Cost of attendance
In-depth analysis on law school costs including tuition, grants, debt, cost of living and more.
Law School Tuition by 2022 Job Outcomes
For decades, nominal tuition has significantly outpaced inflation. Students pay much more for elite schools, but price does not scale with outcomes for the rest.
While the average tuition at top performing schools is much higher than the rest, prices do not scale with job outcomes elsewhere. The average tuition at the lowest performing schools is similar to the average for mid-range schools. The following chart reflects the average nominal tuition prices in 2022-2023 for ABA-Approved law schools grouped by job outcomes in 2022. It also reflects the average three-year tuition paid by 2022 graduates.
| Grouped by 2022 Job Outcomes | Average Annual Tuition Fall 2022 to Spring 2023 | Average Three-Year Tuition Total Fall 2019 to Spring 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Schools | Private Schools | Public Schools | Private Schools | |
| ≥ 90% Legal Job Rate | $39.2k 9 schools $18,994 - $68,500 | $70.9k 10 schools $61,058 - $78,278 | $37.1k 9 schools $19,894 - $63,200 | $64.9k 10 schools $55,808 - $72,360 |
| 75% - 89.9% Legal Job Rate | $31.8k 46 schools $15,648 - $59,306 | $55.6k 50 schools $28,541 - $73,998 | $29.9k 46 schools $14,114 - $53,212 | $51.2k 50 schools $26,028 - $67,998 |
| 60% - 74.9% Legal Job Rate | $26.2k 24 schools $9,689 - $46,034 | $50.4k 31 schools $37,500 - $60,994 | $26.2k 24 schools $15,298 - $45,676 | $46.1k 31 schools $34,050 - $57,836 |
| 50% - 59.9% Legal Job Rate | $17k 5 schools $13,438 - $21,037 | $49.2k 14 schools $39,500 - $58,350 | $16.7k 5 schools $13,886 - $22,254 | $45.9k 14 schools $37,430 - $54,310 |
| 40% - 49.9% Legal Job Rate | $16.1k 3 schools $10,055 - $19,332 | $44.1k 1 schools | $14.4k 3 schools $7,900 - $19,010 | $52.6k 1 schools |
| 30% - 39.9% Legal Job Rate | - | - | - | - |
| < 30% Legal Job Rate | - | $16.4k 2 schools $15,665 - $17,108 | - | $16.1k 2 schools $15,510 - $16,696 |
The following chart plots the previous chart's underlying data, except schools with a legal job rate below 20%.
School-specific tuition and job outcome data come from the American Bar Association. The job outcome groups are based on the legal job rate. The rate's denominator is total graduates and its numerator includes only jobs that are long term (a job with an indefinite duration or fixed duration of 1 year or more), full time (at least 35 hours per week), and bar passage required (job requires a law license). LST chose the breakpoints for the job outcome groups and uses normal averages rather than weighted averages for the group averages.