Monday, September 18, 2017
July 2017 Florida Bar Exam Results: Florida International Is #1 For 3rd Year In A Row
The July 2017 Florida bar passage rates by school are out. The overall pass rate for first-time takers is 71.3%, up 3.1 percentage points from last year. For the third year in a row, Florida International is #1. Here are the results for the 11 Florida law schools, along with each school's U.S. News ranking (Florida and overall):
Bar Pass Rank (Rate) |
School |
US News Rank FL (Overall) |
1 (87.8%) |
Florida Int'l |
5 (100) |
2 (84.2%) |
Miami |
3 (77) |
3 (83.9%) |
Florida State |
2 (48) |
4 (77.0%) |
Florida |
1 (41) |
5 (76.8%) |
Stetson |
4 (96) |
6 (70.2%) |
Nova |
Tier 2 |
7 (63.6%) |
St. Thomas |
Tier 2 |
8 (58.9%) |
Barry |
Tier 2 |
9 (51.3%) |
Ave Maria |
Tier 2 |
9 (51.3%) |
Florida A&M |
Tier 2 |
11 (47.7%) |
Florida Coastal |
Tier 2 |
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/09/july-2017-florida-bar-exam-results-florida-international-is-1-for-4th-year-in-a-row.html
Comments
FIU has been on a roll despite having a much worse US News rating than Florida, Florida State, and Miami. Could it be that ratings by law school professors are based more on name recognition (hey, I know those schools from Saturday afternoon football!) than by any useful knowledge about law schools once you get past the top 20 or 25?
Posted by: PaulB | Sep 18, 2017 5:16:06 PM
Interesting... so a 62% first-time CA bar exam pass rate in 2016 creates outrage and condemnation amongst law school deans over the MBE passing score and all the rest of it, but a 68% FL first-time pass rate in 2016 warrants crickets. Their MBE pass rate is just 136, incidentally, since no one is complaining about their almost-CA-bad pass rate.
Posted by: Unemployed Northeastern | Sep 18, 2017 4:11:14 PM
FIU's success is no coincidence. They have established a rigorous progam of legal education. You can find a description of the program at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2960192. FIU's success proves that law schools can establish effective educational programs if they want to.
See also my post on FIU: A Legal Education Success Story at Florida International University at http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_skills/2016/10/a-legal-education-success-story-at-florida-international-university.html.
Posted by: Scott Fruehwald | Sep 18, 2017 6:23:34 PM