Fox Fact: Foxes can retract their claws as cats do, have vertical pupils (like cats) which allow them to see better in the dark, and have cat-like sensitive whiskers.
Photo by Federico Di Dio photography on Unsplash
Blog & Podcasts
21 Jan 2025
Podcast: Mid-Cycle Pep Talk & 2024-2025 Update from Mike Spivey
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike gives a brief update and pep talk for current law school applicants during the 2024-2025 admissions cycle.
Read full post14 Jan 2025
Real Data on When Law School Admissions Decisions Come Out
Admissions officers are settling into a winter of reading, and the file review process is really just beginning to get into full swing for most of them. So when will decisions be coming out?
Read full post09 Jan 2025
Predicted 2025-2026 U.S. News Law School Rankings
We now have sufficient data to predict the 2025-2026 U.S. News law school rankings with a high degree of accuracy. Here's the full list, this year in groups.
Read full post07 Jan 2025
Podcast: A Look at the New ABA 509 Law School Data with Kyle McEntee
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike has a conversation with Kyle McEntee, LSAC's Senior Director of Prelaw Engagement and the founder of Law School Transparency, centering around the newly released 2024 ABA 509 disclosures and how applicants should consider the data therein.
Read full post18 Dec 2024
New Law School Admissions Data from the 2024 ABA-Required 509 Disclosures: Thoughts & Analysis
This week, the American Bar Association published this year's required 509 disclosures—standardized data on admissions, enrollment, scholarships, faculty, and more. We took a look at that data, and here are our early takeaways.
Read full post17 Dec 2024
Podcast: "Why X" Essay Deep Dive: Advice from Former Law School Admissions Officers
In this episode, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with two Spivey consultants and former law school admissions deans on "Why X" essays—advice, best practices, common mistakes, misconceptions, and more.
Read full post10 Dec 2024
Podcast: The Future of Legal Education, AI, & Admissions with Dean Megan Carpenter
In this episode, Mike has a conversation with Dean Megan Carpenter on the highlights and challenges of being a dean, the future of law school and innovation in legal education, generative artificial intelligence, and her best law school admissions advice (plus, what res ipsa loquitur means).
Read full post13 Nov 2024
What happens to your application once it is submitted to law schools?
There is often a shroud of mystery among applicants once they submit their applications. As former admissions officers, we'll walk you through how the process tends to work.
Read full post05 Nov 2024
Podcast: Addendum Deep Dive—Advice from Former Law School Admissions Officers on LSAT, GPA, C&F, and Other Addenda
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with two Spivey consultants—Danielle Early and Derek Meeker, formerly of Harvard Law and Penn Law—diving deep into the law school application addendum.
Read full post23 Oct 2024
Podcast: Predicting the 2024-25 Law Admissions Cycle with Northwestern Law Associate Dean Don Rebstock
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike Spivey has a conversation with Northwestern Law Associate Dean Don Rebstock about the first 2024-2025 law school applicant data that was released last week, what it means for applicants, and why it's not as scary as it looks.
Read full post15 Oct 2024
Predicting the 2024-2025 Law School Application Cycle (Early Data)
The very first LSAC Volume Summary Report of the cycle just dropped, which means we have our first applicant (and application) data for 2024-2025.
Read full post15 Oct 2024
Podcast: Following a Law School Applicant Through the 2024-2025 Cycle (Part 1, Preparing Applications and the LSAT)
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco introduces "John" (not his real name; u/Muvanji on Reddit), the applicant who we'll be following throughout his law school admissions cycle for 2024-2025.
Read full post27 Sep 2024
Top 11 U.S News Law Schools Modeled 2025 Rankings
Here are our modeled Top 11 (due to a four-way tie at 8) 2025 U.S. News Rankings. Please note a few things.
Read full post25 Sep 2024
Basics of Law School Financial Aid
Financial aid is a necessary aspect of law school enrollment and one that benefits you most if you consider it early on in the process—not just at the end.
Read full post24 Sep 2024
Podcast: Making Your Law School List—Advice & Resources for Deciding Where to Apply
How do you estimate your chances of admission to determine reach, target, and "safety" schools? How many schools should you apply to? How many schools do most applicants apply to? Where can you find the best and most up-to-date information about law schools when doing your research?
Read full post16 Sep 2024
2024 U.S. News Best College Rankings
We’ve received from multiple universities the new 2024 U.S. News Best College Rankings and have decided to share the top 25.
Read full post10 Sep 2024
Podcast: The Differences Between College & Law School, with "How I Lawyer" Host Jonah Perlin
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike interviews How I Lawyer podcast host Jonah Perlin on some of the many differences between college and law school, from cold calls to being graded on a curve to the nature of attending a professional school and more.
Read full post30 Aug 2024
Examples of Successful Experience/Perspective Essays (Formerly "Diversity Statements")
If you’re wondering what successful E/P essays look like, here are a number of examples, all of which are real essays (with minor anonymizing redactions) from applicants who had highly successful admissions outcomes.
Read full post27 Aug 2024
Podcast: Experience/Perspective Essay (Diversity Statement) Deep Dive with Former Law School Admissions Officers
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, we discuss the relatively new category of law school admissions essays that we're calling "experience/perspective essays" or "E/P essays," many of which are variations on the essays previously known as "diversity statements."
Read full post16 Aug 2024
PSA on Misinformation in the Law School Admissions Consulting Industry
As we have podcasted on before, misinformation in the law school admissions process comes from all directions, and law school admissions consulting firms claiming to be experts (with little or no real admissions experience) are a growing source.
Read full post