2024 Best Legal Research Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region

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.

College Factual looked at 18 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Legal Research Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 998 master's degrees in legal research during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Legal Research School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of legal research for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality legal research program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

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

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 legal research students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of legal research students who choose to seek a master'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 legal research to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• 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 schools for legal research students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Legal Research Schools

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Legal Research Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Legal Research in the Far Western US Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in legal research.

10 Top Far Western US Region Schools for a Master's in Legal Research

1

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

215 Annual Graduates

$54,250 Median Starting Salary

University of Southern California is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in legal research. Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the legal research program make around $54,250 for their early career.

More information about a master’s in legal research from University of Southern California

2

Stanford University
Stanford, CA

15 Annual Graduates

Stanford University is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a master's degree in legal research. Located in the large suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a master’s in legal research from Stanford University

3

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

119 Annual Graduates

University of California - Berkeley is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in legal research. Located in the city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in legal research from University of California - Berkeley

4

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

41 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat University of California - Los Angeles if you want to pursue a master's degree in legal research. UCLA is a very large public university located in the large city of Los Angeles.More information about a master’s in legal research from University of California - Los Angeles

5

University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Seattle, WA

100 Annual Graduates

$64,765 Median Starting Salary

UW Seattle is a very large public university located in the large city of Seattle.

Master's students who receive their degree from the legal research program earn about $64,765 in their early career salary.

More information about a master’s in legal research from University of Washington - Seattle Campus

6

University of San Diego
San Diego, CA

38 Annual Graduates

$91,786 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of San Diego, USD is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.

Master's recipients from the legal research program at University of San Diego earn $15,156 above the typical graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in legal research from University of San Diego

7

Santa Clara University
Santa Clara, CA

17 Annual Graduates

SCU is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Santa Clara.More information about a master’s in legal research from Santa Clara University

8

Golden Gate University - San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

14 Annual Graduates

$102,600 Median Starting Salary

Golden Gate University - San Francisco is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of San Francisco.

Master's recipients from the legal research major at Golden Gate University - San Francisco make $25,970 above the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in legal research from Golden Gate University - San Francisco

9

University of the Pacific
Stockton, CA

9 Annual Graduates

$69,748 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Stockton, Pacific is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.

Students who graduate with their master's from the legal research program report average early career income of $69,748.

More information about a master’s in legal research from University of the Pacific

10

Seattle University
Seattle, WA

8 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Seattle, Seattle U is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.More information about a master’s in legal research from Seattle University

Best Legal Research Colleges by State

Explore the best legal research colleges for a specific state in the Far Western US Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
California	253	849
Washington	183	108
Oregon	158	26
Nevada	105	8
Hawaii	85	7

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Legal Research

Legal Research is one of 4 different types of Legal Professions programs to choose from.

Legal Research Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Advanced Legal Research/Studies	370
Programs for Foreign Lawyers	344
Tax Law/Taxation	88
American/U.S. Law/Legal Studies/Jurisprudence	77
Other Legal Research & Advanced Professional Studies	37
International Business, Trade, & Tax Law	29
Energy, Environment, & Natural Resources Law	17
Comparative Law	13
Banking, Corporate, Finance, & Securities Law	10
International Law & Legal Studies	10

Majors Similar to Legal Research

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Non-Professional General Legal Studies	114
Legal Professions (Other)	42

Notes and References

• 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.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.