• Key Statistical Terms

  A quartile is the result of spliting a populaion into four equal groups. The 50th percentile, or median, is the middle point between the smallest and highest value in a population. The 25th percentile is the middle point between the smallest value and the median value. The 75th percentile uses the same calculation, but with the highest value. The interquartile range is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile (inclusive). A median is a type of average; another common average is the mean.

• Median Salary (via the federal government)

  The middle amount earned by graduates who borrowed for law school, regardless of the type or number of jobs worked. Earnings data come from the U.S. Department of Education, which obtains data from the Department of the Treasury. The underlying dataset reflects actual earnings in the first full calendar year after graduation, e.g. the earnings were from 2017 for 2016 graduates.

  This measures something different from other salaries that appear on this site. Those salaries come from schools according to NALP's process, which measures the annual salary of a graduate 10 months after graduation (on March 15) and reports only on long-term, full-time jobs. A graduate who started their job on March 1, 2017 would report their starting salary (for example, $60,000) to NALP. If they held the job for the remainder of the calendar year, they would have earned $50,000 from that job in 2017. But if they made $4,000 from part-time work in January and February, they would report $54,000 of income to the IRS.

• Salary Distribution

  Helps you peer underneath the average salaries and see how different graduates fare in greater detail. Pay attention to non-responses. The greater the percentage reporting, the more reliable the salary information will be. Keep in mind that salaries differ primarily by geography and employer type. Differences in salaries between schools generally reflect differences in job/geographic placement. Not all schools have access to the same jobs or locations.

• Salary Information

  Schools can provide salary information for any job classification, but usually only provide it for graduates reporting a salary for long-term, full-time jobs in the following categories:

  • All Employed
  • Job Type
  • Employer Type
  • Job Type by Employer Type
  • Location (Region)

  • Location (In-State/Out-of-State)

  Splits graduate salaries into two categories: those employed (and reporting a salary) in the state where the law school is located and those employed (and reporting a salary) in other states/countries.

  • Sector

  Splits graduate salaries into two categories: those employed (and reporting salary) in the private sector and those employed (and reporting a salary) in the public sector. The private sector includes jobs at law firms and in business & industry. The public sector includes jobs in education, public interest, government, and judicial chambers (clerkships).

• Star a School to Add to Your List

  To add a law school to your list, you may star it from this page. Add a school to your list when you're interested in attending or tracking their performance. You can do many things with this list and add schools to it from all over this site.

For more definitions, view the full glossary.