Admissions

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Blog Posts

August 22, 2022
Greek Life & Law School Admissions: Should You Include Your Sorority/Fraternity in Your Application?

We often hear from applicants who feel they should scrub their resumes and other materials of any mention of their involvement in fraternities or sororities. While some applicants in online forums seem to support this prohibition, the best approach for you individually might be more nuanced.

June 28, 2022
How to Get the Most Out of Visiting Law Schools

Like the undergraduate process, visiting law schools and interacting with their communities can be an important part of selecting the right fit school for you.

June 20, 2022
Early Thoughts on the 2022-2023 Application Cycle + 2021-2022 Recap

It's certainly too early to make predictions with any sort of certainty, but given that we now have final June LSAT numbers, and registration for the August LSAT is now closed, we now have some early indicators of what we might expect to see in the 2022-2023 law school admissions cycle.

May 17, 2022
Video: How to Choose a Law School Personal Statement Topic

Apart from your LSAT score and your undergraduate GPA, the personal statement is often the most important component of your law school application. Step one is choosing your topic—but how do you determine what the best topic is for you?

May 13, 2022
What Should You Do During Your Undergrad Summers if You Want to Go to Law School?

Often college students will approach us to ask what they should be doing with their summers if they’re interested in attending law school. If you’re currently in college and want to know how to make the best use of your summers in preparation for attending law school, think about the following.

May 5, 2022
ABA Strategic Review Committee Recommends Elimination of Standardized Test Requirement

Yesterday, the ABA publicly released an April 25 memo recommending the elimination of the standardized test requirement for admission to law school.

March 22, 2022
Five Things to Consider Before Transferring Law Schools

If you are seriously considering transferring, or are a pre-1L and disappointed with your admission results and think you might transfer after your 1L year, then take a few minutes to review this. I hope it will help you decide what to do!

March 3, 2022
Should you reapply to law school?

Reapplying isn’t right for everyone. Here are some observations about successful reapplicants that may help you decide if it’s the right path for you.

January 28, 2022
We get rejected, too.

As we head into the thick of decision season, law school admissions offices are beginning to send out the inevitable rejection waves. Rejection hurts, but it is also a fundamental human experience, and we all feel its effects sometimes.

Podcasts

February 22, 2020
How Mike Spivey Would Apply to Law School

This is a very encompassing podcast that features the A to Z of the law school admissions process, starting with "Why am I applying" and finishing with scholarship negotiation and the three things that applicants are doing who are punching above their numbers this competitive cycle—with most everything in between covered.

Three other blogs/podcasts are mentioned during this podcast:

  • This is the brief motivational blog Mike wrote that caught that eye of deans of admissions in respect to writing about what matters to YOU, which is what often stands out to others.
  • This is the podcast on being extroverted when visiting law schools.
  • Finally, the applicant who was admitted to Vanderbilt for standing out despite being 15-17 points below the median LSAT is mentioned here.

Also discussed: My Rank, Law School Transparency, and the Above the Law Rankings.

You can listen to this podcast through the YouTube video below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

March 12, 2020
April 2, 2020
How Will Law School Transfer Admissions Be Impacted by COVID-19?

In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses how COVID-19 and new grading systems will affect law school transfer admissions. Listen below through YouTube, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

Also, a quick note — for a look into Mike's daily schedule (which we've been asked about many times) and some advice on staying sane while quarantined, see this recent blog.

March 18, 2020
Update on COVID-19 / Coronavirus & Law School Admissions

Just a quick update from Mike Spivey on how the continuously developing situation with COVID-19 / coronavirus is impacting — and will continue to impact — law school admissions. Watch here or listen on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

September 11, 2020
On the Prevalence of Bad Law School Admissions Advice

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group's Anna Hicks and Mike Spivey discuss bad advice in law school admissions — who gives it, how to identify it, and how to determine which advice is worthwhile. Plus, some bonus [good] advice on LinkedIn at the end!

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

Here's the podcast on when admissions officers do take note of a specific applicant's behavior online and the consequences it can have.

And here's the Family Guy parody video mentioned in the podcast regarding subjectivity in admissions.

Please note that we are currently at capacity and are not taking new clients for this cycle at this time (we are still working through our current waitlist in date order). However, we will soon be opening our reservation list for next cycle! You can monitor our blog and Twitter for updates on our future availability for this cycle and for the reservation list announcement.

You may not know that I, and several of my Spivey Consulting business partners, were meant to be at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. You can read the story and my thoughts nine years later in a blog post I just published to my motivational blog here. –Mike

June 5, 2020
Harvard Law Goes Fully Remote for Fall 2020. Will Other Law Schools Follow Suit and What It Means for Applicants

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group founder Mike Spivey discusses Harvard Law School's recent announcement that all classes will be held fully remotely for Fall 2020 — what does it mean for other law schools, for international students, the ABA, and current applicants? Will this cause more waitlist movement? What about deferrals? Plus, a bit of a look into what the 2020-2021 cycle might bring.

Listen below, or via SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.