Florida Coastal School of Law

[iahurricane]

There were over ten students in his class who got hired by GS.  They usually don't hire JDs but they made it clear that the name Florida Costal meant something to them.

You are absolutely full of sh*t. I mean claiming one guy from that school got hired by GS is enough of a lie, but some people might actually be dumb enough to believe it. No one is dumb enough to believe 10 students from florida coastal got hired by GS lol. GS doesnt even hire 10 jds from harvard each year..

[nealric]

You are absolutely full of sh*t. I mean claiming one guy from that school got hired by GS is enough of a lie, but some people might actually be dumb enough to believe it. No one is dumb enough to believe 10 students from florida coastal got hired by GS lol. GS doesnt even hire 10 jds from harvard each year..
 

Calm down dude, it's a flame (a forest fire at this point).

[HR6352]

You are absolutely full of sh*t. I mean claiming one guy from that school got hired by GS is enough of a lie, but some people might actually be dumb enough to believe it. No one is dumb enough to believe 10 students from florida coastal got hired by GS lol. GS doesnt even hire 10 jds from harvard each year..
 

Calm down dude, it's a flame (a forest fire at this point).

No, no, you've got it all wrong!  PM me and I'll let him know the names of the GS Florida Costal graduates!   

[booya]

Top twenty to thirty law schools or go to Vegas(quicker and more fun to blow money! no exaggeration or melo drama,fact! then you will be eating KFC everyday, "no more toilet paper at KFC by the way, because it is finger licking good! YEAH

[Thistle]

lol

is that a law too?

[bigs5068]

God people crack me up who are you guys that think they walk on water or that T4's have never had anyone make it. You really baffle, because you have no idea wtf you are talking about.  Do the people that write this stuff even go to law school. People choose different schools for a lot of different reasons hell somebody could have a 4.0 and 180 LSAT and gone to a T-4, because of geographic concerns, maybe they have kids aren't and live in South Dakota they probably are going to stay in South Dakota if they are complete geniuses.  Law school is what you make of it and don't listen to any moron on here telling you that a T-4 will destroy your life.  Obviously, going to Harvard is going to have better career prospects than Florida Coastal, but the people in T-4's are still smart enough to get into law school. The student's are not crackheads and the professors and administrators of any ABA school are highly credentialed. If you want to be a lawyer and really enjoy the law and can only get into a T-4 then go. You probably aren't going to be making 100,000 at graduation, but neither are about 95% of the people that talk trash about other schools on this board. In fact if you go to a T-4 you are probably in a better position, then someone that goes to the 81st ranked school who thinks they are so impressive, because you know you have an uphill battle going in to it. Regardless of where you go you will need to put the work in and make it happen law firms are just hanging out waiting for graduates, you need to put the work in and if you do that things will work. If you sit around on this board talking about how much better you are for going to the 61st best school in the country, then you need to get a life.

My main purpose for writing this is that I almost listened to what a lot of people on here said and nearly went to a higher ranked school, in a city I had no desire to live and my fiance would have had no job prospects. Instead I stayed in the Bay Area and she got a great job and I have done well in law school and gotten a summer job already in my 1L year. Believe it or not I achieved all this at a T-4 school.  Amazing right and believe it or not other people have gotten jobs to, guess who they were the ones who actually put work in and were proactive in finding jobs and studied hard. So just to anybody about to law school rankings are not that important, certainly it is nice to go to a higher ranked school, but if you truly want to be a lawyer don't let people on this board scare you from going to a school that is not Harvard. I even worked for a Thomas Cooley Grad as a paralegal who was doing quite well for himself. The mayor of L.A. went to a law school that wasn't even ABA approved and he seems to be doing pretty well for himself. That is my rant and hopefully someone who is in the situation I was last year will read this and it will alleviate some fear.

[john4040]

who are you guys that think they walk on water or that T4's have never had anyone make it. You really baffle, because you have no idea wtf you are talking about.  Do the people that write this stuff even go to law school.

