How We Rank Paralegal Programs

Who Is Ranked

Only paralegal programs on the ABA's directory of approved paralegal education programs, which listed 220 programs on September 30, 2026. Approval is the one program-level quality bar this field has: the ABA reviews a program against written guidelines covering its administration, curriculum, faculty, admissions and facilities, and California's statute names approval as one route to the paralegal title. So approval is a condition of entry, not a score. Programs without it are listed in the directories with their federal figures, never ranked.

We rank paralegal programs at each award level on its own, because a short certificate and a four-year degree are different purchases: 72 undergraduate certificate programs, 144 associate's degrees and 28 bachelor's degrees are ranked. A program is ranked at a level only when the ABA lists that kind of award for it and the federal completions data shows it conferred at least one award at that level in the 2023-24 academic year, so the program is running and has figures to score, and a new student can start it: a school that says it has closed or stopped admitting is not ranked, as the section on closures and paused programs sets out.

Matching The ABA List To Federal Records

The ABA's directory carries no federal identifier, so each entry is matched to IPEDS by name and state. 173 entries match exactly; the other 46 were matched by hand, each with a recorded reason, because the two lists often name a school differently (the ABA's "Bronx Community College" is IPEDS's "CUNY Bronx Community College"). Near misses were never accepted automatically. 1 program has no federal record at all and is listed without figures.

29 approved programs have no paralegal awards in the federal data, because IPEDS counts only credit-bearing awards and many of these programs, at university extension divisions and law schools, award non-credit certificates. They are listed, and compared on their own published facts on the post-baccalaureate certificate page.

A multi-campus college reports every campus to IPEDS as one institution, so its tuition, graduation rate and awards describe the whole college, not the campus where the paralegal program meets. The ABA approves the program at a named campus: its "Lone Star College-North Harris" is IPEDS's "Lone Star College System", and Dallas College and San Jacinto College report the same way. Such a school is shown under the institution's name, and its own pages say which campuses teach the program.

The Three Factors We Use To Rank Paralegal Programs

Tuition And Fees, 40%

What a full-time year of tuition and required fees costs, scored so the least expensive program scores highest. It is the in-state figure on state pages, where the reader lives in the state, and the out-of-state figure on the national online rankings, where the reader usually does not. Fees are included because some colleges charge their largest difference that way: Austin Community College charges every Texan the same tuition, and its out-of-district fee is what makes a year cost several times more for a Texan who lives outside the district. Weighted highest because it varies more than anything else between approved programs. Source: IPEDS, tuition and required fees for full-time undergraduates, 2023-24.

Graduation Rate, 30%

The share of the school's first-time, full-time students who finish within 150% of the normal time. It describes the institution rather than the paralegal program alone, and it is low at most community colleges because their students transfer and study part-time, so it is scored only against other programs at the same award level. Source: IPEDS graduation rates.

Paralegal Graduates, 30%

How many paralegal awards at this level the school conferred in the 2023-24 academic year. A program graduating a steady cohort runs its courses on a schedule and has alumni working in the field; one conferring two a year may run its classes when enrollment allows. Source: IPEDS completions, CIP 22.0302, first majors.

How Scores Are Computed

Each factor is scored by percentile among the programs ranked at the same award level, so a program at the middle of its field on tuition scores 5 of 10 on that factor. The three factor scores are combined by weight into a score out of 100.

We rank paralegal programs only when every factor is present: price, completion, graduates. Nothing is estimated or reweighted around a missing figure, because a low score would imply a measurement that was never made. Ties are broken by more graduates, then the lower price, then name, so the order never depends on the order of a data file.

Graduates are the paralegal awards at this level the school reported to IPEDS for July 2023 to June 2024, counting each student's first major. IPEDS counts only credit-bearing awards, so a non-credit certificate never appears in it.

Which Price Is Scored

We rank paralegal programs on the same factors everywhere; the price is not the same, because the reader is not. A campus program is a local purchase, so state pages score the in-state figure, the one a resident pays. Comparing in-state prices across state lines would tell no one anything: California's community colleges charge residents a fraction of what colleges elsewhere charge theirs, and a national list built on those figures would rank California first for readers who cannot get its price. An online program is a national purchase, so the online rankings score the out-of-state figure, the one a reader in another state usually pays. That is why one program can carry two scores: 33 certificate programs are ranked online, on a different field and a different price, from the same model.

