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Best Value Legal Professions Doctor's Degree Schools in California

2023 Best Value Legal Professions Doctor's Degree Schools in California

Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices

19 Colleges
$28,863 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$65,077 Avg Salary

In 2020-2021, 6,896 degrees and certificates were awarded to legal professions students who went to a California college or university. This makes it the #20 most popular major in the state.

When it comes to higher education, there are a lot of options for students. As online education oppotunities continue to grow, you're not restricted to just schools in your local area anymore. Even some of the 'big name' schools are offering online courses. Also, there are a number of trade schools with offerings that you might find attractive.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Course Advisor has created its Best Value Legal Professions Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking. Our analysis looked at 19 schools in California to see which doctor's degree programs offered the best value experiences for legal professions students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. More specifically, we discount our quality score by the published tuition and fees charged by a school. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The value is determined by how much quality your dollar buys.

For nationwide and regional rankings, we use out-of-state tuition and fees in our calculations. Average in-state tuition and fees are used for our statewide rankings.

Our 2023 rankings named Thomas Jefferson School of Law the best value school in California for legal professions students working on their doctor’s degree. Thomas Jefferson School of Law is a fairly small private not-for-profit school located in the city of San Diego.

Thomas Jefferson School of Law graduate students pay an average of $1,620 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Out of the 19 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Berkeley landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public school with a very large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UC Berkeley are $14,160 a year.

UC Berkeley did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list.

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The excellent doctor’s degree programs at University of California - Los Angeles helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value legal professions schools in California. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UCLA are $13,036 a year.

UCLA also claimed a spot on our Best Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in California list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools in this category.

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Out of the 19 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Irvine landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the large city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UC Irvine are $13,356 a year.

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Out of the 19 schools in California that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Davis landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in the small suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public college with a very large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UC Davis are $13,608 per year.

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#6

Southwestern Law School

Los Angeles, CA

Southwestern Law School did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for legal professions students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #6 on the list. Southwestern Law School is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Los Angeles.

Southwestern Law School graduate students pay an average of $18,430 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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#7

Loyola Marymount University

Los Angeles, CA

Loyola Marymount University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for legal professions students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #7 on the list. Loyola Marymount is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Los Angeles.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Loyola Marymount are $19,922 per year.

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#8

Santa Clara University

Santa Clara, CA

With a ranking of #8, Santa Clara University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for legal professions students working on their doctor’s degree. SCU is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Santa Clara.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at SCU are $25,170 per year.

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#9

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

With a ranking of #9, Stanford University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for legal professions students working on their doctor’s degree. Stanford is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Stanford.

Stanford graduate students pay an average of $55,011 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Stanford also took the #1 spot in our Best Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in California rankings.

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Golden Gate University - San Francisco came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in California ranking. Located in the city of San Francisco, Golden Gate University - San Francisco is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Golden Gate University - San Francisco are $19,875 per year.

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Explore all the Best Value Legal Professions Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 892
Oregon 506
Hawaii 128
Nevada 265
Alaska 32

Major Annual Graduates
Law 36,216
Legal Support Services 11,545
Legal Research 6,874
Non-Professional General Legal Studies 4,407
Legal Professions (Other) 2,013

Related Major Annual Graduates
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting 142,610
Public Administration & Social Service 98,583
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies 73,813
Military Technologies & Applied Sciences 4,477

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 19 schools only.

  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to The wub.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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