It's only a lot of reading if you do it.

Over the last few years, as I told people that I wanted to go to law school I was met with a lot of comments along the lines of, "I sure hope you like to read, because you'll be doing a lot of it." Well, I wouldn't say that I love reading, but I certainly don't dislike it. Given the time and interesting subject matter I definitely like to read. God knows I got sucked into those first two Twilight books (just the first two, they got really ridiculous and annoying after that and I had to just get the summaries of the last two from Wikipedia). Also, I never really acquired the skill of speed reading so I was slightly worried that I'd spend the next three years in a dark corner of the law library reading until my eyes bled.
Thankfully, like most things, it really hasn't been as bad as people said it would be. That's not to say that's it's been a walk through the park. See, those people who told me I'd be doing a lot of reading had it slightly wrong (or perhaps I just mistook their statements). It's not the quantity of reading, it's the quality. I'd say on average I only have to read 40-60 pages a week per class. However, you are expected to know the ins and outs of each case you read for class. You should know who was arguing what and why. What the court meant by what they said. Even, what the court meant by what it didn't say.
However, you will almost certainly NOT be tested on the cases that you've read (though some professors may give extra points if you can name the relevant ones on the exam). The whole point to reading and understanding cases is that they illustrate some part of the law (or in some cases what used to be the law). In law school, you don't have textbooks that teach you the rules, you learn from examples. So, try not to get hung up on and upset over a certain case because the bad man went free or the poor old widow didn't receive any damages for her husband's wrongful death, but ask yourself what is the significant law from this case. And that, dear friends, is quite possibly the most valuable piece of information I got going into law school.

*One minor, semi-related note: buy your books online on Amazon or eBay. It's so much cheaper than the books stores, even brand new!

Becoming a lawyer is expensive!

Never mind the $26K price tag on one year of law school, everything about law school is expensive. Every time I turn around it seems like someone/thing is asking for more money for one reason or another so that one day I can become a lawyer.

It starts before you even know for sure that you are going to law school. The LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) costs about $125 a pop, and like the SAT you can take it (or if you're like me and don't do so hot the first time around, have to take it) multiple times. Then, you have to pay $110 to sign up for LSDAS, which compiles all your letter of recommendations, transcripts, applications, etc. and sends all your information to the schools you apply to. Then, there is a $50-100 application fee for each school you apply to, and each school requires a law school report from LSDAS (your applications, essays, LORs, etc.) which are $12 each.

The cost of tuition for one year of law school ranges from $18K to $32K (at least in Texas), and that doesn't even include your casebooks. My books for my first semester cost almost $1,000 (for five classes), luckily I will be able to use one, possibly two, of them again next semester.

Then, with one week of school under my belt, I attended a mandatory informational session with someone from the Board of Law Examiners (BLE). I was informed that I would have to file a Declaration of Intent to study law and include a $190 fee. Two months later, I was required to pay $10 to have my fingerprints taken for the BLE.

I refuse to add all that up to see exactly how much I've dished out thus far, but I can only hope that the eventual pay out will be more than worth it.

*In case you want to have a good laugh and tally all that up, keep in mind that is pretty much the bare minimum of what it costs to go to law school. There are prep courses and additional supplements and practice books that can be purchased. But on the other hand if you qualify some fees can be waived, and there are scholarships and grants. So don't let the giant price tag get you down. If there's a will, there's a way.

Birds of a feather

All the professor are real characters. From the one who gets so excited about civil procedure that she flaps her arm so fast you swear she'll one day take flight to the torts professor who drums his fingers together like Mr. Burns to drive home the point of negligence. As a matter of fact everyone in law school is just a little bit weird. Yes, everyone. Even those four guys who always sit in the back row and are just a little too cool for school; they're weird in the fact that they're not weird like everyone else.

My bLAWg

I'm currently wrapping up my first semester at a private law school in Texas. I can only speak from my own experiences but I can't imagine that my school, section, professors, etc. are substantially different from any other. So to follow are my discoveries of the known and not so well known truths about law school.