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Best Value Legal Research Master's Degree Schools in California

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2023 Best Value Legal Research Master's Degree Schools in California

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

14 Colleges
$32,362 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$68,162 Avg Salary

In 2020-2021, 1,054 degrees and certificates were awarded to legal research students who went to a California college or university. This makes it the #26 most popular major in the state.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

To help you arm yourself with the information you need to make your decision, Grad Degree Search has developed this Best Value Legal Research Master's Degree Schools in California ranking. Our analysis looked at 14 schools in California to see which master's degree programs offered the best value experiences for legal research students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

Check out the legal research master's degree programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

Our 2023 rankings named Thomas Jefferson School of Law the best value school in California for legal research students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large city of San Diego, Thomas Jefferson School of Law is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Thomas Jefferson School of Law are $1,620 a year.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Berkeley. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Legal Research Master’s Degree Schools in California list. UC Berkeley is a very large public school located in the city of Berkeley.

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

UC Berkeley not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #2 on our Best Legal Research Master’s Degree Schools in California list.

Read full report on Legal Research at University of California - Berkeley

The excellent master’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 research schools in California. UCLA is a very large public school located in the city of Los Angeles.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UCLA are $13,036 per year.

UCLA also took the #4 spot in our Best Legal Research Master’s Degree Schools in California rankings.

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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Irvine. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Legal Research Master’s Degree Schools in California list. UC Irvine is a very large public school located in the city of Irvine.

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

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of California - Davis. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Value Legal Research Master’s Degree Schools in California list. UC Davis is a very large public school located in the small suburb of Davis.

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

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With a ranking of #6, Golden Gate University - San Francisco did quite well on this year’s best value schools for legal research students working on their master’s degree. Golden Gate University - San Francisco is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of San Francisco.

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

Full Legal Research at Golden Gate University - San Francisco Report

#7

University of San Diego

San Diego, CA

University of San Diego came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Legal Research Master’s Degree Schools in California ranking. USD is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the large city of San Diego.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at USD are $28,410 per year.

On top of its placing in our value ranking, USD also did well on our Best Legal Research Master’s Degree Schools in California list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.

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#8

Santa Clara University

Santa Clara, CA

Santa Clara University landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree legal research programs. Located in the city of Santa Clara, SCU is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at SCU are $25,170 a year.

SCU did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Legal Research Master’s Degree Schools in California list.

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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 research students working on their master’s degree. Located in the large suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.

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

Stanford not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #1 on our Best Legal Research Master’s Degree Schools in California list.

Full Legal Research at Stanford University Report

California Western School of Law did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for legal research students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #10 on the list. Located in the city of San Diego, California Western is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at California Western are $32,550 per year.

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

State Degrees Awarded
Washington 108
Oregon 26
Nevada 8
Hawaii 7

Legal Research is one of 4 different types of programs to choose from.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Law 36,216
Legal Professions (Other) 1,424
Legal Support Services 446
Non-Professional General Legal Studies 444

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 14 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).

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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