Top Law Schools

Spritzpiggy wrote:This thread makes me happy. I love you FSU! And please beat the Gators this weekend If anyone has questions about Tallahassee or FSU in general feel free to message me. Best of luck!

NOOOOOOOOOO.

seancris wrote:

Spritzpiggy wrote:This thread makes me happy. I love you FSU! And please beat the Gators this weekend If anyone has questions about Tallahassee or FSU in general feel free to message me. Best of luck!

NOOOOOOOOOO.

Hahaha it should be a good game either way. But of course, I'd really like us to climb these rankings and its basically our last shot so - don't fail me now Noles. Anyways, football aside, I am glad to talk with any prospective student about life in Tally, places to live, whatever. PM me. Best of luck wherever you go.

Thanks for your help, Spritz!

Can any applicants tell me what the next stage is after "Application Complete"? Been stuck there for a few days, wondering if there's an "under review" status.

seancris wrote:Thanks for your help, Spritz!

Can any applicants tell me what the next stage is after "Application Complete"? Been stuck there for a few days, wondering if there's an "under review" status.

I've been stuck on complete since 10/30. I work 9-5 on a computer all day which is brutal because I can't stop checking this page and the status checker. I was getting kinda nervous with my above median LSAT & low GPA, but I guess if you're not under review yet I wont take it to heart, since you're an auto-admit

Edit: From what I've been told, there is an under review status

Hello future 1L's I thought my process through FSU law would shed some light on the questions you have.

I am currently a 1Lat FSU. I did my undergrad at USF in Biomedical Sciences, GPA 3.2 and LSAT 164. I applied to about 10 schools throughout the nation and got into all of them. I was offered money at all the schools except my number one choice (FSU) and my safety (FIU). I was upset by this and actually had settled on Arkansas for law school until I read these forums and became proactive about obtaining money.

I applied to FSU around December and received my acceptance call early January. I was latter in the cycle but nothing outrageous. I was waiting on my second LSAT attempt which worked out (jumping from 160). I got the phone call like the rest of you but no mention of scholarship money. Later on I got the letter and it said lookout for a merit scholarship application. I never recieved one of these and had to take the non traditional route.

I gathered all of my scholarship offers and scanned them and wrote an email about FSU being my number one choice. I was told that they would have to wait till after the cycle to determine if there was leftover money.

Warning Important info coming
Almost all schools will grant you extensions on the deadlines if you are waiting on appeal. I suggest you appeal every school just in case and request extensions too. Another thing is you can deposit at multiple schools, they will ask you to decommit in the summer and commit to one final school.

So I appealed FSU and got an extension and deposited at Arkansas. No less than a week later I was offered 10k a year with a 80 gpa minimum (about top 50%)

This year I was asked to participate in a scholarship focus group where I pushed for no gpa minimums for you guys and I saw the merit app which is pretty short and has vague questions like "How can you diversify FSU?" They also have specific questions like "Explain your Cuban background" for specific scholarships. The AD told me that GPA min are put in to encourage students to work hard (ha ok!) but she did say that they actually do not have them every year and the years they do they rarely have anyone lose their scholarship.


I know this is kind of jumping around ( I am writing it in my TORTS class) but if you have any questions let me know. I feel that I have a unique perspective because many students here are FSU or UF grads and have their degrees in Poli Sci or Econ.

Hope this helps

rockydbull wrote:Hello future 1L's I thought my process through FSU law would shed some light on the questions you have.

I am currently a 1Lat FSU. I did my undergrad at USF in Biomedical Sciences, GPA 3.2 and LSAT 164. I applied to about 10 schools throughout the nation and got into all of them. I was offered money at all the schools except my number one choice (FSU) and my safety (FIU). I was upset by this and actually had settled on Arkansas for law school until I read these forums and became proactive about obtaining money.

