Hear from industry-leading experts in admissions, legal education, mental health, and the practice of law.

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 (a series back by popular demand!). We talk more about John, his background, his application materials, and his goals in the episode, but here are some basics about his profile:

John got his undergraduate degree outside of the U.S. and so does not have an LSAC-calculated cumulative uGPA (his performance was evaluated as "Above Average" on his CAS report). He took the LSAT once and got a 174 (we talked about his LSAT study process and test day experience in the episode). He earned a law degree in the U.K., where law school is at the undergraduate level, and is a recent graduate. He is currently looking for work and so does not yet have any full-time post-graduate work experience. He worked part-time during undergrad, did an internship with a biglaw firm, and participated in a number of law-related extracurriculars in leadership positions. His goal after earning his J.D. is to go into corporate law, and he has a special interest in antitrust law. He is originally Canadian and has experienced parts of his education there, in England, and in Kenya, which he plans to discuss in his experience/perspective essays (or "E/P essays," the category of law school admissions essay that has largely supplanted the "diversity statement"). He is African-American and has felt some pressure to discuss his race/ethnicity in his application, but he isn't sure whether or how he would like to do so. He has one relatively minor but somewhat complicated Character & Fitness ("C&F") issue that he will need to disclose on some applications.

In this first episode of the series, we discuss John's LSAT process, his personal statement, his E/P essays, his resume (and how he thought it was done before listening to our resume deep-dive podcast episode!), his school list, letters of recommendation, Reddit, and more.

We'll be checking in with him throughout the cycle for updates!

Relevant Links/Resources:

• Resume Deep Dive Podcast
• Personal Statement Deep Dive Podcast
• Experience/Perspective Essay ("E/P Essay") Deep Dive Podcast
• Podcast series following an applicant through the 2022-2023 law school admissions cycle featuring "Lucy": Part 1 (preparing applications and the LSAT); Part 2 (interviews and initial decisions); Part 3 (final decisions and choosing a law school)
• Podcast series following an applicant through the 2021-2022 law school admissions cycle featuring "Barb": Part 1 (preparing applications); Part 2 (the waiting, timelines); Part 3 (final decisions, waitlists, scholarship reconsideration, and seat deposits)

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 below.

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Spivey Consulting President Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with three Spivey Consultants and former law school admissions officers—Sam Kwak (Stanford Law, Northwestern Law, Indiana University Law), Paula Gluzman (UCLA Law, UW Law), and Joe Pollak (Michigan Law)—a group that has collectively spent over 20 years advising law school applicants one-on-one as consultants. In that time, they have assisted hundreds of law school applicants in creating strategic school lists, the topic of today's episode.

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 (and how is the oft-cited average number of applications per applicant somewhat misleading here)? Where can you find the best and most up-to-date information about law schools when doing your research? We cover all of the above and more.

This episode is a companion to our recent blog post on this topic, How to Create Your Law School List. Here are a few other resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Law School Application Fee Waivers blog post series from Joe Pollak: Part 1 (Unsolicited Fee Waivers), Part 2 (Soliciting Fee Waivers), and Part 3 (Need-Based Fee Waivers)
• Podcast: "Safety Schools" and Making a Law School Backup Plan (with Danielle Early, former Harvard Law admissions officer)
• 2024 Medians Spreadsheet (Spivey Consulting)
• Official Guide to ABA-Approved JD Programs (LSAC)
• ABA-Required Disclosures (including admissions and employment data for all ABA-accredited law schools)
• How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin (also check out our Status Check episode with Jonah here and Jonah's episode interviewing Mike Spivey here)
• My Rank by Spivey (custom law school rankings according to your priorities and preferences)

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

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.