Tuition and fees are what each school reported to IPEDS for a full-time undergraduate year in 2023-24, tuition plus required fees, before books, supplies or aid. A certificate of about 30 semester credits is roughly a full-time year of coursework, but programs differ in length and many students take them part-time, so read the figure as a way to compare schools. Colleges set new rates every year. It is not the price of a post-baccalaureate or extension certificate, which schools price separately.

Certificates And Degrees Priced Apart From Tuition

IPEDS tuition is a school's undergraduate rate. A public college bills its paralegal programs at that rate, but a private university often does not: it may run a certificate through continuing education at a price of its own, and it may publish a program rate for a degree. Scoring such a program on the university's undergraduate tuition would rank it on a figure that is not its price. So a private school's certificate is ranked on the federal figure only when the school's own page shows the certificate billed per credit at the rate IPEDS reports, within 15%. 8 approved private certificate programs do not meet that test and are not ranked; where a school's page publishes a price, its certificate is compared on that price instead.

A private school's degree is ranked on the federal price only when the rate its pages publish is within 25% of it. The band is wider for degrees because three years separate IPEDS's 2023-24 figures from the schools' current pages, and a degree's rate drifts across them; separately priced programs are far outside it. 6 private degree programs are listed without a rank for that reason. A school whose pages publish no price to compare is ranked on the federal one.

Certificates For Degree Holders

The ABA files every certificate under one code, "Certificate", whether the school opens it to students without a degree or keeps it for those who already hold a bachelor's. Undergraduate figures describe the first group and not the second, so a certificate is ranked only when the school's own page shows undergraduate entry. A certificate for bachelor's degree holders, which a school may call post-baccalaureate, is not ranked: it is compared by the price its page publishes, on its own page, with its credits, format and entry rule. A school whose pages say nothing about who may enroll keeps its place.

Which Programs Are Online

IPEDS records distance education once for all of a school's programs at an award level, and its figures run a year or more behind, so a school's own page decides wherever it speaks plainly, in both directions. Central Piedmont Community College's associate degree is taken off the online rankings because the school's page gives its format as on campus, though IPEDS records some online. 52 programs at 39 schools are on the online rankings because the school's page says the program can be completed online, though IPEDS records it as campus only. Each statement is a sentence copied from the school's page, kept with its link and the date it was read, and a script re-reads every one. A page that says only that some courses are online makes no statement, and pages that disagree claim neither format.

Closures And Paused Programs

Federal completions run a year or more behind, so a school can close, or stop admitting, after the data was collected. A program whose school says, on its own current page, that it has closed or stopped admitting students leaves the rankings and stays listed, on the ABA's list and on its state page, with the notice quoted and dated. A notice about the whole school takes it out of every ranking; a notice about one award level takes out that level only, and the school's other programs stay ranked. 1 school has closed, 6 schools are not admitting new students in any program and 2 schools are not admitting at one award level only. A page that has merely disappeared is not evidence of closure, and such a program keeps its place. The ABA's own sanction flags are shown where the directory carries them.

• Community College of Aurora, Aurora, Colorado: Certificate not admitting new students

  The program is not accepting new students this academic year.

  Read October 1, 2026, Community College of Aurora page

• Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois: Not admitting new students

  The following programs are suspended from enrollment of new students. The most recent catalog year for each program is listed below.

  Read October 1, 2026, Southern Illinois University Carbondale page

• Bronx Community College, Bronx, New York: Not admitting new students

  NOTE: The Paralegal Studies program is not currently accepting new students.

  Read October 2, 2026, Bronx Community College page

• Daemen University, Amherst, New York: Bachelor's not admitting new students

  Enrollment in the four year paralegal BS program has been temporarily paused.

  Read October 1, 2026, Daemen University page

• Nassau Community College, Garden City, New York: Not admitting new students

  Note: No longer accepting new students.

  Read October 8, 2026, Nassau Community College page

• Eastern Gateway Community College, Steubenville, Ohio: Closed

  Effective September 30th, 2025 the college is permanently closed.

