Above The Law Report….
We all know that a legal education can land the average law school graduate in up to six figures of debt (to be specific, on average, 2018 graduates racked up $110,137 in student debt), and we all know that egregiously high tuition costs are to blame. According to the latest data from U.S. News, the average cost of tuition and fees at private schools for the 2019-2020 academic year was about $50,000, while the average in-state and out-of-state cost of tuition and fees at public schools was $28,046 and $41,549, respectively.
But which law schools had the most costly tuition for the 2019-2020 academic year?
Below is a list of the 10 law schools with the highest tuition and fees for the 2019-2020 school year. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
|
SCHOOL (NAME) (STATE) |
TUITION AND FEES (2019-2020) |
U.S. NEWS RANK |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbia University (NY) | $72,465 | 4 (tie) | ||
| New York University | $68,934 | 6 | ||
| University of Pennsylvania (Carey) | $67,998 | 7 | ||
| Cornell University (NY) | $67,833 | 13 | ||
| Duke University (NC) | $67,358 | 12 | ||
| University of Southern California (Gould) | $67,191 | 18 (tie) | ||
| Harvard University (MA) | $67,081 | 3 | ||
| Northwestern University (Pritzker) (IL) | $66,806 | 9 (tie) | ||
| University of Chicago | $66,651 | 4 (tie) | ||
| University of Virginia | $66,200 | 8 |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News Law School Compass to find tuition data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed 198 schools for our 2019 survey of law programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Law Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The tuition data above is correct as of May 26, 2020.
