Florida Coastal School of Law...should I go? (Jacksonville, Miami: middle school, university)

[Robyn55]

Engineers complain constantly that their salaries are being undercut by immigrant engineers coming in on H1B visas. And architects are in the pits these days due to the building slump. Don't know anything about chemists - except I have a niece who graduated with a degree in chemistry and is currently doing fine (she works as a "detail person" for various drug companies). Agree that there are way too many lawyers - and that the job market for lawyers is in general pretty bad. Robyn

[AnneKniff]

Before considering any school, find out what the attrition rate is. That is, how many of their freshman students wind up graduating. That will tell you just about everything you need to know.

[FCSL_08]

Geaux:

The 1L class this year at Coastal is over 700 students, and I PROMISE you that 95% of them are going with the intent of transferring. 85% of them will lose their scholarship, about 22% will fail out (yes, the attrition rate is almost a quarter of the class at Coastal every year), and about 2% will actually transfer out.

There are 11 law schools in Florida, and only 3 are worth going to (UF, FSU, Miami), and all of the students at the other 8 schools want to transfer to one of these three. And so to say that competition to transfer out is stiff would be a gross understatement.

I am dead serious when I tell you that going to Coastal will be the biggest mistake of your life.

[Rogerbrown77]

Hmmm....I went to FCSL before my Contracts professor began nailing my girlfriend/classmate. Hokie huh? And if I didn't have other options, or was in LOVE, the squirt would have found out that nobody's Superman ; )

That aside, the best way I can sum up FCSL is that it's like a fake Gucci Bag you'd buy on Canal St. NYC- sure it'll hold your things, while you assume some phony shine, but it doesn't hold up... for now. There's just little to no culture. Plus, they adopt every fly by night technology and open their doors to every carpetbagger who comes knocking. "But wait!" Ha... the weather's A+ and many of the female students are certainly HBs, but the math simply doesn't add up if you're attending for those reasons alone... Pass unless you need a 'cover' -as I did at the time.

[Alpha96]

Frankly, if you're going into the engineering direction, do something petrochemical or petroleum engineering. The oil that is being pulled out of the ground is getting steadily more difficult to get at while the quality of it declines - meaning that the demand for people who understand how to get at it and refine it is steadily growing, and will continue to do so certainly for the duration of anyone's career who starts university now. And then, of course, there is the growing field of synthetic fuels. Diesel from natural gas, coal, tar sand, oil shale, possibly biomass. All that requires loads of engineers and chemists. Or if you're afraid of a oil being replaced by electric cars or fuel cells or whatever (won't happen like that) you could go into mining. More stuff needs to be dug out of the ground to feed humanity's growing demands and that stuff, too, is getting more difficult to get at and ore grades are declining.

[aklem]

Last years class was a total of 621 students. Of those 621 students a total of around 300-321 now in there 2nd year. This attributes to the number of students who where in the top 5-15% who transferred out, others who dropped out, and others who failed out.

[FCSL_08]

Coastal Career Services sent an e-mail to alums with the following job posting:

Attorney wanted for civil litigation firm in Miami; pay $400/wk + 1 BR apartment (w/ utilities).

Ladies and gentlemen, an attorney taking this job would probably have to put in AT LEAST 50 hours per week. That's $8/hour - BEFORE taxes; after taxes, one would bring home $340/wk, and at 50 hours/week, that amount to SIX DOLLARS AND EIGHTY CENTS AN HOUR. For a licensed attorney.

Sure a studio apartment is included, which certainly helps, but one would still have to buy groceries, gas, make loan payments, and other things that are essential to a living, breathing human. And with the cost of living being what it is in Miami, the attorney taking this job would either have to 1) rely on family for financial assistance, or 2) get a second job at night.

So to all of you out there thinking about going to Florida Coastal, THINK AGAIN.

[Robyn55]

We took a walk at the JAX pier this afternoon. Met 2 high school grads from Alabama who were taking the course at the Tulsa Welding School. I'm sure they expect to make more than that after they complete the welding course and go back home. Robyn

[ctops.legal]

First I am not an attorney but have passionately studied law for about 10 years on my own, I initially learned from x-attorneys, the reason I responded to this thread concerning FCSL is because I just learned about the suit the handicapped girl just lost but that is not the reason I am posting.

I know there are many hard working law students and grads that read this fourm, well my only experence with FCSL was not very productive I called and asked for a day pass to look at what the school has to offer and to use the legal research data base to see if it was better than FCCJ (now FSCJ), I was told I could have a tour of the campus but could not use the Westlaw or Lexis data base unless I was a attorney or student, of course I called to get a second opnion it was the same I understand the school but it would seem that the people in charge were very offended by my self-learning of the law and I assumed they thought I wanted to run an unlicensed pratice of law from their campus.

Well my old school FSCJ don't have much of a legal studies program (nothing online), I got about 15 grand in student loan money and am looking for something that will work in with my computer business that I manage and it's obligations, understand I don't want to be an attorney but have learned to love studying the law UNF has a online deal but I missed the fall classes, I'm working on a legal project and need something now that I can sign up for to get access to Westlaw because as it is in Jacksonville their is no good place to study that has Westlaw and or updated books, UNF's library or the court house's law library (12 inch screens), any ideas ?

[FCSL_08]

No, Florida Coastal does not allow public access to computers. You will not be able to access Westlaw anywhere for free because it, like Florida Coastal, if for-profit - meaning no one gets anything for free.

I met a fellow Coastal alum earlier this week. Graduated over a year ago, and still has not found a job despite being licensed. This person was considering either going to another school for an LLM or an MBA, even though this person was already in debt for over $160k. Not sure what they have been doing in the interim, but I would guess waiting tables or doing temp work.

Remember folks: you can never erase student loan debt. A special exception in the bankruptcy code basically says that bankruptcy will never discharge student loans, which means this debt is with you until you: 1) die, or 2) pay it off.

Do you really want to waste three years of your life taking on more than $100k (Coastal is $54k/yr sticker price) in debt for a career making $25k where you are not only poor, but also the subject of pity among your peers, family, and friends?

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: think twice (three times, really) before going to Florida Coastal.