Ranked #1 in popularity, law is one of the most sought-after doctor's degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 2 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Law Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 1,719 doctor's degrees in law to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Legal Studies (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Legal Studies (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Criminal Justice & Law Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Criminal Justice & Law Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Legal Services & Studies (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.7
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Legal Services & Studies (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.7)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 1
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 1 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 1
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 1 offers with relevance >= 1.0
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their doctor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their doctor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to law students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of law students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for law to pay back their student loans after receiving their doctor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized law related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for law students working on their doctor's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Law Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois list to help you make the college decision.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "legal-studies-and-professions//law"
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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.
by our College Data Analytics Team
