An Ivy League law degree can earn you over $200,000 a year—grads from this school make the most

Ivy League law schools like Harvard and Yale have produced presidents, Supreme Court justices, senators and more.

But even if you’re not looking to go the political route, earning a graduate-level law degree from an Ivy can pay off big time. 

The median annual earnings among graduates who were working and not enrolled four years after completion is over $200,000 at each of the five Ivy League schools offering advanced law degrees, according to data compiled by the Higher Education Advisory group.

Those schools are Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University. Brown University, Dartmouth College and Princeton University do not have law schools.

However, many students at these high-earning schools take on massive amounts of debt — a median of more than $100,000 at four of the five schools.

But $100,000 or more in debt may not be that unreasonable for graduates who go on to earn $200,000 or more within a few years of graduating. The general rule of thumb for knowing how much to borrow: The total amount you take out in student loans shouldn’t exceed your anticipated starting salary, experts say.

Here’s how much graduates from each Ivy League law school earn.

• Median earnings of graduates four years after graduation: $280,926
• Median Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt: $198,924
• Median debt as a percentage of median annual earnings: 71%

• Median earnings of graduates four years after graduation: $261,434
• Median Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt: $171,488
• Median debt as a percentage of median annual earnings: 66%

• Median earnings of graduates four years after graduation: $249,283
• Median Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt: $162,160
• Median debt as a percentage of median annual earnings: 65%

• Median earnings of graduates four years after graduation: $233,589
• Median Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt: $93,235
• Median debt as a percentage of median annual earnings: 40%

• Median earnings of graduates four years after graduation: $204,668
• Median Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt: $140,977
• Median debt as a percentage of median annual earnings: 69%

Though Columbia Law School graduates earn the most, many students make a hefty investment to go there. Tuition alone is $78,444 for the 2023-24 school year, which may help explain why Columbia law students also take on the most debt of all its peer schools. 

And though Columbia’s New York City campus may add to the school’s allure, it can be a burden on students who want to live nearby. Median rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in New York is close to $4,000 a month as of August 2023, according to Zumper.

The only Ivy League school where law students take on median debt of under $100,000 is Harvard, which could be due in part to a large share of its students paying full price. About 57% of Harvard Law students paid full tuition in the 2021-22 school year, the largest share of any Ivy League law school, according to the Law School Admissions Council.

Here’s the percentage of law students who paid full tuition at the rest of the Ivy League schools during the 2021-22 school year:

• Penn: 45%
• Yale: 36%
• Columbia: 35%
• Cornell: 15%

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