DePaul University College of Law began in 1897, when Howard N. Ogden founded the Illinois College of Law as one of the first law schools in the country to offer evening classes — a structural choice that still shows up today in DePaul's active part-time division. DePaul University acquired the Illinois College of Law in 1912, a move that roughly doubled enrollment to about 400 students. Ogden stayed on as dean and became the university's first non-Catholic trustee; when he died in 1915, DePaul took full ownership of the school, and the College of Law has operated as part of the university ever since.
The school's physical footprint tells its own story about its ties to the city. It started at 64 East Lake Street before moving in 1958 into the Lewis Center at 25 East Jackson Boulevard — a building originally known as the Kimball Building that had been gifted to DePaul in 1955 by the Frank J. Lewis Foundation, at the time the largest single gift the university had ever received. In 1972, DePaul expanded by purchasing the neighboring Finchley Building, later renamed O'Malley Place in honor of former DePaul president and chancellor Comerford J. O'Malley; that same year the College of Law opened its first legal clinic. The campus sits within two blocks of state and federal courts, and today houses the Vincent G. Rinn Law Library and the Leonard M. Ring Courtroom. The school reports more than 38 full-time and 102 part-time faculty, serving a J.D. program that enrolls nearly 500 students.
DePaul's most quotable historical fact is its connection to Chicago's political leadership: alumni include both Richard J. Daley and Richard M. Daley, giving DePaul Law a direct line into what's often shorthanded as the city's "Daley Dynasty." The alumni list extends well beyond that pairing. Michael A. Bilandic is a graduate, as is William J. Bauer; John Stroger; Samuel Skinner; and Juliana Stratton. On the legal-practice side, alumni include Robert A. Clifford and Jack M. Greenberg. The rolls also include figures from earlier eras of Chicago legal and civic history, a reflection of the school's long tenure in the city rather than a curated modern outcomes list — prospective students should treat this as institutional history and lineage, not a guarantee of any particular career path.
Academically, DePaul organizes itself around a identifiable set of practice-oriented strengths rather than trying to be all things to all students. Its named concentration in Health Care Law is paired with a U.S. News subject ranking of 27th, and the school publishes five student-edited journals: the DePaul Law Review, the DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal, the DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law, the DePaul Journal of Health Care Law, and the DePaul Journal for Social Justice — a spread that mirrors the school's clinical offerings in Business Law, Civil Litigation & Health Law, Technology/Intellectual Property, and International Human Rights Law, alongside clinics in Asylum & Immigration Law, Criminal Appeals, Family Law, and the Croak Community Legal Clinic. Two standing centers, the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology and the International Human Rights Law Institute, anchor faculty research and programming in those same lanes. The degree menu goes beyond the standard J.D.: DePaul offers LL.M. programs in Health Law, Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology, International Law, and U.S. Legal Studies, a Master of Legal Studies, and joint J.D. programs paired with an MBA, an M.S. in Computer Science, an M.A. in International Studies, a Master of Nonprofit Management, an MPA, and two international/public-service master's degrees — a combination that signals a school built for students aiming at business, health, technology, or public-service-adjacent legal careers as much as traditional litigation.
DePaul also fields competitive advocacy programs: its National Trial Team was named Regional Champion at the 2022 American Association for Justice's Student Trial Advocacy Competition and placed fifth at Nationals, while its Moot Court team took second place overall at the 2022 Chicago Bar Association's Moot Court Competition; the school also sponsors its own William J. Bauer Moot Court Competition. As of the 2026-27 U.S. News rankings, DePaul sits at 131st of 196 ranked law schools overall, with its part-time program ranked 35th of 68 nationally — a specific, checkable marker for anyone weighing the evening-division option that traces back to the school's 1897 origins.
