Which school is better to go to become a civil lawyer? Florida States University or University of Central Flor?

While it's okay to gain an outsider's perspective, the best thing that you can do is to go visit the schools yourself! Take the official campus tour. See what the college has to say. Then, talk to actual students, walk around and just get a feel for the college -- see if you like the general vibe. Don't forget to try the cafeteria food!!! After you apply to both colleges (and get accepted), compare the financial aid packages. Who will let you in for less? How much out of pocket will you have to pay? If you still aren't sure, go back, and ask all the questions about your major that you forgot to ask the first time. You can see career paths based on your major choice as well as the classes involved. Try to ignore ranking. The highest ranked school in all the land won't do you any good if you hate everything about it! Go with what college feels right to you!

Before choosing law school I would advise talking to recent graduates from law school. Browse forums for law graduates like the one below. The current economic recession has been very harsh for law school graduates. Every job opening appears to have a ridiculously large number of applicants (including openings for civil law). The business models for law firms have been under criticism and only gotten worse in the recession. Lawyers who want to go into civil service are overwhelmed with extreme competition for jobs. There just aren't enough openings. I know this because I looked into law school recently. I am an engineer who studied health care at FSU. I thought patent attorneys might be in high demand, but the recession has overwhelmed that field. So I switched directions to clinical trials outside of FSU. I do have a graduate degree from FSU. I gave up on law school. It seems too hard. By contrast, engineers who specialize in clinical trials are in high demand, especially if they studied healthcare like I did at FSU. http://abovethelaw.com/2010/08/unemployed-j-d-goes-on-a-hunger-strike/ If you really want to go to law school, then you need to (1) maximize the chances of employment and (2) add a backup plan in case (1) doesn't work. Law schools are divided into tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, etc. A tier 1 graduate generally has a much better chance of employment than a tier 2 graduate. There are exceptions, but the pattern is obvious. Within tier 1, the top 14 law schools such as Cal-Berkeley, Chicago, Harvard, Yale, etc. get the best options. But even some of their graduates have struggled recently. Within Florida, UF is the highest ranked law school, so your chances would be best there. FSU comes in at a close 2nd, and their graduates tend to work in the "I-4 corridor." So UF and FSU would be highly advised, especially if you want to avoid debt. Next, add a backup plan. If you graduate from law school and can't get a job immediately, then what is the alternative? A dual JD program like JD-MPH, JD-PharmD, JD-MD, JD-engineering, JD-Accounting, etc. would be something to look at. If I were a young undergraduate with a lot of energy, I would get a dual JD and master's in a high-demand field. The master's could be in medical billing, medical informatics, physician's assistant, nursing, etc. The dual degrees can help maximize chances of law employment and allow a backup plan if legal jobs cannot be found. Or, it can give you a "place to work until a legal job opens up." A dual degree plan is like the spread option in football used by some college coaches. Multiple options give you more chances to succeed. It's like mixed martial arts in the UFC. A person who only knows karate is vulnerable in UFC. But if a person knows both karate and judo (2 black belts) then success is much more likely. The horrible recession requires professional workers to be multi-dimensional to survive without fear of layoffs or unemployment. The working world is cruel, but you can fight back. Many forums advise not attending a law school outside the "T14." But with a dual option you could survive if the backup plan is realistic. For example, if a law graduate can't get a job as an attorney but earned a dual master's of nursing, medical informatics, or physician's assistant or medical accounting, then the backup will work. At some point in the future when the job market improves, the legal jobs can return. Backup plans allow you to survive in a recession and thrive when the market returns because you can be a multi-dimensional lawyer with dual degrees and dual work experience. Law firms would prefer that in my opinion when the legal job market returns. My favorite movie about law firms is the "Devil's Advocate." Keanu Reeves plays a UF law school graduate who somehow manages to earn a job at a top law firm in New York that normally just hires from the top 14 law schools. It's mostly a fictional horror film about "God" versus "The Devil." But some of the scenes with the wealthy, hypercompetitive lawyers seem realistic. Al Pacino plays the head of the law firm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpkTjtmuNA4&feature=related