Links to other resources:

• How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin
• How I Lawyer #134: Mike Spivey - On Law School Rankings, Admissions, and Mental Health (Mike's episode on Jonah's podcast)
• Dear 1L: The Book by Amanda Haverstick (book mentioned in the episode)
• Dear 1L with Amanda Haverstick (Status Check episode with the author of the book mentioned in the episode)
• The Law of Law School: The Essential Guide for First-Year Law Students by Andrew Guthrie Ferguson and Jonathan Yusef Newton (book mentioned by Jonah in the interview)

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco speaks with three Spivey consultants—Tom Robinson, former Harvard Law Director of Admissions; Sir Williams, former Wisconsin Law Director of Admissions; and Anne Dutia, former Michigan Law Assistant Director of Admissions—about 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." They walk through the specifics of what these essays can look like (going through several example prompts), how to approach those different prompts, common mistakes applicants make with these statements, traits of outstanding E/P essays, and more.

This episode is part of an ongoing deep dive series on the main components of the law school application. You can listen to our episode on personal statements here and our episode on resumes here.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

In this special episode of Status Check with Spivey directed toward parents of law school applicants, Anna Hicks-Jaco and two Spivey consultants—Danielle Early, former Harvard Law Associate Director of Admissions, and Shannon Davis, former Assistant Dean for Admissions and Communications at Lewis & Clark Law—discuss how parents can best support their children through the application process. They walk through differences between the law school and the college admissions processes, how much parental involvement law school admissions offices expect, common mistakes parents can make that may end up hindering rather than helping, and some of the ways that parents can be most helpful and supportive to their applicants.

You can read Shannon and Danielle's full bios here.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike has a conversation with Mitch Leff, author of My Addiction, My Superpower, about his experiences overcoming addiction at a young age, the lessons he learned, and how others can use his insights to improve themselves. As attorneys suffer significantly higher rates of substance abuse and depression relative to the wider public, Mitch's insights are highly relevant to anyone who is a part of (or considering joining) the legal profession.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco speaks with two Spivey consultants—Karen Buttenbaum, former Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, and Nathan Neely, former Associate Director of Admissions and Director of Global and Graduate Programs at the University of Houston Law Center—about the law school application resume: what to include and what not to include, differences from professional resumes, common mistakes, best practices, and more. You can read Karen and Nathan's full bios here.

This episode is part of an ongoing deep dive series on the main components of the law school application. You can listen to our episode on personal statements here. Next up: diversity statements (the new versions—also known as E/P essays).

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with three Spivey consultants—Anne Dutia, Paula Gluzman, and Derek Meeker, former law school admissions officers at Michigan, UCLA, Penn, and more—diving deep into the law school personal statement. They discuss the brainstorming and topic selection process, how to structure a personal statement, writing tips, broad-level traits of A+ personal statements, common mistakes, and more.

You can watch the video Derek mentions in this episode, in which he walks through how to choose a personal statement topic, here. You can read bios for Anne, Paula, Derek, and Anna here.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, SCG Pre-L Consultant and Fordham Law professor Jordana Confino has a conversation with legal writing coach and Dear 1L author Amanda Haverstick about legal writing and tackling your 1L year.

You can learn more about Dear 1L here, connect with Amanda via LinkedIn here, or email her directly at amanda@dear1L.com.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Ann Perry, the University of Chicago Law School's Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid, joins Mike Spivey and Anna Hicks-Jaco to tier-rank law school admissions strategies sourced from the folks over on the r/LawSchoolAdmissions subreddit. They talk about a huge range of topics, including personal statements, letters of recommendation, resumes, work experience, retaking the LSAT, attending law school forums, the value of using a consultant, and more.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

Here are the final tier ranks (please note that several of these were on the border and/or elicited mild disagreement—be sure to listen to the episode or read the transcript below for important notes and context):

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco speaks with Pre-L consultants Rob Cacace and Jordana Confino (bios here) about the growing importance of work experience in admissions, why the impact of being a "KJD" (going "from Kindergarten through law school" without full-time work experience) has increased over time, and—importantly—how work experience (or a lack thereof) plays out during law school and in the search for legal employment.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses the various factors that play into any given applicant's chances of admission coming off the waitlist. He also gives a quick preview of our (very early) predictions for next cycle.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.