DePaul admitted 34.81% of applicants in the cycle reported here, extending 920 offers out of 2,643 applications to build a class of 186 students — 157 full-time and 29 part-time. That acceptance rate places DePaul among law schools with a meaningfully open admit rate relative to the most selective end of the market, but the number alone doesn't tell you where your own file needs to land; the school's LSAT and GPA medians do.
DePaul's entering class reports an LSAT range of 154 at the 25th percentile, 158 at the median, and 160 at the 75th percentile, with a GPA range of 3.17 (25th), 3.61 (median), and 3.80 (75th). These four numbers are planning anchors, not predictors of outcome — a 158 LSAT and 3.61 GPA sit at DePaul's reported medians, meaning roughly half of an admitted class typically scores at or above that mark and half below on each metric, while a 160 LSAT or 3.80 GPA would place an applicant at the reported 75th-percentile line. None of this implies a probability of admission; DePaul's committee evaluates full files, and applicants below the 25th-percentile lines are still part of the admitted pool, just as applicants above the 75th-percentile lines are not guaranteed a seat. For a structured approach to building the strongest possible LSAT score before you apply, see the shared LSAT prep guide (/how-to-study-for-the-lsat).
What's distinctive about DePaul's admissions posture is how it pairs with cost. Ninety-nine percent of students receive some grant aid, with a reported median full-time grant of $34,950 against full-time tuition of $55,328. Of students receiving aid, 38% get less than half-tuition awards and 59% land in the half-to-full-tuition band; DePaul reports 0% of aided students receiving full-tuition scholarships. In practical terms, this means the LSAT and GPA numbers above matter twice at DePaul: once for admission, and again for where your file lands within that half-to-full-tuition band that most aided students occupy. An applicant testing above the 75th-percentile LSAT of 160 or GPA of 3.80 sits at the upper end of DePaul's reported ranges, a position relevant to the general framework explained in the shared guide to negotiating law school scholarships (/law-school-scholarship-negotiation), though the specific dollar bands above come from DePaul's own reporting.
The part-time cohort — 29 of the 186-student entering class — is worth noting on its own terms, since DePaul has offered evening coursework since its founding in 1897 and its part-time program carries a distinct U.S. News subject ranking (35th of 68 nationally). Applicants weighing the part-time track against the full-time track should know that DePaul reports separate part-time tuition of $35,946 annually, alongside the full-time rate of $55,328 plus $300 in fees — a structural cost difference that follows directly from the pace of the program, not from a different admissions bar.
Taken together, DePaul's admissions data describes a school where the median admitted applicant scores a 158 LSAT and 3.61 GPA, where nearly every admitted student receives some scholarship money, and where moving from the 25th- to the 75th-percentile band on either metric corresponds to the largest shift in reported outcomes, both in where an applicant's file sits relative to admitted medians and in what the offer will cost.
DePaul's own numbers show that scholarship money is the rule, not the exception: 99% of the entering class receives some form of grant. But "almost everyone gets a discount" and "most people pay a similar amount" are two very different claims, and DePaul's data lets you see the difference.
Start with the sticker price. Full-time tuition and fees run $55,328 (tuition) plus $300 in mandatory fees, and DePaul's own cost-of-attendance estimate — which adds an off-campus living allowance of $29,110 — puts the full annual cost of attendance at roughly $84,738 for a full-time J.D. student. That figure is the number you'd pay with zero grant aid, and it's the ceiling almost nobody actually pays.
Now look at what the median grant recipient actually receives: $34,950 per year. Applied against the $55,328 tuition line, that knocks net tuition down to roughly $20,378, and against the full $84,738 cost-of-attendance estimate (which includes living costs), it brings the median student's all-in annual cost to somewhere around $49,800 before any additional aid, outside scholarships, or federal loan interest is factored in. That's the number worth anchoring on, not the $84,738 headline.
The distribution around that median matters as much as the median itself. DePaul reports that 38% of grant recipients get an award covering less than half of tuition, while 59% get an award in the half-to-full-tuition range. Notably, 0% of students receive a full-tuition scholarship — DePaul does not report awarding any full-ride packages in this cycle. So the realistic range for an admitted applicant with a grant is somewhere between a modest discount and roughly half-to-full tuition coverage, not free attendance.
