2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
There are about 238,669 students enrolled in Legal Studies in the USA.
Menu: summary
popularity
Very Popular
Compared to national avg.
Diplomas received last year
109,535
Vs. National Avg.
593%
popularity Rank
#16
cost
Very Affordable
Compared to national avg.
Median degree cost
$19K
Vs. National Avg.
-20%
cost Rank
#329
salary
Low Paying
Compared to national avg.
Average Salary Two Years Out of School
$37K
Vs. National Avg.
-8%
salary Rank
#337
professors
Not Very Good
Compared to national avg.
Professor Rating
C+
Vs. National Avg.
-5%
professors Rank
#326
students
Below Average
Compared to national avg.
Diversity Rating
C+
Vs. National Avg.
0%
students Rank
#248
SUMMARY
A degree in Legal Studies is a valuable choice and frequently a mandatory first step for undergraduates aspiring to begin a career as a lawyer, a real estate attorney, or an intellectual property lawyer. In fact, legal studies is an uncommon major ranking as the 126th most popular major. In the last year, there were 2,481 legal studies diplomas received. In-state tuition for legal studies at private schools is, on average, 3.2 times more expensive than their public rivals.
With just 102 universities offering legal studies you may have a smaller selection of institutions which will have a degree program for you. If you are hoping to immerse yourself with other legal studies undergrads, consider schools in New York which have more undergrads admitted to legal studies than any other state. More generally, the best region to study legal studies is in the Mid East region with University of Maryland Global Campus, CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and St John's University-New York best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection for the best conference to study legal studies is the Pacific-12 Conference with Arizona State University-Tempe, University of California-Berkeley, and University of Washington-Seattle Campus representing the conference. From our list of the best colleges, our choice for the best school for legal studies is Northwestern University.
The objectively best school might not actually be the 'best' school for every student. There can be lots more angels to think about when selecting college. Things such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food would refashion your decision of where to go to school. Here at authority.org, we have weighed the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you are intrigued by which legal studies university boasts the best campus, the winner is University of Massachusetts-Amherst. If you are very interested in which college is home to the top campus, we have an entire page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through government databases, student reviews, professor reviews, and more in order to compare each major in an unbiased and informative way. Here you can explore our well researched list for the colleges with the best student life and from that list, our choice for the college with the best student life for legal studies is University of Wisconsin-Madison. Curious why? Continue reading to discover more about our top recommendations. Many of our picks might surprise you.
If expense is a major factor in your decision on where to go to university, you might consider avoiding Northwestern University. Northwestern University appears to be the most expensive university for legal studies, at least for out of state students. We have a page for the most expensive colleges that could put the cost of Northwestern University into perspective. Additionally, you may care to know that legal studies is the 178th most expensive major in the US, with an average bill of $31,700. To zoom out a little, the most costly state for legal studies nationally is Colorado demonstrated by a cost of $51,336 at the main school in the state University of Denver. To zoom out even further, the most expensive region of the U.S. for legal studies is unfortunately unavailable due to missing data.
Our cheapest region for legal studies is the Southwest region which is represented by University of Central Oklahoma with a cost of $17,573, The University of Texas at San Antonio with a cost of $17,511, and National Paralegal College with a cost of $7,800. More optimistically, the most affordable college for legal studies is CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Our full list of the most affordable schools can be found here.
In-state students can anticipate paying about $11,000 for a degree in legal studies. That cost balloons dramatically to an average of $24,700 for an out-of-state public-school undergraduate. As such, you might be interested in our choice for the university constituting the best value for legal studies: Northwestern University. Here you will see our comprehensive list about the schools we see as being the best value overall. Do know, this idea is predicated on being an out-of-state student. A discussion of value changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, but we do not know where you live (and are not trying to collect that kind of data).
Earnings for legal studies majors can differ, but within two years completing the major graduates will regularly make around $47,000. There is much variation in earnings potential; top earners can enjoy pay up to $91,900. Even straight out of university, the minimum earning opportunities within the legal studies field make $24,100, which could be worse. The highest earning grads from legal studies have come from Northwestern University and if you are looking for universities with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.
The prevailing diversity of legal studies stands quite high, coming within the 87th percentile of all majors. The university with the highest composite diversity for legal studies is University of Miami and here you can find our comprehensive list of the universities with the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of Legal Studies only ranks in the 67th percentile of all majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 87th percentile. White undergraduates make up the largest proportion at 49% of students majoring in legal studies. Additionally, 65% of scholars seeking a legal studies major are women.
The median score for legal studies professors is 4 stars, a rating that is actually the median for every major; this is a fine. If you are looking for the most popular legal studies instructor nationally, take a look at Robert Potter from University of Central Florida. This might come as a surprise, but the top rated professors of legal studies according to students are at Pace University. If we including data other than simply rankings it becomes clear that the college possessing the overall best instructors for legal studies is Northwestern University. One can find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, as well as some of the finest examples of instructors nationwide.
Finally, the hardest school to get into for legal studies is Northwestern University. While we are unsure why you would be interested, we have a comprehensive list for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, we do hope you understand that approaching college with a perspective mainly derived from superlatives could cause problems. We hope you read our other pages on different universities and read some of our insightful background articles on important things to think about as your university search develops.
Top 25 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
Search for the best Legal Studies colleges according to your filter parameters.
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#1 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
University of Richmond
University of Richmond, VA | https://www.richmond.edu/
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#4 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
Tulane University of Louisiana
New Orleans, LA | https://tulane.edu/
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#6 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
University of Washington-Seattle Campus
Seattle, WA | www.washington.edu/
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#10 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
Nova Southeastern University
Fort Lauderdale, FL | www.nova.edu/
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#11 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
United States Military Academy
West Point, NY | www.westpoint.edu/
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#12 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
University of California-Berkeley
Berkeley, CA | www.berkeley.edu/
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#14 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus
Pittsburgh, PA | www.pitt.edu/
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#18 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
United States Air Force Academy
USAF Academy, CO | www.usafa.edu/
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#21 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
University Park, PA |
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#22 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
Lipscomb University
Nashville, TN | https://www.lipscomb.edu/
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#25 2024 Best Colleges for Legal Studies
CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice
New York, NY | www.jjay.cuny.edu/