University of Texas law students, on average, get the most bang for their law school buck. There are only two other schools in Texas where students make more in their first year than they spend in law school: the University of Houston and Texas Tech. At the other end of the spectrum, Baylor and Texas Wesleyan graduates have to work for nearly two years before they can recoup their law school expenses.

The cost/earnings ratio (C/E ratio) reflects how much every dollar earned by a first-year associate cost the associate over the course of their law school career. Since C/E ratios reflect the cost of going to law school, the lower the C/E ratio is, the better. The Return Ratio is the inverse of the C/E ratio, and it reflects the how much each dollar expended in law school is worth on graduation.

While these numbers don’t reflect opportunity costs, the time value of money, or the cost of borrowing the money, they do offer an interesting glimpse into the economics of attending law school, and help in determining which schools offer the “best deals.”

Interestingly, higher cost/earnings ratios don’t translate directly to higher debt/earnings ratio. The D/E ratios, which I will discuss later this week, provide a better sense of the average cost of attending law school for students who use student loans to finance their education.

Sources and Assumptions: All the data used reflects 2007 figures, since that is the most recent year that a complete data set was available. Data sources include the school websites, Princeton Review, and U.S. News and World Reports.