A useful way to read your own admissions letter against these numbers: if your award is below the $34,950 median, you're in the more common — but less generously discounted — half of grant recipients (the 38% band), and your net cost will land closer to the $49,800+ range or higher. If your award clears that median and puts you in the 59% half-to-full-tuition band, your net cost drops meaningfully below that figure. Either way, run your own award through DePaul's cost-of-attendance estimate rather than relying on the sticker tuition number alone.
One gap worth flagging honestly: DePaul's public data does not report whether these scholarships carry a GPA-based renewal condition, nor does it report any students whose scholarships were reduced or eliminated after 1L year in the cycles provided. That means this guide cannot tell you whether your specific award is guaranteed for all three years or contingent on hitting a class-rank or GPA benchmark — that detail lives in your individual award letter, and you should ask the admissions office directly before counting on a number for years two and three.
DePaul also operates a part-time program, with tuition of $35,946 annually — a meaningfully lower per-year sticker than the full-time track, spread over more years, which matters for admitted students weighing whether to attend as a working professional. DePaul has offered evening classes since its earliest years as a law school, so the part-time option isn't a recent add-on; it's built into the school's institutional identity.
The practical takeaway: don't evaluate a DePaul offer against the $84,738 headline cost of attendance. Evaluate it against your specific grant relative to the $34,950 median, and treat the resulting net figure — not the sticker price — as your real annual cost. For a general framework on how to negotiate or compare aid offers, see the shared guide on law school scholarship negotiation.
Illustrative: 3-year borrowing at the 2026-27 federal rate (8.07%) over 10 years; your figures depend on your offer and salary.
The single largest outcome for DePaul Law graduates is a small firm job: of 155 total graduates in the reporting class, 42 landed at firms of 1-10 attorneys — more than any other employment category, including Big Law. If you're picturing your post-DePaul career, the honest starting point is that plurality, not the headline Big Law number.
Here's the fuller firm-size breakdown DePaul reports: 42 graduates at firms of 1-10 attorneys, 13 at firms of 11-25, 10 at firms of 26-50, 10 at firms of 51-100, 7 at firms of 101-250, 4 at firms of 251-500, and 13 at firms of 501 or more attorneys — the Big Law category. In percentage terms, Big Law placement sits at 8.4% of the class. That's a real number of graduates going to the largest firms every year, but it's a minority outcome; the modal DePaul graduate ends up at a small or mid-size firm, which tracks with DePaul's location two blocks from state and federal courts and its long history of producing practicing litigators and solo-adjacent attorneys in the Illinois market.
Beyond firms, DePaul reports 12 graduates in government roles (7.7%), 14 in public interest positions (9.0%), and 13 in business and industry roles. Clerkships are modest by the numbers: 2 state or local clerkships and 0 federal clerkships reported for this class. DePaul's own data labels Illinois as the largest single employment destination for its graduates — unsurprising given the school's century-plus footprint in Chicago, but worth stating plainly if you're weighing DePaul against a school with a different regional pull.
Zoom out to the overall placement rate: 86.5% of graduates were employed in full-time, long-term, bar-passage-required or J.D.-advantage positions. That's the ABA's standard employment metric, and it tells you that the large majority of the class is working in law-related roles within the reporting window — but it also means roughly one in seven graduates is not in that category, whether by choice, timing, or market conditions.
Bar passage is a meaningful part of this picture, since a J.D. is close to worthless professionally without a license. DePaul graduates passed the bar on the first attempt at an 83.78% rate, compared to an 80.95% Illinois state average for the same administration — DePaul outperformed the state average by roughly three points. Looking further out, DePaul's ultimate two-year bar passage rate climbs to 87.15%, meaning most graduates who don't pass on the first try clear it within two years.
