Application Timing
Many law school websites have somewhat unclear language about how early you should send in an application, and applicants hear conflicting information from friends, colleagues, and pre-law advisers.
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Timing
01 Jul 2019
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
Read full post15 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
Read full post28 Jan 2019
2018/2019 Midpoint Cycle Update
We are about 50% through the cycle, and I wanted to share some observations, data, and then remaining predictions with everyone. Much of the data can be found here [https://www.lsac.org/data-research/data/current-volume-summaries-region-raceethnicity-sex-lsat-score] , and, for the first time ever, is publicly available and updated daily by LSAC. A deep-dive analysis is also done weekly by our intern on his blog weekly blog here [https://docs.google.com/document/d/14qVpQWwtDdplBXBitItcHOP5I2xWHX
Read full post08 Dec 2018
How many times can you take the LSAT in a 3 year period?
To be brief, the answer is "unlimited" or technically "limited only by how many tests there will administered in a three year period" and has been since September of 2017. Before then there was a limiting number, and there is still a good deal of bad information out there about that old policy, hence this incredibly brief blog. Again, there is no longer a policy limiting takes, and you can take it and keep taking it. Whether you should is a bit more nuanced [https://blog.spiveyconsulting.com
Read full post23 Nov 2018
Should you submit your application after you take the LSAT(or GRE) or once you get your score?
The short answer is "it doesn't matter that much." As we have blogged about here [https://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/how-long-does-it-take-for-law-school-applications-to-be-read/] , applications aren't read in date stamped sequential order, but rather by strength. They do, of course, have to be complete, and not having a test score will render them incomplete. Still, the lack of a score (or another attempt at a higher score) does not mean that you can't actually submit an application. Should you
Read full post26 Sep 2018
It's early. You're early. This whole damn place is early.*
For most of you applying to law school, this time of year is a busy one. It's also when nerves start feeling frayed. Someone online was admitted to UVA. Then another to Duke. It seems like all others have left the gate and you're still stuck on rethinking almost every single word of your personal statement. Whether you're already sending in applications, waiting for your LSAT score, or in the midst of full-time test prep, one thing is certain: you have a lot of waiting ahead of you. In the past
Read full post11 Jul 2018
Top 50 Law School Application Opening Dates for the 2018-2019 Cycle
*Please note, schools can change these dates, and it is possible that when we called to ask them that they gave us the dates applications become available to fill out on the LSAC website rather than when applications are accepted (although we were very careful to clearly articulate what we were asking about) — but this should be highly accurate to the extent we can control it. Also please note that several schools told us that they had not yet decided on an exact date that they will be acceptin
Read full post18 Jun 2018
Your Gap Year and the LSAT: What you need to know
Note: Since the time this blog was published, the landscape of law school admissions has developed a great deal with regards to the importance of work experience prior to law school. Check out this updated 2024 blog for more information and advice. This post was written by Tom Robinson, Spivey Consulting Group's newest Senior Consultant. Hi Everyone, I’m excited to be on the Spivey team and enjoyed working with clients in my first week with Spivey Consulting after spending my last three at Ha
Read full post26 Dec 2017
Law School Admissions Advice: "Is it too late?"
The easiest answer to this question is "almost never" — but obviously there are some qualifications. So let me start with a real life story and then the qualifications. A few cycle ago I got a call from someone who had taken the June LSAT and just received his score, in the upper 170s. He also had a strong LSAC computed GPA and was asking me if I thought he could get into Harvard next cycle (keeping in mind it was like roughly July 1 and Harvard clearly said on their website the application dea
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