UF v. FSU

[Tuyarp]

UF for Biglaw

[strike]FSU[/strike] UF for government work

/thread

Yup. There should be only one law school for the state of FL.

[lawduder]

UF for Biglaw

[strike]FSU[/strike] UF for government work

/thread

Yup. There should be only one law school for the state of FL.

what?

[98234872348]

UF for Biglaw

FSU for government work

/thread

I'm sure that the 405 students in our 2L class that didn't get biglaw SAs (read: I am almost positive less than ten students from UF were offered summer associate positions at what are regarded as "biglaw" firms) would disagree with this...

[flcath]

A girl I know from UF told me that they're going to be in the Ivy league soon.

UF is a TTT in decline, btw. They love that line about being "top dog in Florida" or whatever, as if they don't still get pwned--even in their home state--by people from real schools.

[Mickey Quicknumbers]

Although UF used to be held in much higher regard than FSU, that is quickly changing.
Not only is UF now only one place above FSU in USNWR rankings (at 50 and 51) with UF steadily going down in the rankings and FSU going up, but FSU is also located in a real city (not just a college town).
There are many opportunities for law students being in the capital, as you can imagine.

Rankings aren't that important. Tally is not a city nor is it close to one. UF has wayyy more prestige in florida even outside of law. People who can't get admitted to UF UG tend to go to FSU and even tho FSUs law school is good it can't escape it's second best name. UF is close to both Tampa and Orlando which are actualy cities worth being in. Go to UF it's an awesome school and congrats my friend!!!

Tallahassee isn't a city? It's the freaking state capitol. There's quite a bit more legal activity going on in Tally than there is in Gainsville

[trialjunky]

fsuundergrad -[strike]If you will check, you will see that the bar passage rate for FSU this Feb exam was 65%, just slightly higher than UF's rate.[/strike]

flhealth - tragically budget cuts do affect even the law schools, however, many professors are teaching in endowed chairs, and that does protect them. Where you will see the affect is thru the little things, for instance, the library used to have pizza at the weekly training classes, no longer.

FTFY

[Mickey Quicknumbers]

Florida Bar passage rates according to IRLG

St. Thomas 64.5%
Nova Southeastern 69.4%
Barry 71.1%
Florida Coastal 73.7%
UF 77.9%
Stetson 81.5%
FIU 82.5%
Miami 84.8%
Florida State 88.1%

State Average 74%

HTH

[Lawof_theLand]

I'd pick FSU just because Tallahassee is so much more of an intellectually engaging place to study law.

Within walking distance of:

the Florida Supreme Court - (just 2 Blocks east of the Law Library).
the 1st District Court of Appeals
the main office of the Florida Northern U.S. District Court
the State Legislature
countless headquarters of state-wide advocacy organizations
Outstanding public policy law firms like Bryant, Miller, Olive

Really, what does Gainesville offer? If you want to network in school, I'd go to Tallahassee. If you want to tap in to 'Gator Nation' go to Gainesville, but you'll miss out on a lot of really unique opportunities.

[Grizz]

I'd pick FSU just because Tallahassee is so much more of an intellectually engaging place to study law.

Within walking distance of:

the Florida Supreme Court - (just 2 Blocks east of the Law Library).
the 1st District Court of Appeals
the main office of the Florida Northern U.S. District Court
the State Legislature
countless headquarters of state-wide advocacy organizations
Outstanding public policy law firms like Bryant, Miller, Olive

Really, what does Gainesville offer? If you want to network in school, I'd go to Tallahassee. If you want to tap in to 'Gator Nation' go to Gainesville, but you'll miss out on a lot of really unique opportunities.

Not an FSU or UF student, but lifelong FL resident here.

I bet as an FSU student, you will barely go to any of these locations unless you land and awesome externship somehow (I don't see anything about working w/ any of these organizations on FSU's website). And if you did go, what would you do? Sit around and what cases go down in Federal Court? Yawn. I fail to see how this will help you.

Tapping into the Gator Nation i.e. actually networking will probably get you farther than the marginal benefits gained from sheer proximity to some important stuff. UF is much more prestigious, that's not changing anytime soon. I've had lawyers in FL tell me to go to UF over Vandy, Emory, and UGA (all with money). People treat UF like it's Harvard in a way they don't for FSU.

[Lawof_theLand]

Being engaged and using the local resources is a choice and only limited by your own initiative and creativity. There are a lot of opportunities. Being able to go and watch the best lawyers around come in from all over to deliver oral arguments is a big benefit, unless you just want to stare at documents for your whole career.

And getting involved with the advocacy groups is easy to do, just go in and tell them you're interested. Tallahassee wouldn't be able to function without the FSU labor pool to draw on during the session. Helping an organization like 1000 Friends of Florida move through legislation, or helping any number of other advocacy organizations research and prepare amicus curiae briefs for supreme court cases seems like a big check in the plus column to me.

I’m one of those who’d rather come out of school with a highly developed skill set that I can market, than to rely on an alumni network. I just think that in the long run it will serve me better. But I guess that depends what you want to do with your JD. If I were set on going into tax law, then I’d probably pick UF.

[keg411]

UF for Biglaw

FSU for government work

/thread

I'm sure that the 405 students in our 2L class that didn't get biglaw SAs (read: I am almost positive less than ten students from UF were offered summer associate positions at what are regarded as "biglaw" firms) would disagree with this...

UF was probably better for BigLaw pre-ITE. Friend of mine worked for H&K in Tampa before burning out. Said friend also said there is very little difference between UF/FSU and echoed the "UF in decline, FSU on the rise" thoughts.

ETA: But he is way biased and did not enjoy his time at UF. So it may be a "grass is greener" situation.

[1L2b]

I've heard FSU has a slight edge if you want to work in govt. just because of the location, but not by that much.
I would say UF is generally regarded as the better school in most every aspect and thus is the safer choice imho. If I were you, this would be a no-brainer: UF....but you have to go to the one that you feel is the best fit (goals, location, scholarship money, etc). Good luck!