What this composite picture means for a prospective applicant: DePaul is not a pipeline primarily built around Big Law placement, even though 13 graduates a year (8.4%) do land there. It's a school whose graduates disproportionately build careers in Illinois, at small and mid-size firms, in government, and in public interest work, with solid — not exceptional — bar passage margins over the state average. If your career plan depends on Big Law odds, weigh the 8.4% figure seriously; if your plan is a Chicago-based practice at a smaller firm or in public service, DePaul's outcome data lines up more directly with that path. For how these employment categories compare to national salary distributions, see the shared context on the broader legal job market.
DePaul's first-time bar passage rate sits at 83.78%, roughly 2.8 percentage points above the Illinois state average of 80.95% for the same testing period. That gap is real but modest — it reflects a school whose graduates pass at a rate a few points better than the statewide pool of test-takers, not a school with a dramatically outsized advantage over other Illinois law schools.
The more informative number for anyone worried about a single test date is the ultimate two-year bar passage rate: 87.15% of DePaul graduates pass within two years of graduation. That climb from the mid-80s on the first attempt to the high-80s over two years is a normal pattern nationally — some graduates who don't clear the bar on their first sitting do so on a retake — and DePaul's ultimate figure suggests that most students who don't pass immediately eventually do.
Context for what these numbers mean in practice: of DePaul's 155 J.D. graduates in the reporting cohort, 86.5% were employed in bar-required or J.D.-advantage positions ten months out, and the school's largest single employment market is Illinois. That combination — a Chicago-based school whose graduates overwhelmingly stay and practice in Illinois — means the state's bar exam and its passage statistics are the ones that matter most for the typical DePaul student, far more than any national aggregate would be.
It's worth being direct about what the data pack does and doesn't show. DePaul does not publicly report a breakdown of which academic supports (bar prep courses, attrition patterns, GPA cutoffs) drive the gap over the state average, so this guide won't speculate about mechanism. What can be said with confidence is the plain comparison: DePaul's first-time rate beats the Illinois average by a few points, and its two-year ultimate rate is comfortably in the high-80s. Applicants should treat that as a real, if incremental, edge — not a guarantee — and should verify the most current Illinois bar statistics directly with the school or the state bar authority before relying on them, since these figures shift by testing cycle.
DePaul's health law program is ranked 27th nationally by U.S. News, making it the school's single specialty-area ranking that stands out from its overall position of 131st out of 196 law schools. That gap — a program cracking the top 30 in its field at a school ranked well outside the top 100 overall — is the clearest evidence that health law is where DePaul has built genuine institutional depth rather than a general-purpose curriculum.
The infrastructure backs up the ranking. DePaul offers a dedicated Health Care Law concentration for J.D. students and a standalone LL.M in Health Law for graduate-level specialists, giving both aspiring health lawyers and practicing attorneys a formal track to build expertise. Students can also get hands-on experience through the Civil Litigation & Health Law clinic, one of eight named clinics at the school, and can publish or research through the DePaul Journal of Health Care Law, one of five student-edited journals on campus.
What this means for an applicant: if health law, health care compliance, hospital or insurer-side counsel work, or health policy is the specific reason you're looking at DePaul, the school has assembled a coherent pipeline — concentration, clinic, journal, and LL.M — that few other pieces of DePaul's curriculum can match in national recognition. For applicants with no particular interest in health law, this ranking says less about the rest of the institution; DePaul does not report comparable rankings in other practice specialties in the data available, and this guide won't imply that the health law program's strength generalizes to, say, corporate or IP practice (even though DePaul does maintain a separate Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology and an IP-focused LL.M, those did not carry a comparable national ranking in the pack).
A reasonable way to use this fact during your decision: if health law is a genuine career target, DePaul's niche ranking is a legitimate differentiator worth weighing against its overall rank and cost. If it isn't, the health law ranking shouldn't carry much weight in your calculus, since it doesn't reflect the strength of DePaul's general J.D. program or its outcomes outside that specialty.
