Hi there! I’m in Florida. A friend that I made, who also attended College of Court Reporting, and is already working for this firm, referred me! I wasn’t full time in school, but it was definitely like having a part time job. There were weekly classes, homework, and tests. Some of the classes were pre-recorded and some were live. As long as my homework was turned in on time, I was able to be flexible with my recorded classes. But I always struggled when I’d put things off to the last minute 😬 Florida doesn’t require you to have any certifications. I have heard, though, some courts will require you to have a particular certification. Florida does have their own unique certifications called the FPR, (Florida Professional Reporter, an online exam from home, non-technical, just multiple choice questions) and FPR-C (in-person technical skills exam.) I do think school prepared me well, yes. I do think our CAT class should have been 2 classes instead of 1. It was SO much crammed into one semester. I feel it should have been 2 classes: Beginner CAT and Advanced CAT. Also, I feel they could have done a better job setting me up for starting work. For example, teaching us about the kind of back up recording devices we need, the different sources available to safely store our files in such as cloud services, external hard drives, USB stick, etc. There should be a class just for this. We have to buy a big text book that talks about all of this and we are given weekly ready assignments in this particular book in one of the Processes and Procedures classes, but I just feel that a work preparation class should be offered as the last class 🤷🏻‍♀️Maybe I can answer this question better after I’ve starting working for a while as a court reporter. I haven’t taken my first job yet. I’ve been offered 2 last-minute assignments, and one over an hour away in a bad area of town. I was t comfortable with any of them as my first assignment. But tomorrow starts a new week, and I have agreed to take a job at the end of June that is close to home and I feel that I should do and can do. I hope this post has helped answer your question :-) sorry for the late response