I applied to FSU around December and received my acceptance call early January. I was latter in the cycle but nothing outrageous. I was waiting on my second LSAT attempt which worked out (jumping from 160). I got the phone call like the rest of you but no mention of scholarship money. Later on I got the letter and it said lookout for a merit scholarship application. I never recieved one of these and had to take the non traditional route.

I gathered all of my scholarship offers and scanned them and wrote an email about FSU being my number one choice. I was told that they would have to wait till after the cycle to determine if there was leftover money.

Warning Important info coming
Almost all schools will grant you extensions on the deadlines if you are waiting on appeal. I suggest you appeal every school just in case and request extensions too. Another thing is you can deposit at multiple schools, they will ask you to decommit in the summer and commit to one final school.

So I appealed FSU and got an extension and deposited at Arkansas. No less than a week later I was offered 10k a year with a 80 gpa minimum (about top 50%)

This year I was asked to participate in a scholarship focus group where I pushed for no gpa minimums for you guys and I saw the merit app which is pretty short and has vague questions like "How can you diversify FSU?" They also have specific questions like "Explain your Cuban background" for specific scholarships. The AD told me that GPA min are put in to encourage students to work hard (ha ok!) but she did say that they actually do not have them every year and the years they do they rarely have anyone lose their scholarship.


I know this is kind of jumping around ( I am writing it in my TORTS class) but if you have any questions let me know. I feel that I have a unique perspective because many students here are FSU or UF grads and have their degrees in Poli Sci or Econ.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the info! I'm hoping to hear back from FSU soon, I've been complete about 2 months now. If you don't mind, why did you pick FSU over UF? UF & FSU are two of my top choices as a FL resident. Thanks!

Can't speak for him, but FSU has better job #s and are much more likely to give $$

scottyc66 wrote:Can't speak for him, but FSU has better job #s and are much more likely to give $$

Plus tuition is at FSU is somewhat lower at this point, and I would think that there are more summer opportunities in Tally than Gainesville. UF students are more likely than FSU students to have to relocate or get a second apartment during summers which adds more to the total cost to UF students.

seancris wrote:

scottyc66 wrote:Can't speak for him, but FSU has better job #s and are much more likely to give $$

Plus tuition is at FSU is somewhat lower at this point, and I would think that there are more summer opportunities in Tally than Gainesville. UF students are more likely than FSU students to have to relocate or get a second apartment during summers which adds more to the total cost to UF students.

Interesting. I was not aware FSU's job #'s are better? I want to do JAG, but I def. want to attend a school with good prospects as a back-up.

slawww wrote:

seancris wrote:

scottyc66 wrote:Can't speak for him, but FSU has better job #s and are much more likely to give $$

Plus tuition is at FSU is somewhat lower at this point, and I would think that there are more summer opportunities in Tally than Gainesville. UF students are more likely than FSU students to have to relocate or get a second apartment during summers which adds more to the total cost to UF students.

Interesting. I was not aware FSU's job #'s are better? I want to do JAG, but I def. want to attend a school with good prospects as a back-up.

According to law school transparency, FSU fields a 66.7% employment rate (percentage of new grads with full-time JD required work excluding solos), versus 58.7% from UF.

In terms of number of new graduates known to be underemployed (short-term, part-time, or non-legal) FSU wins again with 15.8% versus UF's 30.3%.

Source: http://www.lstscorereports.com/?r=fl

I'm not really familiar with their numbers in terms of probability of getting JAG, or if those numbers are even available. UF does better with BigLaw (albeit marginally) and FSU does better with government jobs (although they probably aren't what you're looking for) which might be comparable?

seancris wrote:

slawww wrote:

seancris wrote:

scottyc66 wrote:Can't speak for him, but FSU has better job #s and are much more likely to give $$

Plus tuition is at FSU is somewhat lower at this point, and I would think that there are more summer opportunities in Tally than Gainesville. UF students are more likely than FSU students to have to relocate or get a second apartment during summers which adds more to the total cost to UF students.

Interesting. I was not aware FSU's job #'s are better? I want to do JAG, but I def. want to attend a school with good prospects as a back-up.