DePaul's part-time program is still a real, active option for working students today, currently ranked 35th out of 68 part-time programs nationally by U.S. News. That's a middling national rank, but it reflects a program with a long institutional pedigree: DePaul's law school traces back to 1897, when founder Howard N. Ogden's Illinois College of Law was among the first in the country to offer evening classes — a mission DePaul absorbed when it acquired the school in 1912 and has carried forward for over a century.
In practical terms, the part-time track today enrolls 29 students in the most recent entering class, alongside 157 full-time students, out of a total entering class of 186. Part-time tuition is set separately at $35,946 per year, compared to $55,328 for full-time — a lower annual sticker price that reflects the reduced course load, though it takes longer to finish the degree on the part-time schedule. Total J.D. enrollment across both tracks stands at roughly 510 students, and the school's faculty base of more than 38 full-time and 102 part-time instructors gives evening students access to a large pool of practitioner-adjuncts, a structure that has traditionally suited part-time programs designed around working professionals.
DePaul's location — within two blocks of state and federal courts — is a practical fit for the part-time model: many evening students are already working in or near Chicago's legal, government, and business sectors, and proximity cuts commute friction between a job and a night class. The data pack doesn't provide a separate breakdown of part-time bar passage, employment outcomes, or median LSAT/GPA for evening-division students specifically, so this guide can't tell you whether the part-time cohort's outcomes mirror the full-time program's — a legitimate question to raise directly with admissions if you're weighing the evening track.
What the numbers do support: DePaul's evening program isn't a token afterthought grafted onto a full-time school. It's a structurally distinct, separately priced, separately ranked track with its own century-plus history, aimed at the same population it was built for in 1897 — students who need to keep working while they earn a J.D.
DePaul's College of Law offers 162 clinic seats, and 124 of them were filled in the most recent reporting cycle — meaning roughly three-quarters of available clinic capacity is actually used by students who want live-client experience before graduation. On top of that, 163 students completed field placements and 305 completed simulation courses, so between clinics, placements, and simulations, well over 500 practical-skills slots were filled across a J.D. program that enrolls about 510 students total. That ratio suggests most DePaul students who want hands-on training can get into some form of it before they graduate, though clinic seats specifically are more competitive than field placements or simulation courses given the 124-of-162 fill rate.
The clinic roster itself is broad rather than narrow: Asylum & Immigration Law, Business Law, Civil Litigation & Health Law, Criminal Appeals, the Croak Community Legal Clinic, Family Law, International Human Rights Law, and Technology/Intellectual Property. That spread lets students specialize in areas that track DePaul's own strengths — the school's Health Care Law concentration is a U.S. News-ranked program (27th nationally), and the Civil Litigation & Health Law and Journal of Health Care Law give students a pipeline from coursework into clinical practice in that specific field. Students interested in IP have a similar path through the Technology/Intellectual Property clinic paired with the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology and the DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law.
Beyond the clinic docket, DePaul reports 10 co-curricular offerings, which typically includes moot court, trial advocacy, and similar competition-based skills programs. The school's National Trial Team was named Regional Champion at the 2022 American Association for Justice's Student Trial Advocacy Competition and placed fifth at Nationals that year, and its Moot Court team took second place overall at the 2022 Chicago Bar Association's Moot Court Competition. DePaul also sponsors its own named competition, the Honorable William J. Bauer Moot Court Competition, giving students an in-house venue for advocacy training in addition to outside travel teams.
Location does real work here too: the law school sits within two blocks of state and federal courts, which is the kind of proximity that makes field placements and courtroom observation logistically easy rather than a special trip. Students do their skills training inside the Vincent G. Rinn Law Library and the Leonard M. Ring Courtroom, both housed in the law school's own building rather than shared general-university space.
