If you plan on getting your master's degree in legal research, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #37 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for legal research students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 1,094 master's degrees in legal research to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Legal Research School for Your Master's Degree
The legal research master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on legal research students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other legal research students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt legal research students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized legal research related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for legal research students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Legal Research Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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University of Arizona is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in legal research. Located in the large city of Tucson, University of Arizona is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in legal research from University of Arizona
Arizona State University - Tempe is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a master's degree in legal research. ASU - Tempe is a very large public university located in the city of Tempe.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the legal research program make an average of $55,326 in the first couple years of their career.
Every student who is interested in a master's degree in legal research needs to check out Arizona State University - Skysong. Located in the city of Scottsdale, ASU - Skysong is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the legal research program make about $55,326 in their early career salary.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in legal research needs to check out National Paralegal College. Located in the city of Phoenix, National Paralegal College is a private for-profit college with a fairly small student population.
After graduation, legal research master's recipients usually make around $42,727 in their early careers.
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
The legal research master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
