Overview of LLM Admissions

This podcast is hosted by Dr. Peter Cramer, our LLM & International Admissions Consultant. Dr. Cramer has been working in legal education for over 25 years. He started his law school career at Indiana University Maurer School of Law and later went to Georgetown University Law Center where he served as the Associate Director of the Center for Global Legal English. For nine years prior to joining Spivey Consulting Group, Dr. Cramer worked as the Assistant Dean for Graduate and International Students at Washington University School of Law, where he focused primarily on admissions, course counseling, and instruction.

In this podcast, Dr. Cramer gives an overview of the elements of a successful LLM application, as well as common pitfalls to avoid. You can listen via the YouTube video below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

Hello, I'm Dr. Peter Cramer, and I am a senior consultant for the Spivey Consulting Group and their director of LLM consulting. Before I joined the Spivey Consulting Group, I worked in several major law schools such as Georgetown Law and Washington University in Saint Louis in teaching, administration, and in admissions.

Today, I’d like to talk about what matters most in LLM admissions. I have gone over almost 10,000 applications over the last 14 years, and I can point out what will increase your chances of admission and what you should avoid in the application process.

So let me tell you what matters most to admissions professionals. I will address communication with the law school in a different presentation.

Let’s start with your personal statement. It should exactly be what it says: personal. There is so much other outside information on you from your transcripts, your test scores, and so on, but we want to know who we are going to get as a student — what kind of a person you are — and what it is that makes you passionate about the law. Tell a story, and do not just give us a list of your achievements from your resume. Be genuine — that means be yourself. When you are done, read it out aloud. Ask friends about what they think. Do not worry too much about your English — after all, you are a non-native speaker, and we know this in admissions.

Let’s move on to the statement of purpose. LLM programs often just ask for a statement of purpose and make the personal statement optional. The statement of purpose asks you why you want to study at a specific institution and what it is that makes you the right candidate for this institution. So, do your homework, and find out what programs and courses you’d be interested in, and talk about these and how your previous experience or interest in a specific area of law relates to the program or course at a specific university. Do not write a general and nondescript one-statement-fits-all-schools statement.

How about your CV, your resume? It is an important document for a brief overview of your achievements. This may be one of the first documents the admissions officer reads. Quantify your achievements. Were you number 1 out of 300 in your cohort? What was your GPA? Did you make 2nd place in the moot court competition? Also, admissions officers don’t always know about rankings of foreign law schools and have to look them up, so tell them about the ranking of your law school. Tell them that you interned at the largest law firm in your country. Also, don’t make your document too long. One to two pages maximum. Avoid listing every single achievement you are proud of such as maybe winning 1st place in a badminton contest.

Alright, let's talk about the letter of recommendation. You can say a lot of impressive things about yourself in your statement of purpose, but the letter of recommendation talks about how others who you have worked with see you and how they assess your abilities and skills. It is a very important document, so think of it as early as possible, maybe even before you even finish law school or an internship. The longer away you are from an experience, the harder it will be to get a good letter of recommendation. Will your law professor from a law class four years ago remember what you did? The letter of recommendation should refer to whatever may be necessary to do well in law school. That could be grades, a reference to your outstanding analytical thinking, or a comparison to others in class. The better a recommender knows you, the better your chance for a genuine recommendation. If you can make suggestions to the recommender, don’t just give them your CV; give them a bullet list with some of your achievements. Your recommendation should complement the other documents and not just repeat your achievements.

Now here is some advice on your language proficiency score. Schools have certain requirements as to minimum TOEFL or IELTS. If you are below, still apply, and tell your story in your personal statement or in a letter. If you had an English-speaking class and you did well, ask your professor to write a letter of recommendation commenting on your English. If your TOEFL is low because you are a practicing lawyer who does not have enough time to practice for the test, have a partner or supervisor write a letter of recommendation that says that you are often working with English speaking clients — if you do, that is.

Also, remember that deadlines in LLM programs are often flexible. You may be able to take a new proficiency test very late into the process.

These are just a few tips on maximizing your impact, and I will go into greater detail in the future.

This is Dr. Peter Cramer from the Spivey Consulting Group. I will tell you more about what else you can do to improve your chances to get admitted at your target school in my next podcast. Good luck starting the application process!

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September 8, 2026

Interview Prep for Law School Admissions, with Meg Krishnan

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco is joined by Spivey consultant Meg Krishnan, former Director of Admissions and Programs at UChicago Law, for a conversation about preparing for law school admissions interviews. Meg spent nine admissions cycles at UChicago Law, ultimately running the school’s interview program and personally conducting thousands of admissions interviews. She shares what admissions offices are looking for in interviews and how applicants can prepare in a way that feels confident, natural, and intentional.