What the pack does not report is a fill rate or waitlist figure specifically for field placements or simulation courses (only the number completed), so it's not possible to say how competitive those specific tracks are relative to clinics. What is clear is that DePaul builds multiple, distinct paths to practical experience — clinical, field, and simulation — rather than funneling everyone through a single bottleneck, and that its skills programs lean into the school's own health law and IP specialties as much as general litigation and advocacy.
A 158 is DePaul's median LSAT, so scoring below it doesn't close the door — it just changes what your application has to do instead of the score. DePaul's 25th-75th percentile LSAT band runs 154 to 160, and its GPA band runs 3.17 to 3.8, which means the school already evaluates a real range of numerical profiles rather than a single cutoff. With an acceptance rate of 34.81% across 2,643 applicants for roughly 186 enrolled seats, DePaul is selective but not a school where a below-median LSAT is disqualifying on its own — it's a school where the rest of the file (GPA trend, writing sample, work experience, addenda) has to carry more weight than the score does.
The practical reason the LSAT still matters even below median is money, not admission odds. DePaul reports that 99% of its full-time students receive some grant aid, with a median grant of $34,950 against $55,328 in annual tuition — that's roughly 63% of sticker tuition covered for the typical grant recipient. Aid is distributed in bands: 38% of students land in the "less than half tuition" grant tier and 59% land in the "half to full tuition" tier, with 0% receiving full-tuition awards. A score in the 154 range, at DePaul's 25th percentile, is still within the school's normal admitted range, but it's less likely to generate the same leverage in a scholarship conversation.
This is where retaking the LSAT has to be weighed against what a retake actually costs you in time. Since August 2024, the test has consisted of two scored Logical Reasoning sections, one scored Reading Comprehension section, and an unscored variable section, with Logic Games removed entirely; a separate, unscored Argumentative Writing sample is submitted online. Most people who move their score meaningfully do so with several months of structured prep using official material, not a quick refresh — so the question isn't just "can I score higher" but "can I score enough higher, soon enough, to matter for this cycle's scholarship offers." Schools consider your highest score, so a retake carries no real downside beyond time and the application-timeline cost discussed elsewhere.
For a candidate already near DePaul's 154-160 band, the more efficient move is often to spend equal energy on the softer parts of the file — because DePaul's own numbers show plenty of admitted students sit below median on one metric or the other, and DePaul's reported LSAT and GPA percentile ranges include profiles with a below-median LSAT paired with a higher GPA or narrative. For a candidate well below 154, a retake affects both where a file sits relative to DePaul's reported LSAT range and where it may sit within the aid bands. Either way, treat DePaul's medians as planning anchors for what a given score is likely to mean for cost, not as a predictor of whether you'll be admitted. For mechanics of prepping and retaking, see /how-to-study-for-the-lsat; for how to translate a specific score into a scholarship ask, see /law-school-scholarship-negotiation.
DePaul received 2,643 applications for a class that ultimately enrolled about 186 students — 157 full-time and 29 part-time — extending 920 offers along the way, for a 34.81% acceptance rate. That volume matters for timing: a pool this size means DePaul is reading and deciding on files continuously through the cycle rather than waiting for one moment to compare everyone at once, so applying earlier in the cycle generally means your file is evaluated against a smaller, less-filled class rather than a nearly-complete one.
Most law schools, DePaul included based on its dual full-time and part-time tracks, admit on a rolling basis: applications are reviewed roughly in the order complete files arrive, and scholarship funds available earlier in the cycle may be more flexible than funds remaining later in the cycle. Because the pack does not report DePaul's specific application deadline or fee, don't rely on this guide for either — confirm both directly against the school's current admissions page before you build a submission calendar, since deadlines and fees are exactly the kind of detail that changes cycle to cycle.
