah	78,725	79,124	0.5%
161.	Akron	82,322	78,575	-4.6%
162.	Northern Illinois	77,182	77,975	1.0%
163.	Kentucky	76,746	77,793	1.4%
164.	Memphis	78,030	77,752	-0.4%
165.	City University	82,415	77,751	-5.7%
166.	Wyoming	67,087	77,421	15.4%
167.	Alabama	69,440	74,921	7.9%
168.	Texas Tech	84,272	74,673	-11.4%
169.	Mississippi	73,003	71,330	-2.3%
170.	New Mexico	71,029	69,366	-2.3%
171.	Connecticut	70,139	69,195	-1.3%
172.	North Dakota	64,818	69,058	6.5%
173.	Arkansas (Little Rock)	69,532	68,960	-0.8%
174.	Liberty	69,475	68,667	-1.2%
175.	Tennessee	66,201	66,939	1.1%
176.	Georgia State	69,822	66,637	-4.6%
177.	Arkansas (Fayetteville)	63,541	64,901	2.1%
178.	Brigham Young	54,203	62,423	15.2%
179.	Nebraska	62,985	58,744	-6.7%
180.	South Dakota	78,963	57,170	-27.6%
181.	Belmont		56,225
182.	Hawaii	56,266	54,988	-2.3%
183. ~14	Cornell	135,000	53,680 155,025	-60.2% 14.8%
184.	Mississippi College	130,700	38,213	-70.8%
185. ~156	Idaho	92,732	32,114 81,993	-65.4% -11.6%
186.	North Carolina Central	58,061	27,972	-51.8%
187.	Howard	24,021	23,197	-3.4%
188.	St. Thomas (FL)	140,808		-100.0%
189.	Western New England	130,124		-100.0%
190.	Touro	154,855		-100.0%

And per this post’s title, here’s the List of Shame: Law schools that chose not to submit their graduates’ debt information to U.S. News, along with their last-reported figures and the year in which they reported them. Thanks to the gainful employment rule, I was able to track down median graduate debt at three for-profits. As I am merciful, I exclude the three Puerto Rico law schools from this count. Nevertheless, 16 non-reporting law schools is a record.

• Arizona Summit [Phoenix] – $178,263 [2015, median, for-profit]
• Atlanta’s John Marshall – $161,910 [2015, median, for-profit]
• Charlotte – $145,834 [2015, median, for-profit]
• Touro – $154,855 (2014)
• Thomas (FL) – $140,808 (2014)
• Western New England – $130,124 (2014)
• New England – $132,246 (2013)
• Faulkner – $122,187 (2013)
• Southwestern – $147,976 (2012)
• WMU Cooley – $122,395 (2012)
• Appalachian – $114,740 (2012)
• La Verne – $112,628 (2012)
• Texas Southern – $99,992 (2012)
• Florida A&M – $96,934 (2011)
• Concordia – NEVER
• Indiana Tech – NEVER

Yes, Indiana Tech was provisionally accredited just days before the U.S. News rankings came out, but too bad. All accredited law schools are judged equally!

These 16 law schools account for 3,169 graduates out of 39,390, or 8 percent of the total.

Overall, weighted-average private law-school graduate debt rose from $131,195 to $132,207 $132,985 (1%). For public law schools, debt rose from $93,985 to $94,700 $95,047 (1%). The weights are the percent of graduates who took out debt per U.S. News multiplied by the number of graduates according to the 509 information reports.

Interestingly, the unweighted average private law-school graduate debt, which is what is commonly reported, fell by 1.5 0.7 percent; it rose by 1.4 2.1 percent at public law schools. Be wary of lazy reporting: The number of students at high-debt schools matter.

Other thoughts:

• Last year I didn’t think U.S. News would report Hamline’s numbers, but it did. Good on U.S. News.
• Fluctuations: District of Columbia (+48%), Illinois (+32%), and Campbell (+28%); Quinnipiac (-19%), Case Western (-20%), Regent (-26%), South Dakota (-28%), and Chapman (-30%).
• Big raspberries to North Carolina Central (-51.8%), Cornell (-60.2%), Idaho (-65.4%), and Mississippi College (-70.8%). Please report data better.

That’s all for now.

Click to read the 2014 edition or the 2013 edition of this post.

[Update, 2016-03-28: The University of Idaho College of Law corrected its debt data.]

[Update, 2016-03-31: Cornell Law School corrected its debt data.]