"Provisionally Approval" status -- Florida A&M

[Sparkz1920]

nemo, isn't your possible situtation covered by the ABA rules on provisional accreditation already?  If you start at a school while its provisionally accredited school and graduate on time,you're considered the graduate of an ABA approved school even if the school for some reason loses its provisional status while you're enrolled there.  (See Rule Interpretaion 102-10 @ http://www.abanet.org/legaled/standards/standards.html  (Chapter 1). 

Im confused by what you're saying.

If its anything like other schools and their accreditation like, if you dont graduate within the time that the school has the accreditation or is provisionally accrdited, then your degree isnt shyt, right along with the fact that you cant even take the bar, in most states, not all im assuming by the link posted previously

I was accpeted to FAMU also, i only applied because the app fee was low and my professor said a recruiter came to my school and said they really need black students because the majoirty of the students are white and other.

But they didnt send me anything about scholarship money, so oh well. Im stickin with my first choice.

[Sparkz1920]

I'm actually a NY resident.
My main concern is whether I would be able to sit for the Bar exam (in NY). I understand that FAMU is not a reputable law school. However, I really don't have many choices...

Why dont you have any other choices???

Where else did you apply?

[galex]

Im confused by what you're saying.

If its anything like other schools and their accreditation like, if you dont graduate within the time that the school has the accreditation or is provisionally accrdited, then your degree isnt shyt, right along with the fact that you cant even take the bar, in most states, not all im assuming by the link posted previously

 

I'm not sure how much clearer that rule could be.  The ABA says that as long as you start at a school that's provisionally accredited, it doesn't matter if the school loses that status later (even if it's while you're still enrolled.)  If you graduate on time, you are considered to graduate from an accredited school because you started at one.  That's why schools always promote that status so heavily when they get it: it's like an insurance policy for incoming students that their degree will be accepted no matter what happens with the school.  Just like if UVa's law school were to lose its accreditation tomorrow, I'd still be fine according to the ABA because it was accredited when I started there.

I'm not commenting on the relative value of the degree for employment purposes, of course.  Raven's post covers that pretty well. 

[nemo]

I'm actually a NY resident.
My main concern is whether I would be able to sit for the Bar exam (in NY). I understand that FAMU is not a reputable law school. However, I really don't have many choices...

No offense, but this plan completely ignores reality. FAMU most likely teaches to the Florida bar and nearly all of its residents get jobs in Florida. To move to NY to take the bar would be career suicide unless one of your family members is an attorney who will give you a job. You're going to have a up-category-5-mountain battle trying to get an employer in a distant region to hire you as a grad of a provisionally-accredited law school. Not saying it's impossible, but it's certainly unwise and unrealistic.

Well, obviously my LSAT scores weren't high, and I was only accepted by FAMU and Cooley. I'm still being wait-listed by few other tier 4 schools, but other than that I don't have much choices.

And yes, I've taken the LSAT twice but didn't improve my score by much.

In this circumstance, what other advice can you give?

[christylove]

I'm actually a NY resident.
My main concern is whether I would be able to sit for the Bar exam (in NY). I understand that FAMU is not a reputable law school. However, I really don't have many choices...

If you come into the school with this viewpoint, you are going to fail.; FAMU's rep is made by its student body. Unless you understand why FAMU gets a bad rap, you should not even be making statements like that. I am a 2L at FAMU and you will find out once you get there that the rep is not as bad as people portray it to be. FAMU is in the middle of a lot of political controversy right now.

Call somebody up like Mr. Miller and ask him who took and closed the school down in 1968 and what it took to re-open it. Anytime you have a professional school such as this one turning out hundreds of minorities to be lawyers, you are going to have opposition. Our class (2009) is the largest to date, 232 potential grads and at least half of them will be lawyers.

Oh and FYI the New York bar is the 2nd hardest in the nation. There are people from NYU that don't pass it on the first try. So don't knock the school before you get in it. Be positive and thank god that FAMU is giving you a chance to become an attorney.

[JD_LawSchool]

I am going to Florida A&M in the fall.  I got into Loyola, Michigan State, John Marshall, and Faulkner.  I really wanted to attend Michigan State but couldn't swing the financials - same with Loyola.  The private tuitions and then everything on top of it was just way too expensive for an ex-high school teacher. 

I am a Florida resident so I am getting in state tuition at A&M.  I went up last month to check out the school.  The building is really unbelievable.  Everything is state of the art and really nice.  Yes I do have the feeling that things tend to work slowly in regard to the administration, but overall I liked it.  The school is very diverse. 

As for the provisional approval, as long as you matriculate (start) when the school is provisionally approved, your good to go in regard to the Florida Bar. 

Anyone who is going to attend Florida A&M or who currently attends Florida A&M, I would love to chat and talk some.  Send me an email when you get a chance.
Drew
ABCarrabis@aol.com

[Nowhere Man]

Well me and ChristyLove are there now.

So just holla when you want to.

[JD_LawSchool]

Thanks guys.  This is addressed to "Nowhere Man" and "ChristyLove."  I am getting a lot of advice in different directions about the first year of law school.  Is there anything specific about your first year at FAMU COL that comes to mind?  Any particular classes?  Profs? 
Also, I have read Planet Law School II.  I also plan to get LEEWS.  They (PLSII) tell you to get study aids.  But at this point, my head is spinning as to what study aids to get.  There are so many out there.  Emanuels, Gilberts, Examples and Explanations, High Court summaries, legalines, hornbooks, the ABC's of the UCC, Second Restatement of Torts and Contracts, etc.  I don't even know what the difference is in half of them.  Plus, I read that some study aids are keyed to the casebooks?  Is this a trial and error procedure?  Get some study aids and see how you like them?  Or are there a certain set that most first year students tend to rely on?
Sorry for the overload of questions.  Any help and insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[GA-fan]

I don't think it's the "hundreds of minorities" getting turned out to be lawyers that most people have a problem with- it's the bar passage rate. The two don't have to be causally related, and the administration could change that if they wanted to. The administration needs to get their sh*t together if they want their students to succeed as a whole.