According to law school transparency, FSU fields a 66.7% employment rate (percentage of new grads with full-time JD required work excluding solos), versus 58.7% from UF.

In terms of number of new graduates known to be underemployed (short-term, part-time, or non-legal) FSU wins again with 15.8% versus UF's 30.3%.

Source: http://www.lstscorereports.com/?r=fl

Hmmmm, very interesting. Rankings clearly are not everything when comparing similarly ranked schools.

scottyc66 wrote:I'm not really familiar with their numbers in terms of probability of getting JAG, or if those numbers are even available. UF does better with BigLaw (albeit marginally) and FSU does better with government jobs (although they probably aren't what you're looking for) which might be comparable?

Also interesting & might play into my decision, assuming I'm admitted.

Now that I think of it, the employment numbers are probably why FSU ends up being ranked highly for "best value," while UF is always much lower on those lists despite similar tuition rates.

Did a little extra research that confirms this. FSU is ranked #25 for placing new grads in JD-required careers.

http://www.law.fsu.edu/events/bestvalue2012.html

seancris wrote:Now that I think of it, the employment numbers are probably why FSU ends up being ranked highly for "best value," while UF is always much lower on those lists despite similar tuition rates.

Did a little extra research that confirms this. FSU is ranked #25 for placing new grads in JD-required careers.

http://www.law.fsu.edu/events/bestvalue2012.html

Where is this list of placing new grads in JD required careers? Id like to see the full list.

seancris wrote:Now that I think of it, the employment numbers are probably why FSU ends up being ranked highly for "best value," while UF is always much lower on those lists despite similar tuition rates.

Did a little extra research that confirms this. FSU is ranked #25 for placing new grads in JD-required careers.

http://www.law.fsu.edu/events/bestvalue2012.html

Wow, interesting.

Has anyone gone under review yet? I've been complete for over two months now

slawww wrote:

rockydbull wrote:Hello future 1L's I thought my process through FSU law would shed some light on the questions you have.

I am currently a 1Lat FSU. I did my undergrad at USF in Biomedical Sciences, GPA 3.2 and LSAT 164. I applied to about 10 schools throughout the nation and got into all of them. I was offered money at all the schools except my number one choice (FSU) and my safety (FIU). I was upset by this and actually had settled on Arkansas for law school until I read these forums and became proactive about obtaining money.

I applied to FSU around December and received my acceptance call early January. I was latter in the cycle but nothing outrageous. I was waiting on my second LSAT attempt which worked out (jumping from 160). I got the phone call like the rest of you but no mention of scholarship money. Later on I got the letter and it said lookout for a merit scholarship application. I never recieved one of these and had to take the non traditional route.

I gathered all of my scholarship offers and scanned them and wrote an email about FSU being my number one choice. I was told that they would have to wait till after the cycle to determine if there was leftover money.

Warning Important info coming
Almost all schools will grant you extensions on the deadlines if you are waiting on appeal. I suggest you appeal every school just in case and request extensions too. Another thing is you can deposit at multiple schools, they will ask you to decommit in the summer and commit to one final school.

So I appealed FSU and got an extension and deposited at Arkansas. No less than a week later I was offered 10k a year with a 80 gpa minimum (about top 50%)

This year I was asked to participate in a scholarship focus group where I pushed for no gpa minimums for you guys and I saw the merit app which is pretty short and has vague questions like "How can you diversify FSU?" They also have specific questions like "Explain your Cuban background" for specific scholarships. The AD told me that GPA min are put in to encourage students to work hard (ha ok!) but she did say that they actually do not have them every year and the years they do they rarely have anyone lose their scholarship.


I know this is kind of jumping around ( I am writing it in my TORTS class) but if you have any questions let me know. I feel that I have a unique perspective because many students here are FSU or UF grads and have their degrees in Poli Sci or Econ.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the info! I'm hoping to hear back from FSU soon, I've been complete about 2 months now. If you don't mind, why did you pick FSU over UF? UF & FSU are two of my top choices as a FL resident. Thanks!

