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.