U.S. News ranks Georgia State Law second in nation for ‘Financial Value at Graduation'
April 1, 2011
ATLANTA – Georgia State University College of Law recently was rated the No. 2 law school in the nation for its “Financial Value at Graduation,” according to a survey in U.S. News & World Report.
Of 190 law schools surveyed by U.S. News, 188 schools reported both the average indebtedness of their 2010 graduates and the median starting salary of graduates who accepted jobs in the private sector. The salary-to-debt ratio, used in the rankings, is a calculation of how many times a student's reported starting salary covers their debt load. For this list, only private sector starting salary data was considered, and schools that were designated by U.S. News as unranked are not included.
According to U.S. News, with a few exceptions, the schools that offer the most financial value at graduation are public institutions, though reported indebtedness and salary data still fluctuate widely. At Georgia State Law, where tuition is $11,568 a year for in-state students, the average graduate leaves with about $19,136 in debt. Georgia State Law graduates who enter the private sector earn a median of $80,000 a year, which yields a salary-to-debt ratio of 4.2.
Last month, Georgia State was again ranked among the top third of the nation's law schools, coming in at No. 61 in the U.S. News 2012 edition of America's Best Law Schools, which also ranked the school's popular part-time program at No. 20 in the country and its highly regarded Health Law program at No. 5.
The U.S. News rankings are just the latest positive recognition for Georgia State Law. The college recently was named the No. 1 Best Value Law School by The National Jurist. Earlier this month, in its annual list of the top 50 "Go-To" law schools, the National Law Journal ranked Georgia State at No. 32 for its percentage of graduates who were hired as first-year associates at the nation's top firms.
Contact:
Wendy Cromwell
Director of Communications
404.413.9050