What you can plan around is DePaul's dual-track structure. With 157 full-time and 29 part-time seats in a given class, the part-time program is a meaningfully sized track, not an afterthought — consistent with the school's roots as one of the first law schools to offer evening classes and with its part-time program's own national ranking (35th of 68 in the most recent U.S. News data DePaul reports). If you're weighing full-time versus part-time enrollment, that's a decision to make before you apply, since the two tracks are evaluated and often reported separately, and it changes your course-load pacing, tuition per year (part-time tuition runs lower per year than full-time, spread over more years), and eligibility for certain scholarship categories.
On timeline mechanics broadly: a complete application file typically means LSAT score(s), transcripts, letters of recommendation, a personal statement, and any required addenda are all in before the school starts its review clock — an incomplete file doesn't get evaluated on your submission date, it gets evaluated on the date it becomes complete. Given DePaul's 2,643-applicant volume, files that arrive complete early in the cycle are competing against a smaller and less locked-in applicant pool than files completed close to any final deadline, which is the general logic behind applying as early as your LSAT score and file are genuinely ready — not before.
Finally, treat the 34.81% acceptance rate as a description of last cycle's outcome, not a probability calculator for your own application; it tells you DePaul is selective but has real room in its class for a range of profiles, not what your individual chances are. For a fuller walk-through of building out deadlines, recommendation requests, and file-completion timing, see /law-school-application-timeline.
A DePaul aid letter that puts you in the "half-to-full tuition" band means your annual grant falls somewhere between roughly $27,664 and $55,328 — DePaul's full-time tuition is $55,328 a year, plus about $300 in fees, so "half" and "full" are both measured against that sticker number, not against your full cost of attendance. That's a wide range, and two students both told they're in this band could be receiving grants nearly $30,000 apart, so the actual dollar figure in your letter — not the band label — is what matters for budgeting.
Start from the numbers DePaul itself reports: 99% of the J.D. class receives some grant aid, the median full-time grant is $34,950, 38% of students land in the "less than half tuition" band, 59% land in "half-to-full," and 0% receive a full-tuition award. In other words, almost everyone gets something, most people get a meaningful chunk (over half tuition), but a full ride is not something DePaul appears to award at all — so if a competing school dangles a full-tuition offer, that's a real point of leverage worth raising in a scholarship conversation (see our guide to negotiating a law school scholarship).
The harder number to make peace with is the gap between grant and total cost. DePaul's own estimated full-time cost of attendance is $84,738 a year, once you add its ~$29,110 living-expense estimate on top of tuition and fees. Even a grant at the reported median of $34,950 still leaves roughly $50,000 a year of costs to cover through loans, savings, or work — and if your letter puts you in the lower half of the "half-to-full" band, the gap is larger still. Multiply that shortfall by three years and you can see why the size of your specific grant, not the mere fact that you received one, should drive your enrollment decision.
On the borrowing side, be aware that the federal lending rules are in flux: as of the 2026-27 cycle, Grad PLUS loans have reportedly been eliminated for new borrowers, and the federal Direct Unsubsidized loan is capped at $50,000 per year (verify current figures before you borrow). If that cap holds, a DePaul student facing an $84,738 cost of attendance with a below-median grant could need private loans to close the gap — a materially different financial picture than a student with an above-median award. Before you sign an enrollment deposit, run your own numbers: your specific grant, minus $55,328 in tuition and fees, minus $29,110 in living costs, is the annual amount you'd need to borrow or self-fund, and that figure — not the band on your letter — is the one to negotiate over and budget against.
If part of your plan involves eventual loan forgiveness through public-service work, note that Public Service Loan Forgiveness remains available for graduates in qualifying government or nonprofit jobs, but under the newer repayment structure a borrower has to actively opt into the income-driven Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) to get PSLF credit — the default standard plan earns none. See our explainer on law school loans and PSLF for the mechanics, and weigh it against DePaul's own employment mix (below) before assuming forgiveness will be part of your payoff plan.
