2027 Fordham vs. DePaul: Comparing Online MSL and MLS Study Options
Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist
Fordham's online Master of Studies in Law (MSL) and DePaul's online Master of Legal Studies (MLS) both offer graduate legal study without a Juris Doctor (JD), but they may serve different professional goals. For a working adult, the consequential differences are the courses available, scheduling commitments, and full cost - not the letters after the degree. This guide compares those decision points, identifies what to confirm directly with each school, and helps you decide whether either degree is a sensible next step.
Key Things You Should Know
- Favor Fordham if its online corporate-compliance curriculum matches the regulatory work you want to do; compare DePaul's current course offerings if you need a different legal-studies emphasis.
- Neither the MSL nor the MLS qualifies you to practice law. Both are graduate degrees for nonlawyers, not substitutes for a JD and bar admission.
- Compare a written, 2026-27 total-cost estimate from each school before enrolling. For career context, the U.S. median pay for compliance officers was $80,730 in May 2025; that is an occupational benchmark, not a graduate salary.
What Are Fordham's MSL and DePaul's MLS Degrees Designed For?
Fordham's online MSL is a non-JD graduate option centered on corporate compliance: understanding legal obligations and helping an organization build processes to meet them. DePaul's online MLS is also a non-JD degree, but applicants should judge it by the particular courses and study path currently available to them rather than assuming it duplicates Fordham's compliance emphasis.
Fordham is the more direct program to investigate if your job involves internal policies, regulatory risk, or compliance oversight. DePaul may be worth closer examination if your goal calls for legal study beyond that focus.
If you mainly want to understand contracts or regulation in a business role, compare both curricula with other ways of studying business law while maintaining a career.
How Do Fordham and DePaul Online Law Programs Compare?
The degree names alone reveal little about day-to-day study. This comparison separates established distinctions from details that require confirmation for your intended start term.
| Decision criterion | Fordham online MSL | DePaul online MLS |
| Credential | Master of Studies in Law; non-JD | Master of Legal Studies; non-JD |
| Primary fit to examine | Corporate-compliance-focused graduate legal study | The fit of the current MLS curriculum to your professional goal |
| Format | Online; confirm live-session and course-sequencing rules | Online; confirm live-session and course-sequencing rules |
| Cost comparison | Request tuition and required fees for the full degree | Request tuition and required fees for the full degree |
| Professional result | Does not confer attorney licensure | Does not confer attorney licensure |
A useful tie-breaker is to match required courses - not just electives that may rotate - to tasks you expect to perform at work. Ask each school for a current degree plan and the schedule of courses for your proposed start term.
Are Fordham and DePaul Online Law Degrees Accredited?
Fordham University is institutionally accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and DePaul University is institutionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Institutional accreditation concerns the university; it does not mean an accreditor separately endorses every feature of an MSL or MLS curriculum.
Do not confuse these degrees with American Bar Association (ABA) approval. ABA approval of a law school's JD program is not approval of its non-JD master's degree, and ABA approval of a qualifying paralegal education program is a different designation altogether. If a particular approval matters to an employer, ask which program and credential the employer requires.
What Do Fordham MSL and DePaul MLS Programs Teach?
Fordham's corporate-compliance focus makes courses on legal and regulatory obligations especially relevant to professionals who help organizations identify risks, set policies, and monitor adherence. For DePaul, inspect the current MLS requirements and available electives against the legal subject you need; a course listed in a catalog is not necessarily offered every term or available in the online format.
To make the comparison concrete, identify a work problem - such as reviewing a policy or interpreting a regulation - and ask each program which required assignments develop that skill. Also ask whether students use legal research resources in assessed work. Mention of a tool in a course description is not the same as hands-on practice or professional proficiency.
How Flexible Are Fordham and DePaul Online Study Formats?
Both options are described as online, but online does not automatically mean self-paced. Live classes, group work, timed assessments, and courses offered only in certain terms can affect whether either degree works alongside a full-time job.
Before committing, request a sample weekly schedule from each school. Confirm whether attendance is required at set times, whether any campus visits are necessary, how deadlines work across time zones, and whether changing to part-time study would delay required courses. These answers matter more to practical flexibility than an "online" label.
What Are the Admission Requirements for Each Online Law Degree?
These are graduate degrees, so applicants should expect each school to evaluate completed undergraduate study and its own current application requirements. Do not assume the schools use identical GPA thresholds, work-experience expectations, test policies, or rules for international credentials.
Ask each admissions office for the requirements governing your intended entry term, including whether professional experience is recommended or required.
If you have not yet earned a bachelor's degree, neither master's program is the immediate comparison to make. Explore associate-to-bachelor's legal studies transfer options first. The receiving institution - not the school where you previously studied - decides which credits apply to its degree.
