Florida State 2010 Forum

[DallasCowboy]

It's very very fun, if you are into the bar scene. Plus Panama City is not far away.

[highdraws]

Anybody have any thoughts on who to contact regarding scholarship negotiation? I sent a couple of emails to grodgers@fsu (supposedly the law rep in the fin aid department) and Jennifer Kessinger to no avail. Any advice and/or prior experiences would be appreciated.

Email Nancy Benavides at nbenavid@law.fsu.edu. She is who I dealt with when I negotiated more merit aid. You may already have a good understanding of how this process works, but if not check out this thread - http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 22&t=79373

As for my experience, FSU first replied to my request by saying that this year's class was shaping up to be the best ever and additional aid would be scare to come by, but encouraged me to inform them if I had been accepted to any comparable schools. I did that and my merit aid offer was increased only a few days later.
The name of the game is leverage. If you can give them a decent reason to up your offer, they probably will (especially if you're above one of their medians). But if you can't give them a decent reason, then you're chances of getting more aid isn't very good. HTH.

[eros]

Thanks highdraws. Yea I'm a splitter, with GPA at 25th percentile and LSAT solidly above 75th. I've been accepted to some better schools though (UF, Wake Forest), so I'm hoping I can use that as leverage.

[SAOJD10]

still.on.hold.

[smartin]

still.on.hold.

+1

[HazelEyes]

No response to my app yet. No hold, no WL, no reject... no nothing...

[brandolphsmith]

No response to my app yet. No hold, no WL, no reject... no nothing...

When did you apply?

Still on HOLD

[SAOJD10]

No response to my app yet. No hold, no WL, no reject... no nothing...

When did you apply?

Still on HOLD

1/5 apply 2/22 hold

[delnotdl]

No response to my app yet. No hold, no WL, no reject... no nothing...

Same here....

[DownandOutTally]

There's been no update since "Application Complete" on 2/26. UM, UF, and BU have gotten back to me, so what's up with FSU?

[eros]

After sending out a few of emails concerning scholarships and making a call to student affairs, I came home today to find an $18,000 scholarship from FSU (total over three years) waiting for me in my Inbox! Can't wait to meet all of you fine people in the fall!

[lawschoolstudent85]

.

[highdraws]

After sending out a few of emails concerning scholarships and making a call to student affairs, I came home today to find an $18,000 scholarship from FSU (total over three years) waiting for me in my Inbox! Can't wait to meet all of you fine people in the fall!

Congrats, eros! That's almost the same as my offer so I want to be nosey and ask for your stats. Only because I got my offer quite some time ago, and I'm curious to see how FSU is doing in terms of getting people to commit. I've heard several rumors that this year's class is much smaller and if that is true, I'm curious if that is simply FSU's intention or if they're having some kind of trouble.

My stats are 163/3.53, FWIW.

[Tuyarp]

I believe FSU is facing a budget cut like UF, hence the cut in class size.

[eros]

That's almost the same as my offer so I want to be nosey and ask for your stats.

3.2/166

[highdraws]

I'm probably missing something here, but why would a school reduce the class size due to budget cuts? Schools would cut staff, services and then faculty if they're trying to reduce expenses. I guess if they cut a few faculty positions and hope to maintain the professor-to-student ratio, then they would reduce the class size. But if that isn't a concern, cutting the class size doesn't make much sense to me. Students are tuition money. So they would either try to admit the same number of students, if not more, and/or increase tuition (which, as far as I know, they have for our class).
I was also under the impression that UF was reducing it's class size in order to better their selectivity score and hopefully matriculate a better class in order to gain ground in the rankings.
But like I said, I may be missing something here.

[highdraws]

That's almost the same as my offer so I want to be nosey and ask for your stats.

3.2/166

Appreciate it, eros. According to principle, I pay much less attention to the USNEWS rankings than most but the last batch surprised me a bit. But that's neither here nor there. I'm glad you were successful in negotiating more aid and look forward to seeing you in the fall!

[lawschoolstudent85]

...

[brandolphsmith]

I'm probably missing something here, but why would a school reduce the class size due to budget cuts? Schools would cut staff, services and then faculty if they're trying to reduce expenses. I guess if they cut a few faculty positions and hope to maintain the professor-to-student ratio, then they would reduce the class size. But if that isn't a concern, cutting the class size doesn't make much sense to me. Students are tuition money. So they would either try to admit the same number of students, if not more, and/or increase tuition (which, as far as I know, they have for our class).
I was also under the impression that UF was reducing it's class size in order to better their selectivity score and hopefully matriculate a better class in order to gain ground in the rankings.
But like I said, I may be missing something here.

