Only 13 Law Schools Didn’t Report 2016 Graduate Debt to U.S. News

Each year U.S. News & World Report lists law schools by the average indebtedness of their graduates. Importantly, the figures exclude accrued interest, which can be quite considerable. However, these numbers 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, but I welcome corrections.

#	SCHOOL	2015 DEBT	2016 DEBT	PCT. CHANGE
1.	Thomas Jefferson	172,726	182,411	5.6%
2.	Whittier	148,316	179,056	20.7%
3.	San Francisco	162,434	167,671	3.2%
4.	New York University	166,022	167,646	1.0%
5.	Georgetown	160,606	166,027	3.4%
6.	American	160,274	164,194	2.4%
7.	Golden Gate	143,740	161,809	12.6%
8.	Columbia	168,627	159,769	-5.3%
9.	John Marshall (Chicago)	162,264	158,888	-2.1%
10.	Florida Coastal	160,942	158,878	-1.3%
11.	Cornell	155,025	158,128	2.0%
12.	New York Law School	161,910	157,568	-2.7%
13.	Pennsylvania	144,153	156,725	8.7%
14.	Virginia	146,907	155,177	5.6%
15.	Northwestern	155,796	154,923	-0.6%
16.	Pepperdine	148,959	154,475	3.7%
17.	Elon	128,407	153,347	19.4%
18.	Harvard	149,754	153,172	2.3%
19.	Ave Maria	134,071	152,476	13.7%
20.	Detroit Mercy	137,047	152,000	10.9%
21.	Barry	138,410	151,479	9.4%
22.	Denver	132,158	150,055	13.5%
23.	Santa Clara	144,130	149,940	4.0%
24.	Miami	155,796	149,580	-4.0%
25.	Willamette	133,318	148,429	11.3%
26.	Nova Southeastern	123,798	147,879	19.5%
27.	California Western	162,260	147,302	-9.2%
28.	Loyola (CA)	148,035	146,494	-1.0%
29.	Michigan	142,572	146,309	2.6%
30.	California-Berkeley	144,981	145,260	0.2%
31.	George Washington	136,662	145,240	6.3%
32.	Baylor	135,817	144,732	6.6%
33.	Pacific, McGeorge	149,470	144,431	-3.4%
34.	Chapman	103,956	144,409	38.9%
35.	Marquette	138,549	142,601	2.9%
36.	Hofstra	125,300	142,261	13.5%
37.	Southern California	134,673	140,745	4.5%
38.	Seattle	136,889	139,745	2.1%
39.	Lewis and Clark	140,025	139,624	-0.3%
40.	Tulane	153,606	139,508	-9.2%
41.	Duke	131,073	137,829	5.2%
42.	Stanford	132,970	137,625	3.5%
43.	Charleston	146,230	137,345	-6.1%
44.	California-Hastings	135,886	137,157	0.9%
45.	Valparaiso	131,024	136,765	4.4%
46.	Mercer	138,575	135,300	-2.4%
47.	Suffolk	138,724	135,272	-2.5%
48.	Widener (Delaware)	136,992	135,151	-1.3%
49.	Chicago	129,636	134,148	3.5%
50.	Catholic	139,803	133,917	-4.2%
51.	Campbell	115,128	131,894	14.6%
52.	Creighton	117,980	130,145	10.3%
53.	Widener (Commonwealth)	148,496	129,016	-13.1%
54.	Stetson	130,079	128,703	-1.1%
55.	San Diego	135,433	127,693	-5.7%
56.	Samford	124,106	127,611	2.8%
57.	Vanderbilt	114,447	127,434	11.3%
58.	DePaul	131,148	126,446	-3.6%
59.	Roger Williams	123,332	126,334	2.4%
60.	Southern Methodist	124,723	126,172	1.2%
61.	Seton Hall	133,000	125,300	-5.8%
62.	Pace	124,823	124,317	-0.4%
63.	Regent	93,142	124,221	33.4%
64.	Notre Dame	122,822	123,924	0.9%
65.	Yale	122,796	121,815	-0.8%
66.	Western New England		121,367
67.	Emory	121,278	120,804	-0.4%
68.	Washington	111,003	120,554	8.6%
69.	Western State	122,315	119,382	-2.4%
70.	Mississippi College	129,000	119,000	-7.8%
71.	Cardozo, Yeshiva	119,294	118,764	-0.4%
72.	St. Mary’s	122,560	118,583	-3.2%
73.	California-Los Angeles	118,874	118,291	-0.5%
74.	George Mason	121,910	118,056	-3.2%
75.	Penn State (Penn State Law)	129,772	117,692	-9.3%
76.	Brooklyn	108,942	117,581	7.9%
77.	St. John’s	115,666	117,572	1.6%
78.	St. Louis	113,070	117,335	3.8%
79.	Syracuse	139,753	117,127	-16.2%
80.	Fordham	149,058	116,326	-22.0%
81.	Texas A&M [Wesleyan]	104,200	115,405	10.8%
82.	Maryland	114,493	113,927	-0.5%
83.	Drake	107,679	112,893	4.8%
84.	Northeastern	127,406	111,410	-12.6%
85.	Penn State (Dickinson Law)	116,717	109,828	-5.9%
86.	Gonzaga	125,347	109,692	-12.5%
87.	Boston College	112,439	108,873	-3.2%
88.	Dayton	115,740	108,724	-6.1%
89.	Duquesne	104,623	108,414	3.6%
90.	Baltimore	112,008	108,328	-3.3%
91.	Chicago-Kent, IIT	115,040	107,688	-6.4%
92.	Albany	125,157	107,185	-14.4%
