Florida Coastal School of Law

[chico]

While the status of Florida Coastal will never be determined on this thread, any law school without a university attached to it will always suffer a reputation problem, and for good reason. Are there any 1st tier schools without universities attached to them?

For-profit schools are lookd down on by those who are better read. It is a potential problem, academics by definition are not supposed to be in the "real world" 100%.--which I mean pratical information as opposed to theory. It is not supposed to be a trade school, which is what many of the 4th tier (but not all) have become, just like other professions now have them, like the infamous "Psych.D." program. A true legal education should not be a trade school, but discuss theory first, and then build with skills. Just as PhD. programs build on understanding and theory, and then the student in his intership learns clinical practice.

Florida Coastal's bar rate is above state average for several reasons, none of which impress me.

1) The bar rate passage is low in FL because of other, even worse 4th tier and unranked schools, like Barry, lower the average. (i wont name any others for fear of expanding this thread to more angry alums)

2) Coastal isn't stupid and knows it needs to keep the rate high to keep its accred., so it gives scholarships out to
higher performing students. But what about the majority of students who have to pay $20grand or close to it, and can't pass the bar? They shouldnt havebeen in law school to begin with, but because FCLS wants a profit, it wants to (and has to accept them)

3) Coastal, and this is the worst, no doubt like many other trade-school like law schools, fails out or pushes out a good number of its students (after taking their money, and not giving refunds). Coastal also has a strong incentive to get people to pay full tuition, AND then, if they look as if they are unlikely to pass the bar, weed them out during those three years.

These problems I outline strongly relate to the profit motive, and the fact there is no university attached to the school. The problems of a lone-school are different than a profit, but somewhat related, which is why they at best can make 3rd tier in terms of faculty quality and student score medians (Vermont, Franklin Pierce are the best). A university is needed to not only offer interdisciplinary approach, such as law ethics taught by a philosophy ph.d, but also to avoid the trade-school like problems I outlined above. Also, a university can subsidize a law school, which happens a lot, although it is not big %, it is significant, instead of relying entirely on student's tuition (and thus limiting the education).

I stand by what I have said. It isn't elitist to want your university to put education before profits. Profits may be made in BUSINESS but when your consumers (students) and your product (students) are the same, there will always be conflicting interest problems which leave the lone for-profit school at a disadvantage to graduates of actual universities.

If you own an automechanic training shop, then make a profit. . . but training the next generation of attorneys? I hesititate. . .

That all being said, alone FL coastal may offer a good education for those with weak scores who can still make it through the 3 years, and the bar, or who live in jacksonville, or who dont intend to practice law, or who desperately need a full ride somewhere, but for the average student, I do NOT recommend going to Coastal, or the non-profit Cooley, or any of their ilk.

[jeflord]

Great post!  I appreciate your opinion, even though I disagree with it.

[LaneSwerver]

Florida's bar pass rate statewide is 78%. That's pretty high. Not too mnay states in the 80s or 90s.

[chico]

Thanks for the kind words. ..

On the subject about the florida bar, they are increasing the difficulty to lower the pass rate on purpose!

Florida Poised to Raise Bar
State's Supremes say they'll raise bar exam's minimum passing score to create a 'higher standard'

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1098217028936

Att. General Candidates failed bar:
http://www.lawschool100.com/floridabar.htm


Problems with "5th" tier school (prov accred.
Barry School of Law graduates refused at the bar! Accred pulled. . .

http://www.lawschool100.com/barrydeal.htm

[bradzwest]

While the status of Florida Coastal will never be determined on this thread, any law school without a university attached to it will always suffer a reputation problem, and for good reason. Are there any 1st tier schools without universities attached to them?

Hastings...

[chico]

Hastings.. . . no not really. Is just physically seperated, like Seton Hall Law is from South Orange, from the nearest UC university, which is: UC San Francisco! (http://www.ucsf.edu/)

And I can understand why since San Francisco has VERY limited land, and even if there was no UCSF, hastings would still be part of the UC system, and therefore actually a satellite campus. Berkeley is across the bay a BART ride away, San Jose State is close, as well as others. . .  It's a completely different situation than say, Vermont, Franklin Pierce, Cooley, Coastal, et al .. .being completely on their own.

[wrmusgro]

Hastings.. . . no not really. Is just physically seperated, like Seton Hall Law is from South Orange, from the nearest UC university, which is: UC San Francisco! (http://www.ucsf.edu/)

And I can understand why since San Francisco has VERY limited land, and even if there was no UCSF, hastings would still be part of the UC system, and therefore actually a satellite campus. Berkeley is across the bay a BART ride away, San Jose State is close, as well as others. . .  It's a completely different situation than say, Vermont, Franklin Pierce, Cooley, Coastal, et al .. .being completely on their own.

Yeah, posters like Chico are one of the reasons why I hardly ever post on this board anymore. Anyway....so Chico, if you're so against going to any school that is not attached to a University, then why did you apply to Fanklin Pierce? And also, its kind of pointless to post articles that are THREE YEARS OLD to prove your point. As you did with the Barry article.

Stop being a Jacka$$, put the cheetos down and get a f_cking life and stop trying to hate on people just because you somehow think you're better than them because you've been accepted to some decent schools. (I mean you didn't get into Harvard or anything)

I'd be willing to bet that even though you've been accepted to these schools you couldn't pick up a female under 250 pounds in a bar to save your life. Have fun being yourself and stop trying to hate on people just because you get hated on in your own pathetic little life. Cheers.

[bradzwest]

Hastings.. . . no not really. Is just physically seperated, like Seton Hall Law is from South Orange, from the nearest UC university, which is: UC San Francisco! (http://www.ucsf.edu/)

And I can understand why since San Francisco has VERY limited land, and even if there was no UCSF, hastings would still be part of the UC system, and therefore actually a satellite campus. Berkeley is across the bay a BART ride away, San Jose State is close, as well as others. . .  It's a completely different situation than say, Vermont, Franklin Pierce, Cooley, Coastal, et al .. .being completely on their own.

Wrong.... there is no UC San Francisco.  UCSF is a med center and that's it.  Find an undergrad and or campus then talk out you A$$.  As for Hastings being a "satellite campus" for Cal... What's Boalt?  If you can't handle being proved wrong troll somewhere else.  HTH

If you have any relevant knowledge of the SF Bay Area you'd already know this stuff...

[jeflord]

I checked the ABA site on law schools http://www.abanet.org/legaled/approvedlawschools/year.html

Pretty interesting, there aren't many schools approved over the past 30 years that are tier 1 or 2.  I guess that means that the older a school is the higher rated it is.

The for-profit concept is going to change the law profession.  Florida Coastal will soon have 2 more affiliated schools - Phoenix and Charlotte.  I can't argue Chico's point that there is a prejudice against for-profit schools, because there really isn't any data to support that position one way or the other.  But I can point out that the fact that Florida Coastal's success is because they provide a quality service in a geographic area where there is a need.

Devil Dawg - the put the Cheetos down comment effin rules! 

[LaneSwerver]

http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw/index.php/topic,30873.0.html