Law Schools

The 15 Most Expensive Law Schools (2023-2024)

Choose your law school wisely -- it may cost you A LOT.

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tuition Education and money vector illustration, flat cartoon graduation hat coins cash, concept of scholarship cost or loan, tuition or study fee, value of student knowledge, learning successWe 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, 2023 graduates racked up more than $111,000 in student debt), and we all know that egregiously high tuition costs are to blame.

But which schools had the most costly tuition and fees for out-of-state students for the 2023-2024 academic year?

The Short List blog of U.S. News has compiled a ranking for that, and it’s not at all shocking that almost all 15 schools that made the list are private. At these law schools, the median tuition and fees for the 2023-2024 academic year was at least $77,000. Just four public schools made the list — and we believe that one of them is erroneously featured on the list. Check out the ranking, below:

  1. University of Idaho: $90,336
  2. Columbia University: $81,292
  3. New York University: $80,014
  4. University of Southern California: $78,046
  5. University of Chicago: $77,952
  6. Cornell University: $77,593
  7. University of Pennsylvania: $76,934
  8. Georgetown University: $75,950
  9. Duke University: $75,738
  10. University of California Berkeley: $75,031
  11. Harvard University: $75,008
  12. Northwestern University: $74,552
  13. University of Virginia: $74,200
  14. Yale University: $73,865
  15. University of Michigan: $72,584

Idaho Law — a school that touts itself as “offer[ing] one of the most affordable law programs in the nation” — does not belong on this list. As noted on the law school’s 2023 ABA Standard 509 Information Report, total tuition and fees for out-of-state students as $45,168, a far cry from the $90,336 figure that U.S. News has ascribed to the school. In fact, in Idaho Law’s U.S. News profile, it states that the $90K amount is for “Non-LDS Member[s].” Hmm, only one law school charges different tuition prices based on religious affiliation, and that’s BYU Law — another highly affordable school whose 2023-2023 tuition came nowhere near that $90K number. This is the typo of all typos. That having been said, let’s make believe Idaho isn’t on this list at all and crown Columbia as the most expensive law school in the country.

Now, back to the rest of the ranking, it’s worth noting that the law schools that made this list are among the best in the country. At highly ranked schools like these, you get what you pay for, and in the law school world, that usually means a high-paying paid job as an attorney that will allow you to service your enormous debt obligations in a timely fashion — and to be quite frank, with up to six figures of debt to pay off, that’s priceless.

No matter where you decide to go to law school, make sure that you evaluate what your payoff will be when graduation time rolls around. Given the information that’s readily available online, will you be able to find a job? Will you be able to make ends meet while making payments on your law school loans? If you don’t think the answer to these questions are “yes,” then you may want to consider another school.

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15 Most Expensive Law Schools [Short List / U.S. News]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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