93.	Minnesota	92,179	106,436	15.5%
94.	Washington and Lee	110,067	105,426	-4.2%
95.	District of Columbia	108,095	105,330	-2.6%
96.	Wake Forest	97,550	105,090	7.7%
97.	Indiana (Indianapolis)	106,114	105,065	-1.0%
98.	Boston University	102,329	104,755	2.4%
99.	Richmond	110,665	104,624	-5.5%
100.	Ohio Northern	102,414	104,284	1.8%
101.	Pittsburgh	104,484	103,990	-0.5%
102.	California-Davis	113,765	103,811	-8.7%
103.	Texas	102,101	103,417	1.3%
104.	Case Western Reserve	105,854	102,370	-3.3%
105.	Oklahoma City	121,607	102,024	-16.1%
106.	Quinnipiac	97,335	101,371	4.1%
107.	St. Thomas (MN)	101,950	100,805	-1.1%
108.	Mitchell|Hamline	108,019	100,603
109.	Colorado	107,080	100,499	-6.1%
110.	California-Irvine	125,473	100,408	-20.0%
111.	Indiana (Bloomington)	91,020	99,895	9.8%
112.	Illinois	118,731	99,782	-16.0%
113.	Villanova	110,792	99,736	-10.0%
114.	Louisville	86,880	99,581	14.6%
115.	Massachusetts — Dartmouth	102,603	98,730	-3.8%
116.	Arizona State	106,426	97,780	-8.1%
117.	Nevada	81,579	97,361	19.3%
118.	Houston	87,602	97,246	11.0%
119.	Drexel	100,362	96,402	-3.9%
120.	New Hampshire	108,896	95,650	-12.2%
121.	North Carolina	102,828	95,365	-7.3%
122.	Florida International	95,331	93,838	-1.6%
123.	Washington University	109,232	93,768	-14.2%
124.	Missouri (Kansas City)	96,639	93,678	-3.1%
125.	Utah	79,124	91,982	16.3%
126.	Michigan State	93,245	91,014	-2.4%
127.	SUNY Buffalo	86,970	90,546	4.1%
128.	Wyoming	77,421	90,231	16.5%
129.	William and Mary	110,140	90,028	-18.3%
130.	Lincoln Memorial	95,495	89,779	-6.0%
131.	Southern University	86,708	89,552	3.3%
132.	Maine	99,617	89,513	-10.1%
133.	South Carolina	85,006	89,388	5.2%
134.	Kansas	80,884	88,809	9.8%
135.	Florida State	82,102	88,732	8.1%
136.	Loyola (IL)	133,052	88,588	-33.4%
137.	Ohio State	96,253	88,301	-8.3%
138.	Southern Illinois	90,727	87,634	-3.4%
139.	Temple	86,999	86,937	-0.1%
140.	Northern Illinois	77,975	86,899	11.4%
141.	Idaho	81,993	86,022	4.9%
142.	Toledo	94,295	85,649	-9.2%
143.	Arizona	100,902	84,601	-16.2%
144.	Louisiana State	90,609	83,919	-7.4%
145.	Oklahoma	82,818	83,433	0.7%
146.	Akron	78,575	82,854	5.4%
147.	West Virginia	85,063	82,683	-2.8%
148.	Hawaii	54,988	82,510	50.1%
149.	Florida	84,580	82,480	-2.5%
150.	Georgia	86,515	82,199	-5.0%
151.	Wayne State	82,397	81,738	-0.8%
152.	Washburn	86,621	81,528	-5.9%
153.	Tennessee	66,939	80,445	20.2%
154.	Missouri (Columbia)	81,149	80,138	-1.2%
155.	Texas Tech	74,673	80,087	7.3%
156.	City University	77,751	78,523	1.0%
157.	Wisconsin	84,650	77,555	-8.4%
158.	Memphis	77,752	76,997	-1.0%
159.	Tulsa	82,954	76,988	-7.2%
160.	Alabama	74,921	75,577	0.9%
161.	Cincinnati	82,988	75,512	-9.0%
162.	Montana	79,304	75,470	-4.8%
163.	New Mexico	69,366	75,277	8.5%
164.	Northern Kentucky	84,714	74,190	-12.4%
165.	Iowa	86,373	74,128	-14.2%
166.	Liberty	68,667	73,857	7.6%
167.	Connecticut	69,195	72,042	4.1%
168.	Arkansas (Fayetteville)	64,901	67,758	4.4%
169.	Mississippi	71,330	67,539	-5.3%
170.	North Dakota	69,058	66,917	-3.1%
171.	Arkansas (Little Rock)	68,960	65,931	-4.4%
172.	Georgia State	66,637	64,384	-3.4%
173.	Nebraska	58,744	62,888	7.1%
174.	North Carolina Central	27,972	60,479	116.2%
175.	Kentucky	77,793	59,163	-23.9%
176.	Brigham Young	62,423	58,133	-6.9%
177.	South Dakota	57,170	56,609	-1.0%
178.	Rutgers	89,507	56,173
179.	Vermont	156,710	52,682	-66.4%
180.	Howard	141,044	50,920	-63.9%
181.	Belmont	56,225	40,677	-27.7%
182.	Loyola (LA)	124,143	39,138	-68.5%
183.	South Texas	121,767	38,717	-68.2%
184.	Capital	116,283	35,079	-69.8%
185.	Cleveland State	93,865	29,051	-69.1%
186.	Florida A&M		20,500
187.	Faulkner		18,434
188.	Oregon	106,540	17,834	-83.3%
10TH PERCENTILE		77,421	65,931	-16.0
25TH PERCENTILE		86,999	85,649	-6.1%
MEDIAN		112,439	105,330	-1.0%
75TH PERCENTILE		133,318	135,151	4.5%
90TH PERCENTILE		148,496	152,000	11.4%
MEAN		111,874	107,608	-2.1%

