-30%
Median federal debt at exit
Median federal debt at exit at Thomas M Cooley Law School fell 30% between 2009 and 2011 ($15.9k → $11.2k).
Michigan · Private nonprofit · Predominantly graduate
Thomas M Cooley Law School
Lansing, Michigan. 3 programs in the federal Field-of-Study dataset.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags at Thomas M Cooley Law School
Short-arc shifts (recent 3-year window), peer outliers, earnings trend breaks, completion drops, enrollment cliffs, and debt-to-earnings warnings — surfaced deterministically from the federal record. Multi-decade shifts are reported separately in the Long Arc section, since 25-year tuition drift isn't really an anomaly.
SECTION 01 · OUTCOMES SNAPSHOT
The numbers, vs. Michigan
Each tile compares this institution to the Michigan median for the same metric. Sub-line shows the comparison value, not an interpretation. Sparklines trace the federally available history.
$63,450
Michigan median $38,167—
Treasury earnings · 6y post-entry—
Michigan median 57.1%—-30% · '09→'11
At program completion—
latest IPEDS—
first-time, full-time—
latest cohort—
annualSECTION 04 · LONG ARC
Ten-plus year arc
Federally available history. Coverage varies by metric — IPEDS publishes some series only after 2009 and others only before.
Median federal student debt at exit.
-30%
Thomas M Cooley Law School · median debt fell
$15,913 → $11,214
-100%
Thomas M Cooley Law School · cohort default rate fell
4.3% → 0.0%
SECTION 05 · PROGRAMS
Ranked by 5-year earnings
Each row is one (CIP × credential) program reported by the institution in College Scorecard's Field-of-Study data. Cohort floor is 30 students; below this, federal data is suppressed.
SECTION 06 · BY CIP FAMILY
2 programs with earnings, grouped
Programs are grouped by 2-digit CIP family. Programs without reported earnings are hidden to keep the list focused.
LEGAL PROFESSIONS · CIP 22
FINANCIAL OUTCOME · ILLUSTRATION
Estimate the financial outcome at Thomas M Cooley Law School
Pick a program. Cost from Scorecard net price by family income; earnings from Treasury 5-year-post-completion median, projected forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve. The selection-bias toggle applies the Dale-Krueger shrinkage. Outcomes illustration, not a forecast — see methodology.
Shrinks the earnings premium toward the matched-applicant mean. STEM <15%, business ~40%, arts & education ~60%.
EARNINGS SUPPRESSED
Federal privacy rules suppressed earnings for Law · First Professional Degree at Thomas M Cooley Law School(cohort below 30 students). The calculator can’t produce a number we’d stand behind, so we don’t.
Outcomes illustration · not a forecast. Projects observed Scorecard earnings forward with a Mincer age-earnings curve under your assumptions. See methodology for the math.
SECTION 07 · SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS
Same sector and degree mix in Michigan
Picked by Carnegie sector × predominant credential level. These are not rankings — just nearest-neighbour surfaces for comparison.
CAUSAL DISCIPLINE
“Thomas M Cooley Law School graduates earn $X” — not “Thomas M Cooley Law School makes you earn $X”
Median earnings describe what cohorts earned. They do not describe what attending Thomas M Cooley Law School caused. Selection effects (who admits, who enrolls, who completes) are real. We publish federal data with strict descriptive phrasing — and link the methodology where you can read about the limitations directly.