This is a great guest blog post from Warren Buff, who took it upon himself to crunch the numbers and look at the data behind Law School Numbers.
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
A look at this law school admissions cycle's competitiveness.
This was written by a client the day after he was admitted to his dream school despite being almost double digit points below their median LSAT. Published with permission, only edits were to take thanking me out of it a few times :) You thrived academically in undergrad and now you’re hoping to do the same at one of your dream law schools. You look at their median GPA numbers and you’re above them and feel like you’re already in... but then there’s the LSAT. Maybe you just can’t master logic ga
Advice from a below-both-medians student who got accepted to her (T-14) dream school.
When are applications opening this fall?
This is for everyone who didn’t get the LSAT score they wanted, or who were not admitted into their dream school—basically, most people.
We've been asked for examples of diversity statements many times; here are several great ones.
We've reached out to a number of friends at law schools and firms and companies to see what things applicants did that made them grouchy.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses some of the psychological and societal reasons that rankings seem to matter so much to people—then explains the reasons that they shouldn't matter as much as they do.
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, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with PowerScore Founder & CEO Dave Killoran about the removal of the Logic Games section of the LSAT, the new writing section, and what all this might mean for the future of the law school admissions.
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, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with Paula Gluzman—a Spivey consultant and former law school admissions officer at UCLA and UW—as well as two of her past clients who successfully transferred law schools: Katie, who transferred from a regional law school in Texas to Columbia Law School, and Melissa, who transferred from a regional school on the west coast to Harvard Law School.
The conversation covers a wide range of topics related to transfer admissions, including personal statements, letters of recommendation, 1L activities, application timing, the relevance of undergraduate GPA and LSAT in transfer admissions, and more.
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, 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.
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.