While attending Oakland University for your undergraduate education, you will benefit from attending one of the most affordable universities in the state. Beyond maintaining reasonable tuition rates, OU also offers financial assistance to any student who may require it in the form of scholarships, grants, and student loans. (You can learn more about the types of assistance available through the Financial Aid Office.)

However, if you are thinking about applying to law school, one of your major considerations should be how you will finance your graduate education. The cost of a three-year law education can be substantial, with tuition costing anywhere between several thousand to more than twenty thousand dollars a year, depending on the school you choose to attend.

And that is just for your classes! When you are estimating the potential cost of your law education, you must be careful not to focus solely on the cost of tuition. In addition to being able to pay for your classes, you will also need to pay for books, food to eat, a place to live and a means of transportation. You must also remember, while making these calculations, that your opportunity to work or obtain outside income will be severely limited by the attention that will need to be devoted to your schoolwork.

Most students must rely on student loans to finance either a portion or the total cost of their law education. These loans are available both through the government and through private resources. It will be your responsibility to research the financial aid opportunities available to you at the school you would like to attend. You may also want to research whether the school offers any opportunities for assistance in the form of grants or scholarships.

You can start to determine the potential cost of your law education and how student loans will factor into your long-range financial situation using the opportunity cost calculator.