University Of Alabama's Law School Is The Best In America For The Money

The Jurist, the "voice of legal education," looked at tuition, cost of living, bar passage rates, debt, and employment success.

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, second on the list, bested Alabama with an average debt less than $60,000. Alabama's average debt of roughly $67,000 was still way less than the average private law school debt of $125,000, though.

Alabama landed the top spot with its employment rate - nearly 90%. Only one other law school on the "best value" list, University of California-Irvine, can claim a rate that high. The Jurist's new rankings comes amid a fierce debate about whether law school is really worth the money.

"One of the battles we're facing is of the student who goes to a major private law school and racks-up a quarter-million dollars of debt and can't find a job," University of South Carolina law den Robert Wilcox told the Jurist.

The Jurist's ranking techniques come with their criticisms, though. The ranking credited law schools for giving students scholarships but failed to include data about students who lost their scholarships, according to Above the Law.