When it comes to popularity, legal professions sits in the middle of the road, ranking #16 out of 38 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 6 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Legal Professions Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 9,415 degrees in legal professions annually.
Your choice of legal professions school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Legal Professions School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Legal Professions Schools in California list to help you make the college decision.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the legal professions degree levels they offer.
University of California - Berkeley is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a degree in legal professions. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Berkeley. A Best Colleges rank of #14 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UC Berkeley is a great university overall.
There were about 992 legal professions students who graduated with this degree at UC Berkeley in the most recent data year. Legal Professions degree recipients from University of California - Berkeley receive an earnings boost of around $96,004 over the average income of legal professions majors.
University of California - Santa Cruz is a great choice for students pursuing a degree in legal professions. UC Santa Cruz is a large public university located in the small city of Santa Cruz. A Best Colleges rank of #91 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UC Santa Cruz is a great university overall.
There were approximately 131 legal professions students who graduated with this degree at UC Santa Cruz in the most recent year we have data available. After graduating, legal professions degree recipients generally make an average of $36,941 in their early careers.
It's difficult to beat MTI College if you wish to pursue a degree in legal professions. Located in the suburb of Sacramento, MTI College is a private for-profit college with a small student population.
There were about 33 legal professions students who graduated with this degree at MTI College in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the legal professions program report average early career earnings of $47,535.
It's difficult to beat Mt. San Antonio College if you want to pursue a degree in legal professions. Located in the large suburb of Walnut, Mt. SAC is a public college with a fairly large student population. This college ranks 97th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were roughly 41 legal professions students who graduated with this degree at Mt. SAC in the most recent data year. Soon after graduating, legal professions degree recipients typically earn around $29,569 in the first five years of their career.
Humphreys University is a small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Stockton. This university ranks 150th out of 161 schools for overall quality in the state of California.
There were about 42 legal professions students who graduated with this degree at Humphreys University in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the suburb of La Verne, ULV is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 78th out of 161 colleges for overall quality in the state of California.
There were about 94 legal professions students who graduated with this degree at ULV in the most recent year we have data available. Soon after graduation, legal professions degree recipients usually make around $49,004 in the first five years of their career.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
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