Whether DePaul is worth roughly $84,738 a year in estimated cost of attendance depends almost entirely on what kind of legal career you're buying — and DePaul's own outcomes data draws that picture fairly clearly: a Chicago-anchored, mostly small-to-midsize-firm and public-sector career, with a meaningful but modest slice of graduates reaching Big Law. There is no universal answer to "is law school worth it" (see our general framework at is law school worth it); there is only whether this cost, for this outcome distribution, works for your finances and goals.
What the outcomes actually look like. Of DePaul's 155 graduates in the reporting class, 86.5% landed in jobs that were full-time, long-term, and either bar-required or J.D.-advantage — a solid majority, though it also means roughly one in seven graduates did not land in that category. Of those employed, 13 graduates (8.4% of the class) went to firms of 501+ attorneys — the Big Law tier where the widely cited $215,000 starting salary applies nationally. That is a real Big Law pipeline, not a token one, but it's a minority outcome: the largest single slice of the class, 42 graduates, went to small firms of 1-10 attorneys, with another 13 at firms of 11-25 and 10 at firms of 26-50. Government work absorbed 7.7% of graduates and public interest another 9%, and DePaul reports Illinois as its largest employment destination by a wide margin — this is a law school whose bet pays off most reliably for someone building a career in and around Chicago's courts, agencies, and mid-market firms, not someone chasing a national Big Law offer from day one.
Bar passage as a quality signal. DePaul's first-time bar pass rate was 83.78%, versus an 80.95% state average for the same administration — a modest but real edge over the jurisdiction's average, and its two-year ultimate pass rate reached 87.15%. That matters because a bar failure delays your first paycheck by months and can undercut a firm offer entirely; DePaul's numbers suggest its graduates clear that hurdle at a rate slightly ahead of peers taking the same exam, which is a reasonable proxy for how well the curriculum and student body are matched.
Where your LSAT and GPA put you, and why it matters for cost. DePaul's entering class runs a 154/158/160 LSAT split (25th/50th/75th percentile) and a 3.17/3.61/3.80 GPA split. If your numbers sit at or above the 158/3.61 medians, you are in the strongest position DePaul offers to negotiate aid — recall that 59% of students land in the half-to-full-tuition grant band and the median grant is $34,950, so a competitive applicant has real room to push for more than the median, especially if a peer school with a similar profile has already made an offer (again, see our scholarship negotiation guide). If your numbers sit below the 25th percentile — a 154 LSAT or 3.17 GPA — you should assume less leverage and budget conservatively, since DePaul reports zero full-tuition awards in its current grant distribution.
Running the actual math. Start with the $84,738 annual cost of attendance and subtract your specific grant offer — not the median, yours. Multiply the annual net cost by three years, and compare that total debt figure against the income you can realistically expect in DePaul's most common outcome bucket: a small-to-midsize Illinois firm, or a government or public-interest role, rather than the Big Law salary that only reaches about 8% of the class. A graduate heading into a 1-10 attorney firm or a public-interest job is working from a very different starting salary than the roughly 8% entering firms of 501-plus attorneys, and the federal lending backdrop makes the math tighter than it once was: with Grad PLUS gone for new borrowers and the federal Direct Unsubsidized loan capped at $50,000 a year (as of the 2026-27 cycle — verify before you borrow), a student with a below-median grant at an $84,738 cost of attendance may need private loans to cover the gap, at rates and terms less favorable than federal loans.
Where DePaul's bet is strongest. If your goal is to practice law in Chicago or Illinois more broadly, DePaul's proximity to state and federal courts, its Illinois-dominant employment outcomes, and its above-average local bar passage make a coherent case, particularly for applicants who receive an above-median grant. If your goal is a national Big Law career or portability to a market outside Illinois, the 8.4% Big Law placement rate and the school's 131st U.S. News ranking (2026-27) suggest that outcome is possible but not the default — weigh it against your specific grant, your realistic post-bar income in Illinois's small-and-midsize-firm market, and how much of the $84,738 annual cost you'd be financing with the newly capped, Grad-PLUS-free federal loan system.