THE TOP THREE . Each of the top three Florida law schools is on the campus of its large university and excellent, albeit perhaps dishonest, football team. It is probably safe to say that the University of Florida College of Law, the Florida State University College of Law, and the University of Miami School of Law will remain in the top 100 with U Florida and FSU bouncing around the top 50 and U Miami doing the same with the top 75.
THE THIRD QUARTILE. The Stetson University College of Law is located in Gulfport (near St. Petersburg and in the "vibrant Tampa Bay area") whereas the main campus of Stetson University is in DeLand, about 125 miles away. Florida International University is located in Miami. Stetson U seems unlikely to move into the top 100 but Floida Inernatonal U could soon be within the top 100.
THE LOWEST QUARTILE LAW SCHOOLS are the bottom of the ABA-approved law schools. Florida has more than its share of these law schools. These law schools are not ranked by USNews so all we can say is that they rank greater than 146. Will any of these law schools make it into the top 150 law schools in the near future? Probably not although the seemingly endless supply of newly-minted law schools being approved by the ABA may eventually bump one or two of these law schools into the top 150.
The Barry University School of Law is located in Orlando whereas the main campus is in Miami Shores.
The Florida Coastal School of Law is the only for-profit law school that has received full ABA accreditation; this occurred in August 2002.
In the summer of 2009, the Ava Maria School of Law relocated to southwest Florida (Naples mailing address) from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In 2012 the Thomas M. Cooley Law School opened a campus in Riverview, Florida (Tampa Bay Area). This campus is the law schools second; its first campus is in Lansing, Michigan.
NTERNATIONAL RANKINGS OF UNIVERSITIES. The Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University produced, in 2004, Academic Ratings of World Universities (ARWU). Note that ARWU is an academic rating of world universities, not a rating of law schools. ARWU, which I believe has merit, indicates their top 500. In this rating, six Florida universities (the four in bold have a law school) were mentioned:
University of Florida (Rank 67)
University of Miami (Rank 101-152)
Florida State University (Rank 153-201)
University of South Florida (Rank 202-301)
Florida International University (Rank 404-502)
University of Central Florida (Rank 404-502)
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