Want to know which are the most expensive law schools in the US right now? It is no secret that higher education in the United States is quite expensive; in fact most parents start saving money for their children’s college before they are even born. However, some professions require more than just an undergraduate degree. If you want to become a lawyer for instance, you have to attend law school and get a graduate degree as well. But before one can even begin to worry about tuition fees, they have to get admitted first. In order to get into most American law schools you are required to have a bachelor’s degree, a certain undergraduate GPA, and a satisfactory score on your LSAT (Law School Admissions Test). As if all that wasn’t enough, the average yearly tuition cost of a private law school in the U.S is $40,500.
However, the costly education you need to become a lawyer is not the only field that requires robust and expensive education. If you want to become a doctor of any kind you need to attend a four-year graduate institution which is specialized in the field of medicine. While medical school appears overly expensive, there’s no investment like one made for education. Moreover, with the high demand for doctors that is expected over the next decade and beyond, attending a great medical school could make a big difference in your future professional life and earnings power. Should you be interested in the medical field, make sure you check out our countdown on the 10 Best States To Practice Medicine.
Coming back to the legal field, we should probably mention that we decided to rank the law schools on our list according to their yearly tuition fees. We obtained this data from the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Law Schools” ranking, which ranks 194 law schools that are fully accredited by the American Bar Association. Their countdown is based on an average of different measures including LSAT scores, placement success, acceptance rates, assessments by professional lawyers and judges, and more. We are fully aware that the cost of attending law school is not only comprised of the tuition fee of the chosen institution, but also by living expenses, transportation costs, cost of living of the town or city, book and supplies prices, and health insurance among others. Nevertheless, we consider tuition to be the largest figure involved in the higher education of future lawyers, hence we decided to rank the most expensive law schools in the US solely according to that cost.
Are you curious about the most expensive law schools in the US? Let’s take a look at the countdown.
10. Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, MA
Tuition and fees: $53,308 per year (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #2
9. Duke University
Location: Durham, NC
Tuition and fees: $53,596 per year (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #10
8. Brooklyn Law School
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Tuition and fees: $1,795 per credit (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #83
7. Yale University
Location: New Haven, CT
Tuition and fees: $54,650 per year (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #1
6. New York University
Location: New York, NY
Tuition and fees: $54,678 per year (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #6
5. University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Tuition and fees: $54,992 per year (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #7
4. University of Southern California (Gould)
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Tuition and fees: $55,023 per year (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #20
3. Northwestern University
Location: Chicago, IL
Tuition and fees: $55,064 per year (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #12
2. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, NY
Tuition and fees: $57,270 per year (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #13
1. Columbia University
Location: New York, NY
Tuition and fees: $57,838 per year (full-time)
Rank of Best Law Schools: #4