a small fee

So I'm back at school as of yesterday. It's not really weird readjusting to dorm life after a month of being at home. It's just kind of noisy. I've got a lot of housekeeping items to do, and no, I don't mean cleaning the room. I just thought I'd say that I'm back in Chapel Hill before I get to the topic of this blog. Now, onto the feature presentation...

As the title suggests, today I'm writing about money. Last week, I decided to put myself into high gear on getting ready for law school. I have to take the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) in June so I can start applying to schools in the fall. Do you have any idea how much it costs to take this test? If you thought the SAT was bad at $45, prepare to be blown away. It costs $127 to take the LSAT, plus you have to register for a database which creates a profile for you with your scores, letters of recommendation, etc for applying to law schools. I'm not sure how much the database service costs, but after taking the LSAT, it costs $12 per report to send your scores with your applications. Add all of these expenses to the various schools' application fees, and you've got a small fortune.

I went onto the LSAC (Law School Admission Council) website to apply for a fee waiver. Of course, it instantly got denied because my parents' income exceeds the limit for possible waived fees. The numbers may suggest this, but let's take a microscope to my family's financial situation. My mom works two jobs, so she's at work from 8:30 AM until 8:30 PM on a normal day. Sometimes she has to work over. At her second job, she doesn't get paid time off so she has to work there even if she has a vacation at her salaried job. My dad broke his foot in November and has been out of work since, leaving my parents' wallets to be much, much lighter. I honestly don't know how they do it. I pay for all of my bills and I currently don't have a job. I'm trying to work on finding one that I'll be able to do with my school schedule. But, since I'm declared a dependent, all of that doesn't matter. The only thing that goes into the fee waiver application is the numbers on the tax forms. After being denied, I appealed it. I'm still waiting on the decision. I really hope they give me a fee waiver so it won't break me completely to apply to law school.

That's my little rant for today. Hopefully we'll find out pretty soon if I have been chosen to receive a fee waiver. It would really help out. Sometimes numbers on a 1040 can't justify what really goes on off the paper.