The ABA provides a list of all of the public ABA-approved law schools in the country (see Resources). They are run by state universities and are ABA-accredited. In 2011, the University of California at Berkeley listed student costs for law school, which includes tuition and all associated fees, at approximately $22,000 a year for state residents and $26,000 a year for nonresidents. The University of New York at Buffalo Law School published its annual tuition and fee rates for the same year as approximately $17,500 for New York residents and $29,000 for nonresidents. Louisiana State University Law School published its tuition and fee rates as approximately $16,000 for residents and $30,000 a year for nonresidents. The Internet Legal Research Group website lists law school rankings by tuition (see Resources), which is helpful in comparing rates across the country.
Private ABA-approved law schools are listed on the ABA website and tend have higher tuitions and fees than public ABA-accredited law schools. Stanford Law School lists its 2011-12 annual tuition and fees as $47,500, and Seattle University's are $57,000 - $63,000, depending on unit load. Private ABA-accredited law schools generally charge double the tuition and fees of public ABA-accredited law schools.
Several states have state bar-approved law schools that are not ABA-approved. Graduates cannot sit for the national bar exam but can sit for the state bar exam. If they pass, they can practice law only in the that state. If you went to the state bar-approved Nashville School of Law in Tennessee, for example, you could sit only for the Tennessee bar exam and practice law only in Tennessee. If you attend an ABA-approved school, you can sit for the bar exam in any state. After passing the bar in one state and practicing law there for a period of time, attorneys can sit for bar exams in other states as attorneys, not first-time exam takers, which offers advantages. The National Conference of Bar Examiners maintains a list of state bar examiners and their offices have information about schools accredited by a state bar. California has many such schools and graduates are able to sit for the California bar exam and later practice law in California. These law schools can be quite economical. For instance, the People's College of Law in Los Angeles lists its 2011 tuition and costs at approximately $4,000 a year. State bar-approved private law schools charge $3,000 to $7,000 a year, but note that these schools is they do not qualify for federal financial aid like the ABA-approved schools do.
If you choose an unaccredited law schools, investigate how it qualifies you to sit for a bar exam and practice law. These schools may be licensed to operate by a state bar but not accredited by it. They can be very economical, but degrees from these schools often do not have the same value as those from accredited schools. Some states will not let graduates of unaccredited schools sit for bar exams.