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Best Value Legal Professions Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

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2023 Best Value Legal Professions Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

25 Colleges
$30,773 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$65,077 Avg Salary

In 2020-2021, 45,189 legal professions students received a degree or certificate, making the major the #7 most popular in the country.

It's not easy to decide which program to enroll in when you have so many options available. 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 Professions Doctor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. This report analyzed 25 schools in the Great Lakes Region to see which ones offered the best value doctor's degree programs for legal professions students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

Our ranking of value is based on the quality of a program as defined in our per sticker price dollar. 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.

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

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for legal professions majors pursuing a doctor's degree.

#1

Purdue University Global

Indianapolis, IN

Our 2023 rankings named Purdue University Global the best value school in the Great Lakes Region for legal professions students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Indianapolis, Purdue University Global is a public school with a very large student population.

Purdue University Global graduate students pay an average of $10,582 in tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Legal Professions at Purdue University Global

Out of the 25 schools in the Great Lakes Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the medium-sized city of Lansing, WMU-Cooley Law School is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at WMU-Cooley Law School are $14,440 a year.

Full Legal Professions at Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School Report

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at Northern Illinois University helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value legal professions schools in the Great Lakes Region . Located in the small suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public college with a large student population.

NIU graduate students pay an average of $11,390 in tuition and fees each year.

Full Legal Professions at Northern Illinois University Report

#4

Capital University

Columbus, OH

Out of the 25 schools in the Great Lakes Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Capital University landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of Columbus, Capital is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Capital are $13,190 a year.

Read full report on Legal Professions at Capital University

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Loyola University Chicago. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Value Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. Loyola Chicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Chicago.

Loyola Chicago graduate students pay an average of $19,894 in tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Legal Professions at Loyola University Chicago

Out of the 25 schools in the Great Lakes Region that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Akron Main Campus landed the # 5 spot on the list. University of Akron Main Campus is a large public school located in the city of Akron.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at University of Akron Main Campus are $11,936 a year.

Full Legal Professions at University of Akron Main Campus Report

University of Wisconsin - Madison came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. UW - Madison is a fairly large public school located in the city of Madison.

UW - Madison graduate students pay an average of $25,501 in tuition and fees each year.

UW - Madison also claimed a spot on our Best Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list. It’s in the top 15% of all schools in this category.

Read More…

#8

Marquette University

Milwaukee, WI

Marquette University came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Located in the large city of Milwaukee, Marquette is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Marquette are $21,960 a year.

Full Legal Professions at Marquette University Report

#9

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

Northwestern University landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value doctor’s degree legal professions programs. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Evanston.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Northwestern are $56,567 a year.

Northwestern did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our Best Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list.

Read full report on Legal Professions at Northwestern University

#10

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

University of Chicago came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Located in the large city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at UChicago are $63,936 a year.

UChicago did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our Best Legal Professions Doctor’s Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list.

Read full report on Legal Professions at University of Chicago

Explore the best legal professions colleges for a specific state in the Great Lakes region.

State Degrees Awarded
Illinois 2,368
Indiana 884
Ohio 1,272
Wisconsin 505
Michigan 1,373

Major Annual Graduates
Law 36,216
Legal Research 6,659
Legal Professions (Other) 1,424
Legal Support Services 446
Non-Professional General Legal Studies 444

Related Major Annual Graduates
Public Administration & Social Service 53,252
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting 13,045
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies 10,452
Military Technologies & Applied Sciences 1,613

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 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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