They discuss the different roles interviews can play in the admissions process and the different formats applicants may encounter (3:51); what an interviewer may review from your application before speaking with you (6:55); how to prepare your “why law” answer using Meg’s “ghosts of Christmas” framework of past, present, and future (9:08); and how to start researching and preparing for “why this law school?” questions well before receiving an interview invitation (12:18). Meg also shares a simple method for keeping track of school-specific research over time (15:52); what to prioritize once you actually receive an interview invitation, from logistics to reviewing your own application materials (19:35); and why applicants should practice from bullet points rather than scripting and memorizing their answers (24:28).

Anna and Meg also dive deeper into what makes a strong “why X” answer and the importance of connecting what a law school offers back to your own experiences and strengths (28:54); common interview mistakes and how to recover when something goes wrong (31:55); strategies for building confidence before an interview, including an exercise from psychologist Dr. Guy Winch (41:09); and practical ways to reduce distracting filler words and become more comfortable with pauses (43:36). They close with advice on taking care of yourself throughout the process, learning how to reset after a difficult moment, and remembering that receiving an interview invitation itself means the law school is interested in you (51:43).

A note on interview formats: Much of the advice in this episode is most directly applicable to invited interviews and one-on-one interviews with a human interviewer. However, many of the preparation strategies discussed also apply to other formats, including Kira and other prerecorded interviews.

Related resources: For a broader overview of law school interviews, including different interview formats and additional preparation advice, see our Interview Strategy Deep Dive with Former Law School Admissions Officers podcast. For more on the types of questions applicants may encounter, listen to Five Categories of Law School Admissions Interview Questions & How to Answer Them, with former Harvard Law Director of Admissions Karen Buttenbaum—including a bonus sixth category of curveball questions.

For more advice and resources on researching individual law schools and developing a strong, differentiated “why X,” see our Why X Essay Deep Dive: Advice from Former Law School Admissions Officers podcast episode. Anna also references our earlier conversation with psychologist Dr. Guy Winch, Dr. Guy Winch on Handling Rejection (& Waiting), which includes the confidence exercise discussed in this episode.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. You can read a full transcript of this episode with timestamps below.

August 25, 2026

Dr. Gabor Maté on Self-Doubt, Stress, Anxiety, & the Pressure to Succeed (Re-Release)

Originally published in 2021, this conversation with Dr. Gabor Maté explores self-doubt, stress, anxiety, addiction, and the pressures that can come with pursuing ambitious academic and professional goals.

Mike Spivey speaks with Dr. Maté, world-renowned physician and author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, When the Body Says No, and The Myth of Normal, about how these challenges can affect prospective law students and others navigating high-pressure environments.

One of Dr. Maté’s insights for prospective and incoming law students:

“You're going to look at all your confident classmates, and you're going to go in there with all manner of self-doubt. You're making the big mistake of comparing their outside with your inside. You have no idea what their inside is like. And believe me, you're not the only one.”

This episode is a re-release of our 2021 conversation with Dr. Gabor Maté.

Law School Preparation

August 11, 2026

Inside BigLaw Hiring with Dr. Milana Hogan, Sullivan & Cromwell Chief Talent Officer

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike is joined by Dr. Milana Hogan, Chief Talent Officer at Sullivan & Cromwell, and Rob Baker, a former law firm hiring committee member and BigLaw attorney, for a conversation about the increasingly front-loaded BigLaw recruiting process and what prospective and current law students should know about navigating it. Rob has held recruiting roles at large, medium, and boutique-sized law firms, while Dr. Hogan has spent nearly two decades at Sullivan & Cromwell working in talent, associate development, and recruiting.

The group discusses how law firm recruiting has shifted earlier over time and the market pressures driving that change (7:41); whether hiring could move even earlier and why first-semester law school grades may serve as a practical stopping point (13:48); whether 0Ls should already be reaching out to firms and how to approach those conversations from a learning rather than a “will you hire me?” posture (17:13); the value of LinkedIn, low-pressure outreach, and building relationships before recruiting formally begins (20:53); and why the current system may create new opportunities for 2Ls and 3Ls who missed out earlier in the process (24:39).

They also discuss how AI is affecting BigLaw work and hiring, including Sullivan & Cromwell’s use of AI as one part of its holistic hiring process (28:34); what can turn hiring partners off in an interview and why trying too hard to demonstrate how smart you are can backfire (31:47); the importance of curiosity, humility, and a willingness to learn from more experienced lawyers (34:45); and why students should take ownership of their careers, seek out opportunities, and practice interviewing before the real thing (37:52).

Related resources: Mike references NALP Executive Director Nikia Gray’s article, The “Cruel” Recruiting Timeline, which examines the history of OCI and the market forces behind the increasingly accelerated law firm recruiting process. He also references a South Park episode parodying Black Friday’s increasingly early start as an analogy for how BigLaw recruiting has continued moving earlier.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠. You can read a full transcript of this episode with timestamps below.

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Overview of LLM Admissions

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