Advice

17 Jun 2019

LSAT Retake Rules and You

The New Rules As was initially reported, LSAC is updating their policy on LSAT retakes, to take effect starting with the September 2019 administration. You can read the full policy here [https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.lsac.org_lsat_taking-2Dlsat_lsat-2Dfaqs&d=DwMFaQ&c=5qaU24Emulp-fzgwXAWUyHfhV6KzVMOip5exfSC7BVM&r=grRbnN_chtUZLV99br5C-GtssMBhU3ixsu7V8zizYqU&m=SfDwU2WHg9CyAewJWeqY1i12MH0GRzfFP71l2GtKk10&s=WPojKEpfSHK0Da_EW4BHr9LHmbVmD_cxvJKlwzUkPO8&e=] , but we'll summari

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07 Jun 2019

Law School Application Fee Waivers: Part 1 (Unsolicited Fee Waivers)

This is a three-part series on fee waivers from Joe Pollak, Spivey Consulting Group admissions consultant and former admissions officer at the University of Michigan Law School. Part 1 discusses how to get unsolicited merit-based fee waivers for your law school applications. Part 2 will cover requesting merit-based fee waivers, and Part 3 will cover need-based fee waivers (both from LSAC and directly from schools) First, let’s be clear about which fees we are talking about here: we mean the app

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04 Jun 2019

What makes for successful law school admission?

Spivey Consulting Partner Mike Spivey [https://www.spiveyconsulting.com/about/] talks about the two primary things at the highest order that make applications stand out and elevate in the admissions process.

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20 May 2019

2018-2019 Waitlist Movement and Advice, Mid-May Update

It's that time of year: waitlist movement time. Many first and second deposit deadlines have passed, and schools are starting the process of finalizing their entering 2019 classes. That's good news for thousands of nervous applicants who are sitting on waitlists anxiously hoping for news. Those of you who were around in the 2017-2018 cycle remember it as a summer of disappointment. The dramatic 7.9% increase in LSAT applicants in that cycle overwhelmed many schools unprepared for such drastic

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25 Apr 2019

The June LSAT and Waitlists

Registration for the June 2019 LSAT closed yesterday. Most people who are signed up for that LSAT administration are going to be using it to apply in the 2019-2020 cycle. But as law school applicants become increasingly savvy to the importance of LSAT scores in admissions, many applicants are re-taking the test in June to improve their chances of getting off a waitlist. Last year alone an additional 7% of June LSAT takers were retaking the test over historical averages—many presumably in hopes o

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23 Apr 2019

T14 Transferring Statistics—and is it worth it?

It's the time of year when some people are making decisions they're not 100% happy about on what law school to attend. They might be consoling themselves with the thought that, "Well, if I do poorly, I'll just transfer up." Some people might be using this thought as a way of justifying going to a school with overall poor employment prospects, or as a way of keeping alive their hopes of [insert dream career outcome here]. Or maybe you're a 1L who's wondering if transferring is a good idea for you

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06 Apr 2019

The Top 15 Characteristics of Applicants Who Have Admissions Success Beyond Their Numbers

1. They stay positive and engaged for the entire admissions cycle. 2. They pay attention to every little detail of their application. 3. They are genuine and write from the heart. 4. They are self-aware. 5. They are actively involved with things that are important to them outside of the application process. 6. They have a very clear reason why they are applying to law school and they can articulate verbally and in writing. 7. They are adaptable. 8. They utilize every op

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29 Mar 2019

How to choose between a higher ranked school at sticker price and a lower ranked school with a scholarship

Introduction We were asked to write about choosing between a T14 school at sticker (full tuition) versus a T20 to T30 school with merit aid. The below constitutes our best stab at that, but please keep in mind that, as always, these are arbitrary cutoff points based on one flawed rankings system and not designed for you as an individual. Point being that a school ranked 18 may be much more valuable to you for any number of reasons that a school ranked 13, etc. If you want to read or watch more

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15 Mar 2019

When a school drops in rank significantly, does that affect how "desperate" schools get?

This is an applicant question, and a timely one due to the recent USNWR rankings release and upcoming seat deposit deadlines. The applicant asking the question, I believe, uses “desperate” to mean, will a school that just dropped in the rankings suffer applicant pool consequences and thus need to go deeper into their own pool to admit? I will get to that a bit later in this post (and there is available data that anyone could look up by looking at schools that have dropped in the rankings in past

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21 Feb 2019

Every piece of Spivey Consulting Law School Waitlist Advice

It's that time of year again — law schools are beginning to place applicants on the dreaded waitlist. Luckily, we have two helpful resources if you've been waitlisted this cycle.

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