The headline at Scalia Law is the price: $28,000 a year, around $52,000 all-in, modest by legal-education standards. Do not let the modest sticker end the analysis. The same LSAT leverage that moves six figures at premium schools moves real money here as well, and on a smaller base, every discounted dollar changes the debt math faster.
Line itemFigureNoteAnnual tuition$28,000Published rate, pre-awardThree-year tuition$84,000Three years, undiscountedLiving expenses~$20,000 / yrArlington, VAThree-year cost of attendance~$52,000The real all-in numberMerit money opensLSAT 163+Where awards begin
For competitive applicants, meaningfully less than sticker, merit awards open above an LSAT of 163 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.
Understand what a scholarship is from Scalia Law’s side of the table: a purchase. The school buys the credentials its ranking requires, and the budget flows to applicants whose numbers defend the published medians. That is why awards cluster above the median, why they grow with distance from it, and why a written offer from a peer school changes the conversation, it puts a market price on you. Always negotiate in writing.
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 only honest way to evaluate $52,000 is against income, before you deposit. Build the model: ($28,000 − 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 0.5 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.
One non-negotiable: never model on the assumption you will be the BigLaw outcome. Model on the middle of the distribution and let BigLaw be the upside case. Public-interest paths get their own check, verify the school’s current LRAP terms before relying on them, because loan-repayment assistance is a program detail, not a promise.
Sticker tuition is $28,000 per year, roughly $48,000 once living costs are added. Competitive applicants frequently pay meaningfully less through merit awards that open above an LSAT of 163.
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.
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.
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.