We Take in Dummies: On September 22, 2017, the Jacksonville Daily Record published a Max Marbut article entitled “Florida Coastal School of Law grads struggle to pass Bar exam on first try.” Check out this opening:
“Of the 132 Florida Coastal School of Law graduates who in July took the Florida General Bar Examination for the first time, only 63 passed — that’s 47.7 percent, the lowest first-time pass percentage among the 11 law schools in the state.
The average first-time pass percentage for the July Bar exam was 68.4 percent, with Florida International University College of Law in the No. 1 spot at 87.8 percent.
In the past 10 Bar exams since February 2013, Florida Coastal students have bettered the state average just twice.
So, what’s behind the below-average performance?
Florida Coastal Dean Scott DeVito said how potential law students are tested and the law school’s niche are the main factors to consider when evaluating the statistics.
“We take students who don’t do well on standardized tests. The LSAT is a standardized test and the Bar exam is a standardized test,” said Florida Coastal Dean Scott DeVito, referring in the first case to the Legal Scholastic Aptitude Test.
A student’s LSAT score is viewed by many law school admissions officials as being more important than grade point average when evaluating whether to admit a student.
DeVito pointed out that the 75th percentile LSAT score at Florida Coastal – the minimum score that would mean admission for 3 out of 4 applicants – is lower than the 25th percentile score (minimum for admission for 1 out of 4 applicants) at the other law schools in the state.
Florida Coastal’s 75th percentile score for students admitted in 2016 was 149. Compare that to 25th percentile scores at Florida International (151), Stetson University (152), the University of Miami (155), the University of Florida (156) and Florida State University (157).” [Emphasis mine]
Yes, taking in people with 141 LSAT scores is something that is beyond your control as dean of this for-profit, fourth tier in$TTTTiTTTTuTTTTion, right?! Do you expect the state board of examiners to dumb down the licensing test – in order to accommodate your subpar students and graduates, Scott DeVito?
Other Coverage: On September 18, 2017, the Florida Times-Union featured a piece from Eileen Kelley, under the headline “Florida Coastal Law School places last in Bar exam passage again.” Read the following excerpt:
“Less than one-half of all Florida Coastal School of Law graduates passed the Florida Bar examination on the first try, the worst numbers of the 11 law schools in the state.
In Florida, the bar is administered twice a year. The results of the July exam were released Monday.
The Jacksonville school’s pass rate of 47.7 percent puts it at the bottom of all Florida-based law schools.
Florida Coastal has the lowest ranking for the last four consecutive tests. Florida International University College of Law ranked highest with a 87.8 percent passage rate.
Though low, the 47.7 percent passage rate for Florida Coastal is a 91 percent improvement from the results of the winter 2017 examination when just one of every four students who took the exam for the first time passed.” [Emphasis mine]
You know that you are operating a diploma mill when a 47.7% pass rate on the July Bar Exam represents an improvement almost by a factor of two, from the previous administration of the test. What will the school put on its website and recruiting materials? Perhaps, “Florida Coastal: where you have almost a 50/50 shot at passing the Florida Bar Exam.” Sadly, the mentally deficient would continue to apply to this dump.
LST Report Info: Courtesy of the folks at Law School Transparency, here are the stats for the class who entered in Fall 2013, i.e. the same cohort who took this bar exam:
25th percentile LSAT: 141
50th percentile LSAT: 144
75th percentile LSAT: 148
25th percentile UGPA: 2.69
50th percentile UGPA: 2.97
75th percentile UGPA: 3.26
Look at those figures for a moment. What would make you think that such students would be able to kick ass on the bar exam, without some incredible increase in work ethic or brainpower?
Conclusion: In the final analysis, Florida Coa$TTTTal $chool of Law is only in this thing for the money. The "professors" and deans could care less about where their former students end up, as long as the federal loan checks clear. Remember, these supposed "legal scholars" get paid up front, in full. You, the student, are a mere mean$ to an end.Full-time tuition and fees amount to $46,068- for the 2017-2018 academic year. For $ome rea$on, the school lists this on a per semester basis.