Admissions

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Blog Posts

May 14, 2015
Karen Buttenbaum Interviewed by USNWR on the “gap year”

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

March 21, 2015
Admissions Question of The Day (Comes to us from an AdComm)

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?

March 8, 2015
Predicting the 2015/2016 Law School Admissions Cycle

What will the 2015-2016 law school admissions cycle look like?

February 21, 2015
How do students select which law school to ultimately attend?

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:

February 13, 2015
20 Things Applicants Do That Annoy Admissions Deans and Hiring Partners

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

January 10, 2015
Applicant Question: “When a law school Defers/WL's someone well below the medians but has great softs, is this a polite way to reject them?”

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

January 9, 2015
Applicant questions answered, "will high LSAT scores be MORE or LESS valuable this cycle"

“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

November 21, 2014
Timeline and Tips for the Best Possible Law School Application

A guide to the timing of applying to law school, from undergrad on.

August 6, 2014
Debunking The 1-Page Law School Resume Myth

Let’s put an end to a false piece of advice that we recently saw on the internet.

Podcasts

October 9, 2020
Overview of LLM Admissions

This podcast is hosted by Dr. Peter Cramer, our LLM & International Admissions Consultant. Dr. Cramer has been working in legal education for over 25 years. He started his law school career at Indiana University Maurer School of Law and later went to Georgetown University Law Center where he served as the Associate Director of the Center for Global Legal English. For nine years prior to joining Spivey Consulting Group, Dr. Cramer worked as the Assistant Dean for Graduate and International Students at Washington University School of Law, where he focused primarily on admissions, course counseling, and instruction.

In this podcast, Dr. Cramer gives an overview of the elements of a successful LLM application, as well as common pitfalls to avoid. You can listen via the YouTube video below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

November 13, 2020
Law School Admissions/LSAT Q&A with Mike Spivey and PowerScore’s Dave Killoran

In this podcast, Mike Spivey and PowerScore founder Dave Killoran ask each other questions about law school admissions (Mike's wheelhouse) and the LSAT (Dave's specialty).

You can listen to this podcast through the video below, or through SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts. You can also check out PowerScore's options for LSAT prep here.

Please note that our reservation list for next cycle (2021-2022) is now open.

November 23, 2020
Introduction to Law School Admissions for Under-Represented Minority (URM) Applicants

Today's podcast is from our consultant Sir Williams, former Director of Admissions at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he led the successful implementation of UW’s first pre-law diversity pipeline summer program. In this podcast, Sir gives a broad introduction to law school admissions for under-represented minority (URM) applicants — what "counts" as URM for admissions, why it matters, and some special considerations URM applicants might want to flag.

A few links mentioned in the podcast:

You can listen below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

Please note that our reservation list for next cycle (2021-2022) is now open.

December 22, 2020
Holiday Law School Admissions AMA with Mike Spivey

In this podcast, Mike Spivey takes questions from Reddit!

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

Happy holidays from all of us at Spivey Consulting Group!

  • 0:00 – Introduction
  • 1:30 – Character & Fitness
  • 4:43 – Scholarship vs. debt load in choosing a law school
  • 8:08 – What to do if you make a mistake/typo in your law school application
  • 12:37 – How much will LSAT medians move this cycle
  • 14:09 – uGPA's importance this cycle
  • 16:02 – How will splitters do this cycle
  • 16:33 – Competitiveness of particular schools/bands
  • 18:02 – In-person vs. remote law school next year and effects on deferrals/WL movement this summer
  • 18:55 – How high LSAT-Flex scores will be seen in future cycles
  • 20:00 – Non-traditional applicants this cycle
  • 21:12 – Part-time programs this cycle
  • 21:45 – What is Georgetown up to?
December 8, 2020
Staying Calm in the Law School Admissions Process

In this newest episode of our podcast, Mike Spivey talks about how to stay calm in the law school admissions process.

You can listen below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

  • 0:24 — outline
  • 1:42 — good news for this cycle
  • 4:43 — biological reasons for stress and how to manage it
  • 11:07 — long-term optimism
December 15, 2020
Law School “Yield Protection”: What It Is & Steps to Take to Prevent It

In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses the phenomenon in law school admissions known as "yield protection," and explains steps you can take to prevent being waitlisted as a result of it.

You can listen to this podcast below, or via SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

As promised in the podcast, here are some resources for how to choose which law school to attend: