Florida State University’s College of Law is expanding a program allowing students to graduate with a law degree and bachelor’s degree a year earlier than usual. The so-called “three-plus-three” option is now available to undergraduate students at the University of West Florida.
The University of West Florida is the fourth institution to partner with the FSU Law School. Florida State launched the option last year for undergrads at its own university and has since expanded to the University of Central Florida and Eckerd College.
FSU Law School Dean Don Weidner says students can start law school after three years and have their first year of law school apply to their bachelor’s degree, allowing people to complete both degrees in six years instead of seven.
"We see it as the effect of giving people a scholarship in the amount of a year’s cost of college," he says.
Weidner says the program allows his school to connect early on with some of the brightest undergraduates.
“The program is most likely to be taken advantage of by honors students, many of whom, I understand, would like to get through undergrad a little more quickly and start law school," he says.
U.S. News and World Report ranked the FSU law school best in the state this year, due largely to its high post-graduate job placement rate.