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Is law school admissions the most numbers-oriented of the professional graduate schools?
Dates & advice for law school forums and fairs.
From September through late November, most admissions officers are on the road. They crisscross the nation visiting colleges and universities (which is a pretty wonderful way to get paid). The nearly only downside is that this travel gets repetitious — not just in staying in hotel beds every night, but in hearing the same thing at every school. But it is because I lived through this repetition that I can dispel just about every bad piece of admissions advice you have heard from a fellow student.
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
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.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, SCG Pre-L Consultant and Fordham Law professor Jordana Confino has a conversation with legal writing coach and Dear 1L author Amanda Haverstick about legal writing and tackling your 1L year.
You can learn more about Dear 1L here, connect with Amanda via LinkedIn here, or email her directly at amanda@dear1L.com.
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 speaks with two Spivey consultants—Karen Buttenbaum, former Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, and Nathan Neely, former Associate Director of Admissions and Director of Global and Graduate Programs at the University of Houston Law Center—about the law school application resume: what to include and what not to include, differences from professional resumes, common mistakes, best practices, and more. You can read Karen and Nathan's full bios here.
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. Next up: diversity statements (the new versions—also known as E/P essays).
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
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.