I had to lol at this.  Let's recap the comments in this thread before proceeding any further:

booya - Trashing Florida Coastal.  An inference can be made that he actually went to the school, and therefore, has first-hand knowledge of the school.

HR6352 - Claims that "Florida Coastal has not ONE, but TEN guys IN THE SAME CLASS who went to Goldman Sachs as investment bankers!!!!"

Nealric / iahurricane - Call HR6352 out on his insanely idiotic post.

You - Interject that "who are you guys [presumably Nealric / iahurricane / booya] that think... that T4's have never had anyone make it"

The problem with your statement is that this HR6352's flaming has nothing to do with thinking that T4's have never made it in life.  The simple fact is, the statement made by GR6352 is absolutely untrue.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to get an i-banking position with GS?!

[Cicero]

If the OP is considering going to FCSL, there are a lot of things for him/herto consider (spoken as 1 of those bad test takers a lot of the people on these message boards look down on, who chose to go to FCSL). One thing to think about is whether you are willing to be over $100K in debt. A lot of the students get a scholly to go there, myself included, and they let you keep it for the first year regardless of your GPA, but most people lose it. On the other hand, if you do well like I did my 1L year, they will seriously increase your scholly to try to keep you (unfortunately, highest you can get is $27.5K if you are top 5%). Also to note is that there is some real favoritism toward the students who do well, and it starts after the 1st semester--get to register 1st for 2L classes, more money, round table events, honor society...Ok so beyond money and favoritism, you need to know the reality of the curve. The curve at FCSL has gotten better than it was a few years ago, but it is still deplorable. The 1st semester, you will be looking at a curve of 2.5, and the curve is 2.7 after that. This curve freaks everyone out at the school and causes a lot of extra stress. A lot of students seem to be unhappy after the 1st year and want to transfer and a number of them drop out. From these message boards, I've discovered that a lot of people think they can go in and be top 10%, but if you are seriously going to consider going to FCSL, do not go thinking you will be in the top 10% and will be able to transfer out. I'm not saying it is impossible, I worked hard and was able to do it, but I know a lot of students there who work very hard and haven't been done as well.

Enough of the bad things about FCSL, there are some good sides to the program. One of the best things about FCSL is the profs because they are extremely helpful. Many of them will give you practice essays from previous years or ones they feel are representative of the their finals, and some of them will allow you to write an answer to it and will go over with you. Many of them also give multiple choice practice questions. Most of the professors are willing to meet with you or talk over e-mail about any questions you have about a class. Some of the professors also hold reviews or have TAs who hold reviews. Another good thing about the program is that they give a midterm in the 1st semester, which is pretty unusual. The midterms lets you see what you are up against for the final, and this is very helpful because LS exams are nothing like what most student have taken before entering LS. FCSL also has a mandatory pass class the 1st semester--boring, but very helpful if you pay attention and actually participate--they basically hold your hand and show you how to IRAC, study, etc. Finally, besides all of the stress students at FCSL feel, they tend to be more willing to work together than what I've heard about other schools. Students are friendly and willing to help each other when a students has trouble. You don't have to deal with the back stabbing I've heard about from friends at other law schools.

I know that was long, but this is the reality beyond the you have an uphill battle or the usual "FCSL sucks. Only stupid people go there." I will also tell you, as someone who did really well in their 1L year, I am hoping to transfer out. I will stay if I have to, but the market is bad and FCSL doesn't have a great reputation. Yu may be stuck in Jax if you go there.

[bigs5068]

Law school is law school and at the end of the day if you graduate and pass the bar from an ABA school you will have some options. FCSL will not have employers knocking your door down, but neither will FSU or University of Florida or Stetson or any of the other schools.  The majority of the time the student has to find the job and the name of the school outside Harvard, Stanford, Yale that elk is not really going to impress anybody. Your class rank and your experience before law school are what employers will care about not whether you went to the 78th or 118 best school.