Note: Mitchell|Hamline’s 2015 entry is the bare mean average of William Mitchell’s and Hamline’s 2015 figures.

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.

• 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)
• Southwestern – $147,976 (2012)
• Thomas (FL) – $140,808 (2014)
• New England – $132,246 (2013)
• WMU Cooley – $122,395 (2012)
• Appalachian – $114,740 (2012)
• La Verne – $112,628 (2012)
• Texas Southern – $99,992 (2012)
• Concordia – NEVER
• Indiana Tech – NEVER

These 13 law schools account for 2,282 graduates out of 36,664, or 6 percent of the total.

Normally, I would estimate the change in the weighted-average amount of debt law graduates at public and private law school take on, but because U.S. News reported absurdly high percentages of graduates with debt at each law school, I decline to make those estimates now. However, the unweighted-average private-law-school graduate debt, which is what is commonly reported, fell by 3 percent; it also fell by 4 percent at public law schools. Much of this is due to clear misreporting by law schools, some of which after all these years still report their graduates’ debt in their final year of law school.

Speaking of which, here are some curious results:

• Fluctuations: Hawaii (+50.1%), Chapman (+38.9%), Regent (+33.4%), Whittier (+20.7%), Tennessee (+20.2%), California-Irvine (-20.0%), Fordham (-22.0%), Kentucky (-23.9%), Belmont (-27.7%), and Loyola (IL) (-33.4%).
• Big raspberries: Howard (-63.9), Vermont (-66.4), South Texas (-68.2), Loyola (LA) (-68.5), Cleveland State (-69.1), Capital (-69.8), and Oregon (-83.3).

In all, it’s good the non-reporting count fell. Kudos to the law schools that reported this year that did not for 2015, even if I don’t believe Faulkner’s or Florida A&M’s grads finished with so little debt.

Click to read the 2015 edition, the 2014 edition, or the 2013 edition of this post.