OverviewSalary and DebtCareersSchoolsRelated ProgramsGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Legal assistant or paralegal is a program that prepares individuals to perform research, drafting, investigatory, record-keeping and related administrative functions under the supervision of an attorney or court. includes instruction in legal research, drafting legal documents, appraising, pleading, courthouse procedures, and legal specializations.
Highlights
School with the highest reported median starting salary ($63K) with a Certificate: San Francisco State University
Career with the highest median salary ($60K) associated with this program: Specialized Legal Support Workers
Explore Pathways
Careers for program graduates
Legal assistant or paralegal majors work in these careers, which are sized by percentage of majors in the career (at least 1%) and colored by the predominant level of education.
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Current completions
What level of degree do most graduates achieve, and do they match what your goals?
Completions over time
Have completions for pre-law and legal studies changed over time? Increasing completions may mean you'll likely have an easier time finding a school that offers this degree, with the opposite being true as well.
Show percentages
Number of graduates
Post-master's Cert
Master's Degree
Postbaccalaureate Cert
Bachelor's Degree
Associate's Degree
2-4 Year Certificate
1-2 Year Certificate
0-1 Year Certificate
Salary and Debt
How are students who recently completed a degree in legal assistant or paralegal doing?
Below is the distribution of starting salaries along with accumulated federal and private education loans across schools that offer a degree in the field legal support services, which includes
legal assistant or paralegal.
Careers
Recommended careers for those with a degree in pre-law and legal studies
Following are the jobs recommended for those who study Pre-Law and Legal Studies (which combines 8 programs). These are listed in order of highest nationwide employment.
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Recommended Careers for pre-law and legal studies majors
Is this degree preparing you for a career with a salary you want? Are there lots of openings in the near future? The Department of Education suggests these careers as a starting list, and Ididio hopes that if the career you're most interested in doesn't appear here, you will head over to our Career Explorer and learn more about paths to your best career.
Career
Follow the links to learn all about any career!
Salary Spread
Salary distribution for people in this occupation
Median
Middle 50%
Middle 80%
How much school?
Education level of people in this occupation
No college
Some College
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Doctorate/Professional
Employed
The number of people employed in this occupation
Growth Rate
The projected percentage growth in employment for this occupation in 10 years
Annual Job Openings
The projected average number of job openings per year
Where can I complete this degree
Explore schools that offer legal assistant or paralegal degrees and certificates
You can use this table to find schools that offer this program based on location and program level offered. Each entry goes to a school page similar to this one with all our information about that school.
Understanding the columns
The school list includes a few facts about each school that give you an idea of the educational quality each school might offer:
Student-Faculty Ratio: A small number of students per full-time instructor suggests individual attention for each student and an up-to-date curriculum.
Satisfaction Rate: A high percentage of returning first-year students should correlate with satisfaction (schools call this their retention rate).
Repayment Rate: A high repayment rate means most alumni earn enough to make progress repaying loans within 7 years of leaving.
We also show the total enrollment for the school as measured by full-time-equivalent (FTE) students enrolled annually.
Filter Schools
Offering this program at this level
All levels
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of
Only schools in these states
530 schools offer this award at any level in the selected area.
School
State
Total enrollment
Student to Full-time Faculty Ratio
Average Net Price
Repayment Rate
6-year Completion Rate
Related Programs
Top 10 similar programs
Following are related programs, ordered by those with the highest number of completions. You can explore a full list by pressing the more details button.
Fewer details
Careers for pre-law and legal studies majors
pre-law and legal studies is part of a larger collection of programs: Legal Studies. Is there a different program that's close to pre-law and legal studies that might be a better match for your interests? You can use this table to see a little about the programs that fall under this umbrella. If you click on any of the table headers, that will sort the table by that column, or click on a row and see Ididio's profile for that program.
Gender
Gender of recent graduates
Of all people with any degree in legal assistant or paralegal earned in the last academic year, 83% were women.
Gender
Men
Women
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Completions over time
Have completions by gender changed over time, or at specific levels of education?
Award level
All levels
Women
Men
Context: Gender representation
How does the gender distribution in this major compare to all other majors?
Context: Percentage women
This major has a higher percentage of women than 84% other programs.
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary with this degree? The closer the bar are, the less discrepancy there is.
Context: Salary inequity
For pre-law and legal studies graduates, men have a 20% higher median salary than women, This is high: 59% of programs have graduates with lower salary inequities.
Race/Origin
Race/Origin of recent graduates
Here is an overview of race/origin for all legal assistant or paralegal graduates from this last academic year. We found a lower percentage of international graduates than in 64% of other programs.
Race/Origin
White
Black
Pacific Islander
Hispanic
Asian
American Indian
Multiracial
Not Reported
International
Fewer details
Completions over time
Have completions by race/origin changed over time, or at specific levels of education?
Award level
All levels
International
Not Reported
Multiracial
American Indian
Asian
Hispanic
Pacific Islander
Black
White
Context: Percentage of Minority Graduates
Minority students comprise a lower percentage of graduates than in 45% of other programs.
