$52,800 per year is what DePaul Law charges applicants who give it no reason to charge less. Over three years, with living costs, the sticker ride runs about $218,400, and the distance between that figure and what leveraged applicants pay is the entire game at this tier. Here is how the pricing actually works.

What DePaul Law Costs

Line itemFigureNoteAnnual tuition$52,800Published rate, pre-awardThree-year tuition$158,400Full-program stickerLiving expenses~$20,000 / yrChicago, IllinoisThree-year cost of attendance~$218,400Total before aidMerit money opensLSAT 156+Where awards begin

How Much Does DePaul Law Really Cost After Scholarships?

For competitive applicants, meaningfully less than sticker, merit awards open above an LSAT of 156 and scale from there. The sticker price is the price for applicants who arrived without leverage, and the rest of this page is about not being one of them.

The Discount Machine: Why the Price Moves

Law school merit aid is not charity, it is class-shaping. A school’s rank depends partly on its entering medians, so it pays, in discounts, for the scores that defend them. DePaul Law is no exception: aid concentrates above the median, scales past it, and responds to documented competition. The corpus rule: every competing offer goes to the aid office in writing. Verbal mentions are conversation; documents are leverage.

Withheld Tip: sequence matters more than persistence. The largest allocations go to the early pool, apply by November 1, but your negotiating position is set by the offers you hold when awards are decided. Build the peer-school applications first, so the competing numbers exist before the school prices you, not after.

The Debt Math, Honestly

The only honest way to evaluate $218,400 is against income, before you deposit. Build the model: ($52,800 − award + $20,000 living) × three years, plus interest from disbursement. Then price the outcomes, $65 to 130K at regional firms, $55 to 90K in government, $215K in the BigLaw scenario. At sticker, this degree costs about 2.2 years of a regional first-year salary, the single most clarifying ratio in the decision. If the middle of that distribution cannot carry the debt comfortably, the award is too small or the school is wrong, and both of those are fixable before enrollment, not after.

Non-negotiable: the debt model runs on the middle of the income distribution. Building it on the BigLaw number is how applicants talk themselves into prices the actual job market will not service. And if public interest is the path, treat LRAP as a document to read, not a rumor to rely on, terms vary and shift.

If You Only Do 3 Things

1. Treat the LSAT as the price lever it is, if your score sits below the school’s scholarship line, the cheapest tuition strategy is more preparation, not more essays.
2. Apply in the early pool and negotiate in writing with every offer you hold.
3. Model the full three-year cost at your award before committing, the middle of the income range, not the ceiling, carries the debt.

DePaul Law Tuition: Quick Answers

How much is DePaul Law per year?

Sticker tuition is $52,800 per year, roughly $73,000 once living costs are added. Competitive applicants frequently pay meaningfully less through merit awards that open above an LSAT of 156.

Does DePaul Law negotiate scholarships?

Merit aid at this tier is negotiation-responsive, particularly to written competing offers from peer schools. The negotiation is standard practice, not an imposition, aid offices expect it from leveraged applicants.

Is DePaul Law worth $218,400?

Not at one universal price, worth is computed, not declared: your scholarship-adjusted three-year cost against the school’s verified placement and salary mix. Run that division before deposit day and the question answers itself.

Related Playbooks

• DePaul Law LSAT Score: What You Need
• DePaul Law Bar Passage Rate
• DePaul Law Employment Outcomes
• Law School Scholarship Negotiation: The Full Guide
• The 12-Week LSAT Study Schedule
• Best Law Schools in Illinois

Lovare’s Take

Treat tuition as the output of a process you control, not a fact you absorb. The applicants who pay least are not the luckiest, they are the ones who built leverage on purpose: a score above the median, peer offers in hand, and a November application. Price is the last thing the LSAT buys you, and it is usually the biggest.