  Read October 1, 2026, Eastern Gateway Community College page

• University of Oklahoma Law Center, Norman, Oklahoma: Program ending 2026

  The University of Oklahoma Law Center’s Paralegal Studies Program will remain ABA-approved through the end of 2026. Students currently enrolled or admitted to the program must complete all program requirements by the end of 2026 to graduate.

  Read October 1, 2026, University of Oklahoma Law Center page

• Central Penn College, Summerdale, Pennsylvania: Not admitting new students

  Please note: This program is not currently accepting new enrollments.

  Read October 5, 2026, Central Penn College page

• South Puget Sound Community College, Olympia, Washington: Not admitting new students

  IMPORTANT NOTE: SPSCC is no longer accepting students into this program.

  Read October 1, 2026, South Puget Sound Community College page

What The Ranking Leaves Out

• Graduate earnings. College Scorecard reports earnings for fewer than a third of approved programs, and only for graduates who received federal aid. Cards show the figure where it exists; the score does not use it, because a factor most programs lack would decide who is ranked rather than who is better.
• Online delivery. Whether a program can be finished online is a fact about fit, not quality: a campus program is the better choice for a reader who lives near it. The site has a separate list of programs that can be completed online, taken from the school's own page where it says so and from IPEDS where it does not, and the cards say which these are.
• Certification exam pass rates. NALA publishes CP exam results by month and certifications by state, not by school, and no school-level pass rates were found from NFPA or NALS. Schools that publish their own figures do it on their own terms, so nothing comparable exists to score.
• Admission rate. Most of these programs are at open-admission colleges, so an admission rate would score the college, not the paralegal program, and would reward turning students away.

Where shown, earnings are College Scorecard's median for the school's legal support services graduates (federal field 22.03, which also holds legal administrative assistant programs) who received federal aid, measured one year after finishing. Scorecard reports them only where enough graduates can be counted.

Program Summaries

The summaries on program cards, 195 of them, are written from each school's own program pages, which every card links with the date they were read. Each fact in a summary, and each price, credit count, format and entry requirement, is backed by a sentence copied word for word from those pages, and a script re-fetches the pages and flags any sentence that can no longer be found. Rankings, salary claims and testimonials on school pages are not carried over.

State Pages

A state gets its own page when it has at least 4 ABA-approved programs open to new students and at least 4 of them ranked at some level, which is true of 19 states. Each state page filters the in-state rankings to its own programs, renumbers them within the state, and carries the state's own rules for paralegals, written from the statute, court rule or bar program that sets them. Every other state's approved programs are on the ABA's list, by state.

Rankings For One Kind Of Student

The lists for one kind of student, from accelerated certificates to military-friendly ones, re-score nothing. Each keeps the national ranking's order, or the online ranking's for 100% online certificates, and renumbers the programs that qualify from 1. Most qualify on a sentence from the school's own page, quoted on the program's card: a length of 12 months or less, evening or weekend classes, part-time study, a certificate that can be finished entirely online, or a program built for working adults. Before a sentence was used, a second reader re-read it on its page and set aside any that described a degree, a different program or a past year, and a script re-reads them all with the program summaries. The military-friendly list takes the veteran services each college reports to IPEDS: the Yellow Ribbon Program, credit for military training and a point of contact for veterans. The working-moms list pairs on-campus child care, as reported to IPEDS, with an evening, part-time, weekend or online schedule from the school's page. A box a college left unchecked is not read as a no, and neither is a page that says nothing: the program is simply not listed. A list with fewer than 5 programs is not published. No ranked certificate is at a religiously affiliated college, so the faith-based list compares the approved certificates at those colleges on the tuition each publishes and ranks none of them.

Changes To How We Rank Paralegal Programs

How we rank paralegal programs is versioned: the number and date above change whenever a weight, a factor or an eligibility rule changes. Corrections to a school's data change its score without changing the model, and so do new ABA directory editions, which the ABA publishes every February and August.

Version 1.1 changed who is eligible, not the factors or their weights. Certificates for degree holders left the certificate ranking, private schools' degrees are ranked on the federal price only within 25% of their published rate, programs a school says it is not admitting at an award level left that level's ranking, and the online list follows each school's own page.