What others have said is true. There are numerous opportunities in town for FSU, literally the streets are sometimes law firm next to law firm for blocks. FSU also gives more money on average compared to UF from what I have gathered from past cycles.

The greatest deciding factor for me was atmosphere though. This is stemming from my experiences of undergrad application cycle and law. UF and its students are very enamored with exclusivity (constantly claiming they are the Southern Ivy). Every time I speak to one of my friends who go to UF (many of my small graduating class went to UF) they talk about how awesome some other person is because they were selected to some (in my opinion) obscure club or something like that. My personal experience with admissions has been a little "You would be lucky to go here" kind of deal and I never liked that for a FL public university.
Don't get me wrong I did cool things at USF like Student Government and clubs but it was always a more welcoming atmosphere and I got that more from FSU.

Now FSU does have its atmosphere problems too. It has the "Marhsa, Marsha, Marsha" syndrome of being little sister to UF but not as bad as other Florida universities. Either way half of my class is UF undergrad and the other half are FSU grads with a few third parties like me. Thus students are a nice mix and admin is different for atmosphere compared to UF.

During Orientation I had lunch with upper class professor who really put the UF vs FSU debate in perspective. He said that a student has an equal opportunity to practice any kind of law they want coming out of FSU or UF. The difference is that most students who come out of UF are looking Big Law and prestige while FSU students typically look for government law and family law. I believe this really characterizes the type of students and their personalities you wil run into at each school.

What school are you coming from in Florida?

[/quote]

Hmmmm, very interesting. Rankings clearly are not everything when comparing similarly ranked schools.[/quote]

You also have to look at Alumni reach. From what I understand UF has more reach in South Florida while FSU has a pretty strong presence in Tampa and obviously Tallahassee.

rockydbull wrote:
What others have said is true. There are numerous opportunities in town for FSU, literally the streets are sometimes law firm next to law firm for blocks. FSU also gives more money on average compared to UF from what I have gathered from past cycles.

The greatest deciding factor for me was atmosphere though. This is stemming from my experiences of undergrad application cycle and law. UF and its students are very enamored with exclusivity (constantly claiming they are the Southern Ivy). Every time I speak to one of my friends who go to UF (many of my small graduating class went to UF) they talk about how awesome some other person is because they were selected to some (in my opinion) obscure club or something like that. My personal experience with admissions has been a little "You would be lucky to go here" kind of deal and I never liked that for a FL public university.
Don't get me wrong I did cool things at USF like Student Government and clubs but it was always a more welcoming atmosphere and I got that more from FSU.

Now FSU does have its atmosphere problems too. It has the "Marhsa, Marsha, Marsha" syndrome of being little sister to UF but not as bad as other Florida universities. Either way half of my class is UF undergrad and the other half are FSU grads with a few third parties like me. Thus students are a nice mix and admin is different for atmosphere compared to UF.

During Orientation I had lunch with upper class professor who really put the UF vs FSU debate in perspective. He said that a student has an equal opportunity to practice any kind of law they want coming out of FSU or UF. The difference is that most students who come out of UF are looking Big Law and prestige while FSU students typically look for government law and family law. I believe this really characterizes the type of students and their personalities you wil run into at each school.

What school are you coming from in Florida?

Thanks for your opinion, it's nice to hear your reasoning. Your reasoning is why I'm kind of leaning towards FSU over UF (assuming I get into both, which I think I will) I want to to JAG so I'm not interested in BigLaw & environment would definitely be a deciding factor. I'm from South Florida & did my undergrad at FIU. UF's reach in South Florida, as you said, is one reason why I'm still unsure, because if JAG did not work out I would like to stay in SoFla.

slawww wrote:

rockydbull wrote:
What others have said is true. There are numerous opportunities in town for FSU, literally the streets are sometimes law firm next to law firm for blocks. FSU also gives more money on average compared to UF from what I have gathered from past cycles.

