http://www.chicagofinancialaid.northwestern.edu/tuition/pritzker-school-of-law.html
Tuition: If you have a heart condition, then it may be best if you skip this paragraph entirely. For everyone else, take a deep breath before reading the following sentence. Full-time tuition for the Northwestern University JD program is $61,784– for the 2017-2018 academic year! That number is for a single year of “legal education.”
I’m sure the “professors” and deans will tell you that this is a great investment. If you are not from an extremely wealthy family – or you do not have a full scholarship - then you have no business attending such an expensive in$titution of “higher learning.” Plus, it is still not Yale, Stanford, or Harvard. In fact, it is the second best law school in the city of Chicago!
Estimated, Total Cost of Attendance: According to the same page, the total budget for the current school year will amount to $87,150. Yes, you read that correctly. That is simply outrageous. Do you have that money in your couch cushions? Again, if your family is incredibly wealthy, then I suppose you will be okay with attending this school.
The school provided the following figures: room and board add another $14,040 to the total; personal costs amount to $2,610; and transportation an additional $1,584. Seeing that actual law students will require living expenses for the entire year – and not a mere nine months – we will prorate those three items. Health insurance, books, and loan fees will remain unchanged – and those areas reach $7,132.
Prorating room and board, personal expenses, and transportation, we reach a more accurate total cost of attendance figure of $93,228. Remember, this is for a single damn year of law school. At a minimum, you need to be sure that a Biglaw position is a certainty – before even applying to this school. And since those jobs do not tend to last that long, even that is not a good enough reason to take on such levels of non-dischargeable debt.
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings
Rankings: After that essentially insurmountable cost of attendance, this has to be the greatest and most magnificent law school in the entire country, right?! Not so fast. US “News” & World Report lists Northwe$tern Univer$ity Pritzker $chool of Law as the 10th best law school in the United States. It shares that rating with Duke University. In contrast, the University of Chicago is ranked as 4th highest in the land.
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/professional-life/career/stats/documents/northwestern_law_employment_summary_2016.pdf
Employment Placement Statistics: Let’s take a look at the school’s Employment Summary for 2016 Graduates. You will notice that there were 249 members of this class. Of that figure, a total of 231 reported working in full-time, long-term positions. That is an effective employment rate of 92.8 percent. By the way, eight of those were in jobs that were funded by the law school or university.
Counting those in full-time, short-term jobs and part-time positions, 236 members of this school’s Class of 2016 were employed in some capacity – within 10 months of receiving their JDs. That equates to 94.8% of the cohort. In sum, this “top ten” law school did not provide great results for everyone in the class. And at such ridiculous costs, this is unacceptable. Imagine if you bought a brand new Audi or Jaguar, and within a few months, it stopped running. At least then, your car would still be under warranty.
Under the Employment Type subheading, you will see that 168 graduates from this class reported working in private law firms. Only two of these JDs were employed on a part-time basis. Seven landed employment in firms of 251-500 attorneys and 142 secured jobs in offices with more than 500 lawyers. That means that 59.8 percent of this class found employment that would pay enough to allow the law grad to reasonably repay their law school debt. Again, that is less than 3/5 of the graduating class.
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/grad-debt-rankings
Average Law School Indebtedness:US “News” lists the average law student indebtedness - for those members of the Northwestern University JD Class of 2016 who incurred debt for law school - as $154,923. By the way, only 65% of this school’s 2016 graduating cohort took on such foul debt. Keep in mind that this amount does not even include undergraduate debt – and it also does not take accrued interest into account, while the student is enrolled.
On the positive side, while the law school was ranked 10th best in terms of reputation, the school’s 2016 graduating class was only the 15th most burdened by additional law school debt, on average. And it has sole possession of the latter honor. Also, fully 35 percent of this class did not take on any student loans for law school. Now, good luck competing against those rich kids for the best law jobs out there.
Conclusion: In the final analysis, the cost of attendance at Northwe$tern Univer$ity Pritzker $chool of Law is prohibitive. While it seems that a fair amount of students land Biglaw jobs, ask yourself if you want to be in the position of having to stay in a large, white shoe law firm for several years. And as others can attest, that is certainly not all in your control. If you don’t make partner relatively quickly, i.e. if you do not bring in big business for several consecutive years, then you can expect to be kicked to the curb within 3-5 years.
Does anyone think that the typical JD who either quit or got canned from a “prestigious” job within a few years will be able to waltz into a similar post, with no problems? Other large law firms will see you as damaged goods, even if you went to the second best law school located in Chicago. Lastly, remember that fully 35% of the class did not incur any education loans to pay for law school. How do you figure that you will be able to compete against those rich students for the best available jobs?