Tuition "Price War" Among Law Schools in Highly Competitive Markets

Tuition Costs & 

Scholarship Retention

Over the past several months, I have tried to track changes in the cost of law school.

Before providing some additional information, I want to highlight that ASL is one of the most affordable private law schools east of the Mississippi River.  And, we froze tuition costs for the coming year.  

Not only that, but our historical scholarship retention rate has been one of the highest across the nation -- above 90 percent. Thus, unlike several of the law schools who also serve our Appalachian region, ASL does not engage in a "bait-and-switch" scholarship strategy.  Once we invite you into our community, we want you to stay.  We do not want you worrying unnecessarily about whether you will retain a scholarship.

So, here is some tuition cost information for the highly competitive Pennsylvania market.

Dec. 15, 2013 Update:  Thirty law schools have cut tuition costs over the last three years.  For story, look here.  Most of them are not in ASL's service market.   No Florida school made the list.

Dec. 17, 2013 Update:  More on the Pennsylvania law school market here.

Jan. 1, 2014 Update:  For a list of law schools that have cut tuition, see this National Law Journal 2013-year-in-review summary:

2. TUITION REDUCTIONS 

The idea of lowering law school tuition would have been laughable just a few years ago. After all, average in-state tuition at public law schools remorselessly increased by 115 percent during the past decade and average private school tuition by 59 percent to $40,634, yet schools had more than enough applicants to fill their seats. 

But increased competition for a dwindling market in students prompted a number of law schools to slash their sticker price this year. The University of Akron School of Law; the University of Arizona James E. Rogers School of Law; the University of Cincinnati College of Law; Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law; and Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law all announced some form of tuition cuts this year.

Jan. 26, 2014 Update:  For a more current list of the law schools cutting tuition, see here, along with an idea to use Groupon to offer tuition discounts.