The greatest deciding factor for me was atmosphere though. This is stemming from my experiences of undergrad application cycle and law. UF and its students are very enamored with exclusivity (constantly claiming they are the Southern Ivy). Every time I speak to one of my friends who go to UF (many of my small graduating class went to UF) they talk about how awesome some other person is because they were selected to some (in my opinion) obscure club or something like that. My personal experience with admissions has been a little "You would be lucky to go here" kind of deal and I never liked that for a FL public university.
Don't get me wrong I did cool things at USF like Student Government and clubs but it was always a more welcoming atmosphere and I got that more from FSU.

Now FSU does have its atmosphere problems too. It has the "Marhsa, Marsha, Marsha" syndrome of being little sister to UF but not as bad as other Florida universities. Either way half of my class is UF undergrad and the other half are FSU grads with a few third parties like me. Thus students are a nice mix and admin is different for atmosphere compared to UF.

During Orientation I had lunch with upper class professor who really put the UF vs FSU debate in perspective. He said that a student has an equal opportunity to practice any kind of law they want coming out of FSU or UF. The difference is that most students who come out of UF are looking Big Law and prestige while FSU students typically look for government law and family law. I believe this really characterizes the type of students and their personalities you wil run into at each school.

What school are you coming from in Florida?

Thanks for your opinion, it's nice to hear your reasoning. Your reasoning is why I'm kind of leaning towards FSU over UF (assuming I get into both, which I think I will) I want to to JAG so I'm not interested in BigLaw & environment would definitely be a deciding factor. I'm from South Florida & did my undergrad at FIU. UF's reach in South Florida, as you said, is one reason why I'm still unsure, because if JAG did not work out I would like to stay in SoFla.

Its good you have what you want to do hammered out and don't get me wrong doing well at either school will get you a job if you don't want to do JAG. Environment is really the big difference and I would suggest a visit to both if you can because the feel of the cities is also very different in many ways

.

OOS, in here & at UF. Going through the same decision a lot of you are...but seeing some of these posts have me leaning towards FSU.

nationalphenom wrote:OOS, in here & at UF. Going through the same decision a lot of you are...but seeing some of these posts have me leaning towards FSU.

I hear ya! My inner douchebag wants me to go with UF because of the higher rankings and its higher level of prestige in FL. The other half of me wants to go to FSU because of the apparent better employment #s & more relaxed environment.

These are some good problems to have, nationalphenom!

slawww wrote:

nationalphenom wrote:OOS, in here & at UF. Going through the same decision a lot of you are...but seeing some of these posts have me leaning towards FSU.

I hear ya! My inner douchebag wants me to go with UF because of the higher rankings and its higher level of prestige in FL. The other half of me wants to go to FSU because of the apparent better employment #s & more relaxed environment.

These are some good problems to have, nationalphenom!

I'm a UF alum, so it's ok for me to laugh at this. lol

Also, FSU is being pretty slow. Half the reason I applied was because I saw people were getting decisions almost immediately and I hadn't heard back from anyone else yet. Now I've heard back from three other schools, and I'm not even under review at FSU yet.

/rant

seancris wrote:

slawww wrote:

nationalphenom wrote:OOS, in here & at UF. Going through the same decision a lot of you are...but seeing some of these posts have me leaning towards FSU.

I hear ya! My inner douchebag wants me to go with UF because of the higher rankings and its higher level of prestige in FL. The other half of me wants to go to FSU because of the apparent better employment #s & more relaxed environment.

These are some good problems to have, nationalphenom!

I'm a UF alum, so it's ok for me to laugh at this. lol

Also, FSU is being pretty slow. Half the reason I applied was because I saw people were getting decisions almost immediately and I hadn't heard back from anyone else yet. Now I've heard back from three other schools, and I'm not even under review at FSU yet.

/rant

Haha, with all due respect, of course.

But yeah, they are taking forever. I've been complete for about 2 1/2 months already -_-