How Long Do Fordham and DePaul Online Law Degrees Take?
Your completion time depends on the required credits, how often required courses run, and how many courses you can take while working. A school's fastest advertised pathway may assume a heavier load than you can sustain; its part-time pathway may change if a required class is unavailable in your next term.
Ask both schools to map your proposed course load to an expected graduation term and identify any sequence that could extend it.
If your actual goal is entry-level paralegal preparation rather than graduate-level legal knowledge, our list of accelerated online paralegal programs provides a different route to investigate. A shorter program is not interchangeable with an MSL or MLS, but it may avoid unnecessary graduate study for that goal.
How Much Do Fordham MSL and DePaul MLS Programs Cost?
Do not rank the programs using one school's per-credit rate and the other's advertised program total. The comparable figure is your estimated full cost to complete at each school for the same expected enrollment period.
A reliable 2026-27 dollar comparison requires each school's current tuition schedule, degree requirements, and mandatory fees; without those inputs, a precise total would be misleading.
Request an itemized 2026-27 estimate from both schools covering tuition, mandatory and technology fees, books or research resources, and any required travel.
Ask whether your planned course load changes the rate and whether later terms could be priced differently. Then subtract only aid or employer reimbursement you have confirmed - not an award you hope to receive. You can use affordable online master's degrees in legal studies to widen the comparison if neither estimate fits your budget.
What Careers Can Fordham MSL and DePaul MLS Graduates Pursue?
Both degrees may help professionals apply legal knowledge in compliance, policy, contracts, or other law-adjacent work. Fordham's focus is particularly relevant to someone building on existing compliance responsibilities.
DePaul's value depends on how its current coursework relates to the role you seek. Neither school's degree should be treated as a job-placement promise, and employers may value relevant experience more than an additional degree.
As a U.S. labor-market benchmark, compliance officers earned a median $80,730 in May 2025, with 4% projected employment growth from 2025-2035, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Those figures cover the occupation broadly - not MSL or MLS graduates - and do not show what a new graduate would earn. If your goal is specifically paralegal work, consider paralegal certificate programs to compare before paying for a graduate degree. Completing a certificate is not the same as earning a professional paralegal certification.
Do These Degrees Qualify Graduates to Practice Law?
Neither Fordham's MSL nor DePaul's MLS is a JD, and neither degree by itself qualifies a graduate for bar admission or to represent clients as an attorney. Attorney licensing rules vary by jurisdiction, but an MLS or MSL should not be mistaken for an attorney-qualifying pathway.
If your objective is to give legal advice or practice law, investigate JD admission and the licensing requirements of the jurisdiction where you intend to work. If your objective is to work with legal issues within an existing business or compliance role, compare these master's degrees against the narrower training your employer would actually recognize.
Other Things You Should Know About Law & Paralegal
Possibly. Ask your employer whether graduate legal studies qualifies, what approval is needed before enrollment, and whether reimbursement depends on grades or continued employment.
Do not assume so. A JD-granting school decides whether it accepts prior coursework and how that coursework applies; get its policy in writing before relying on a future transfer.
Confirm eligibility with the university before applying. Where you live can affect a school's ability to enroll you online, and any optional fieldwork or professional requirements may have separate location rules.
Use the exact degree name awarded - Master of Studies in Law or Master of Legal Studies - and list relevant coursework or projects separately. Do not abbreviate either degree as a JD or describe it as a license to practice law.
References
- Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes Tool Shows What You Might Earn Depending on the College You Attend | Census.gov https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/06/job-and-earnings-prospects-by-college-and-degree.html
- Cost of Attendance (Budget) | 2025-2026 Federal Student Aid Handbook https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/fsa-handbook/2025-2026/vol3/ch2-cost-attendance-budget
- Types of Financial Aid: Grants, Work-Study, and Loans | studentaid.gov https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types
- Online Master of Studies in Law (MSL) Program | FOR-LAW https://onlinelaw.fordham.edu/master-studies-law/
- 4.1.21 Instructional Modalities and Distance Education | Illinois State https://policy.illinoisstate.edu/academic/4-1-21
- JD Admissions First-Year Applicants - UW School of Law https://www.law.uw.edu/admissions/jd/first-year/
- Career Outcomes for Graduate Students | Meruelo Family Center for Career Development https://careerdevelopment.nd.edu/outcomes/graduate/
- Graduate Employment Outcomes Dashboard | Johns Hopkins https://publichealth.jhu.edu/offices-and-services/office-of-student-affairs/career-services/graduate-employment-outcomes-dashboard
- Tuition & Fees | University of Louisiana at Lafayette https://louisiana.edu/financialaid/cost-attend/tuition-fees
- Online Master of Legal Studies | AU-LAW https://onlinelaw.wcl.american.edu/legal-studies/