I tend to agree as well, but something to consider that I remembered from a breakdown of my university's undergrad annual giving, is that a large amount of the operating budget from a school comes from their endowment. Now, I have no idea of the state of FSU's endowment given the recession, but that could be something to consider. You can always try to increase class size to try to offset some of the losses, but the school would probably not come out ahead.

What seems a little more likely is that the school is trimming their class to become more competitive, lose a little in operating costs, and might cut scholarships or raise tuition. Either way, at best, FSU will keep the same class size and similar scholarships, and, worst case, trim faculty, staff, class size, and scholarships.

Sounds more like a Monday morning post, instead of a Thursday morning post.

I hope all of us in the holding pattern are cleared to land soon, where ever it may be.

[ram jam]

UF is no reducing its class size due to budget issues, the budget shortfalls are a scapegoat. Employment prospects for lawyers are diminishing. In order to compete for the highest quality students, schools want to keep their employment stats up, therefore, reducing class size will ensure a higher employment rate. Its strategy.

Has anyone been able to find employments stats for FSU in writing? Published directly by the school?

[Tuyarp]

I'm probably missing something here, but why would a school reduce the class size due to budget cuts? Schools would cut staff, services and then faculty if they're trying to reduce expenses. I guess if they cut a few faculty positions and hope to maintain the professor-to-student ratio, then they would reduce the class size. But if that isn't a concern, cutting the class size doesn't make much sense to me. Students are tuition money. So they would either try to admit the same number of students, if not more, and/or increase tuition (which, as far as I know, they have for our class).
I was also under the impression that UF was reducing it's class size in order to better their selectivity score and hopefully matriculate a better class in order to gain ground in the rankings.
But like I said, I may be missing something here.

The in-state tuition rates at both FSU and UF are heavily subsidized. In addition, Florida residents are a clear majority of both schools. Smaller subsidies, smaller class sizes.
It's harder to cut faculty positions, unless we're talking about adjunct professors. They are tenured or are on tenure track. Not to mention it looks really bad when you have to let professors go due to financial reasons.

[highdraws]

UF is no reducing its class size due to budget issues, the budget shortfalls are a scapegoat. Employment prospects for lawyers are diminishing. In order to compete for the highest quality students, schools want to keep their employment stats up, therefore, reducing class size will ensure a higher employment rate. Its strategy.

Has anyone been able to find employments stats for FSU in writing? Published directly by the school?

You bring up a good explanation, but I'm not quite sure because most schools have it in their best interest to fudge their employment stats, especially when it comes to salary figures. I think UF would be more inclined to reduce it's class size in order to raise it's LSAT/GPA medians and do so by throwing more scholarship money at applicants, money that is almost entirely raised through private donations from alumni, not state funding. Also, an interesting side note is that when I tried to negotiate more merit aid with UF, I was told that they reserve a majority of their aid for in-state students (I'm OOS) and that I basically wasn't too high on their totem pole because I wasn't from a Florida school. I found that to be interesting.
But like I said before, the fact that FSU is reducing it's class size is, as far as I know, only a rumor and if it proves to be false then this whole discussion is just hot air.

In response to your question about FSU's employment stats, I don't know if they've posted them on their site yet but when I called a few weeks ago I was told that they would be up soon. I was also told that the 2009 class had 96% employment 9 weeks after graduation. They couldn't tell me about employment at graduation.

After 9 months, the median salary was $67,500, with the reported salaries as low as $30,000 and as high as $160,000.

[ram jam]

Thanks Highdraws for salary info, hopefully they post some info soon.

Has anyone else noticed that FSU is changing the course schedule for the 2010 1L year. Instead of 5 three-credit courses in the fall and 5 three-credit courses in the spring, our class will have four classes in the fall for a total of 14 hours and five classes in the spring for a total of 16 hours. I assume this is to make the transition into law school easier on the new students? Thoughts?

[56ace]

Hold 3/15 ---> just wend "under review" today 4/23 ---> nervous as shit. anyone else on hold go under review??

[ppping]

I just went "Under Review" today also. I am happy the status checker says something other than hold, as it has for the last month.