Admissions

16 May 2013

Want to make a really good first impression to an admissions dean or hiring partner?

This is a simple way to differentiate yourself, yet my experience has been that only about 1% of applicants and 5% of law students do it. But 50% of professionals do. Before I reveal it, a very quick backstory is necessary. Without this understanding, I think it is hard to genuinely “get” what I am about to say. The backstory is simply that professionals are really busy, often stressed, and at times frantic. Moreover, they know all of this. Anything tedious that requires a shred of time increas

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23 Apr 2013

Mistake #1: You are too nice

See previous – Mistake #2: Shangri-Law [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/mistake-2-shangri-law/] This was an easy “#1 mistake for 2012/2013″ because while the amount of scholarship money available is on the rise, I have not seen a corresponding increase in the amount of leverage admitted students exercise or sophistication with which they negotiate. Indeed, if anything, I have seen an increase in anxiety this year — perhaps because there is more money on the line. Even the advice of some of the

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17 Apr 2013

Mistake #2: Shangri-Law

See previous – Mistake #3: The Fight Club In You [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/mistake-3-the-fight-club-in-you/] Disclaimer: this relates to those seeking BigLaw and not government, clerkships, academic jobs or anything that is not BigLaw. This could, and perhaps should, be about a few things. Law school itself is not exactly Shangri-La. Nor is trying to get into the best law school, and to go, at all costs. But you guys are preached about this over and over — in the media, on blogs, by fa

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16 Apr 2013

Mistake #3: The Fight Club In You

See previous — Mistake #4: The Waiting is the Hardest Part [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/mistake-4-the-waiting-is-the-hardest-part/] (Note: Data updated to include the 2016-2017 cycle) Fight Club was a great book, a really good movie, and gave the world one of its best aphorisms when referring to humans — “unique and beautiful snowflake.” Perhaps in no place is this more applicable than in admissions. So much so, I’ve already blogged about it in our Mistake #10 [http://blog.spiveyconsultin

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16 Apr 2013

Mistake #4: The Waiting is the Hardest Part

See previous – Mistake #5: "Oxymoronic" LSAT Advice [https://spiveyconsulting.ghost.io/mistake-5-oxymoronic-lsat-advice/] Update 3/27/2020 There is nothing more difficult in the admissions process than being wait-listed. For 175+ years as a company we have seen students in law school admissions who have been admitted, wait-listed and denied, and they nearly universally express that the denial was easier than languishing on a wait-list for a drawn-out period. The irony is that just about every

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03 Apr 2013

Mistake #5: "Oxymoronic" LSAT Advice

See previous – Mistake #6: "Help my GPA has fallen and it can't get up" [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/mistake-6-help-my-gpa-has-fallen-and-it-cant-get-up/] Here you have it – two pieces of advice that are not only going to contradict a great deal of what you read online, but which also seem to contradict each other: 1. If you retake the LSAT your score is not likely to go up substantially or beyond the measurement of error for the first test. 2. You should likely retake the LSAT. In

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31 Mar 2013

Mistake #6: "Help my GPA has fallen and it can't get up"

See previous – Mistake #7: Texts, Typos, and Timezones [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/mistake-7-texts-typos-and-timezones/] I have been following law school discussion forums for a long time. Much has changed over the years, but the next three mistakes have stayed pretty much constant. For #6, we will focus on undergraduate grade point average (uGPA). Invariably, at some point in the admissions cycle, a phenomenon along the lines of the following happens in numerous panicky threads online (a

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26 Mar 2013

Mistake #7: Texts, Typos, and Timezones

See previous – Mistake #8: Kristen Stewart Goes to Law School [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/mistake-8-kristen-stewart-goes-to-law-school/] Admissions officers are paid to be friendly, so much so that you may feel like you are on a first-name (or no-name) basis with them. But don’t let this lull you into thinking that it is OK to interact with them the same way that you interact with your friends. Admissions officers are also paid to be on the lookout for the skills and qualities that make f

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23 Mar 2013

Mistake #8: Kristen Stewart Goes to Law School

See previous – Mistake #9: "The History of the World, Part I" [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/mistake-9-the-history-of-the-world-part-i/] You know that vapid, dull, emotionless look Kristen Stewart always seems to land some huge acting role with? Law school admissions officers, it turns out, hate it. In particular, they hate it when they ask, “Why do you want to go to law school?” and that is the response they get. Let me quote a law admissions colleague circa 4 days ago: “I am continually ap

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22 Mar 2013

Mistake #9: "The History of the World, Part I"

See previous – Mistake #10: "The Dyson Effect" [https://spiveyconsulting.ghost.io/mistake-10-the-dyson-effect/] What I am referring to here is a reliance on historical data – particularly data from last year. In the top 10 rankings of applicants mistakes for the class of 2016, this is the only one where there is a great deal of overlap for law schools. In other words, law schools make this mistake just as much as (or more than) law students. It is harming both students and schools alike. But, I

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