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For the record we (and many law admissions officers we know) don’t necessarily agree with the terminology “gap” — which originated to describe the space between a year off before going to undergraduate. But semantics be damned, here [http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/articles/2015/05/14/smart-ways-to-make-the-most-of-gap-years-before-law-school] is the article. - Getting ready t
Dear Spivey: Do you think there are many schools that admit (a) nobody with both a below-their-median LSAT and a below-their-median UGPA, or (b) no both-below folks other than diverse students?
What will the 2015-2016 law school admissions cycle look like?
We measured 28 dimensions and received over 3,000 votes. The following is a rank order of what matters most in selecting which law school one ultimately attends:
We reached out to a number of friends at law schools and at firms and companies to see what things applicants did that made them grouchy (pro tip — it isn’t in your best interest to make them grouchy!) This is what we got, not surprisingly a good deal related to emails. - 1. When they launch into a sales presentation about themselves the moment we meet -* CEO of Company* 2. Sending emails without subjects
Highly likely it’s not. Unless the applicant is some form of “special interest,” meaning that they have people who are donors interested in their admission, connections to the law school itself, etc. you really wouldn’t defer someone just to intentionally deny them later. That isn’t doing either you or them any favors. Rather, you defer them to see how your numbers look throughout the entirety of the cycle. At some point almost every school, including T3, will say “our medians look like x and z
“Mike and Karen, as the number of takers continues to drop, won’t it become MORE acceptable to drop a median point in favor of maintaining GPA? Won’t this make high scores LESS valuable? For example, if Harvard or Yale’s median is going to drop to 172, doesn’t a 173 become LESS valuable, not more? If the median drops a point, suddenly, the pool of at/above median expands, right? So, in theory, I should be rooting for medians to stay the same?” This is something we spend a good deal of time loo
A guide to the timing of applying to law school, from undergrad on.
Let’s put an end to a false piece of advice that we recently saw on the internet.
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 is joined by Karen Buttenbaum, one of Spivey's most experienced consultants and a former Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, to talk about law school admissions interviews. They discuss a strategy for thinking about and preparing for interviews by categorizing the potential questions you could receive into five groups (plus a bonus sixth category at the end!).
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, 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 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:
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
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:
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
