Admissions

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Blog Posts

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.

January 10, 2022
When Is It Appropriate to Start Scholarship Negotiations?

Since you are all going to be lawyers soon, let me start by saying something you’ll be saying for the rest of your lives: it depends. But, that isn’t very helpful...

January 8, 2022
How to Cold Email: A Template

We wanted to provide a template for how to cold email someone, especially when there is an "ask" involved. You don't see many of these online, so here is one exchange below.

January 8, 2022
Uncertainty in Admissions

Anxiety has no evolutionary benefit, but fear does. Every animal we know of not only has fear, but has a fight, flight, or freeze response to it.

December 27, 2021
What's the difference between a law school “waitlist” vs. “hold” vs. “hold tight email”?

Most applicants understand the basics of what it means to be waitlisted, but in this blog, we wanted to give a quick look at why and how law schools use their waitlists from an insider perspective, then outline the differences between a waitlist and a "hold" or a "hold tight email."

Podcasts

February 16, 2021
Dr. Guy Winch on Handling Rejection (& Waiting) in the Admissions and Job Search Process

Dr. Guy Winch is one of the world's leading psychologists and speakers. He has delivered three TED Talks with over 25 million views combined, all three of which can be seen here. He has published three books and along with best-selling author Lori Gottlieb co-hosts a relatively new but already incredibly popular podcast Dear Therapists.

In this 40-minute podcast, we speak about rejection at the macro level — "Do we aggregate rejection, and why does it sting so bad?" — and then in the admissions and first job search process specifically. Dr. Winch speaks toward research and numerous helpful interventions in both the perceived feelings of rejection and the problem issues involved in waiting on decisions.

Perhaps most notably, Dr. Winch tells a story about the first time he applied to graduate school, when he applied to 10 different programs, was denied by 9, and was "ghosted" (he literally never heard from them) by the 10th. Which makes his conversation with us not just incredibly helpful, but also relatable. We've all been rejected at something, many things — including those at the very pinnacle of their professional careers.

We mention in this podcast an episode of Dr. Peter Attia's The Drive in which Dr. Winch is interviewed — you can listen to that episode here.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

March 2, 2021
Current Cycle Update, Waitlist Considerations, and Next Cycle Predictions with Dave Killoran

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group's Mike Spivey and PowerScore founder Dave Killoran discuss the state of the current 2020-2021 law school admissions cycle, things to consider for applicants who may be on waitlists, and predictions about next cycle (2021-2022).

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

March 25, 2021
Preliminary Waitlist Movement Perspectives

In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses perspectives and considerations as we head into the 2021 law school waitlist season.

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

March 17, 2021
Interview with a Biglaw Partner (Jeff Chapman, Gibson Dunn Co-Chair of Global M&A)

In this podcast, Mike interviews Jeff Chapman: Partner, Co-Chair of Global Mergers and Acquisitions, and Executive Committee Member at Gibson Dunn. Mike and Jeff met when Mike was a law school Dean of Career Services, and they became good friends — in this interview, Jeff shares his story, some thoughts and advice about law school, and a bit of biglaw hiring advice.

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

March 31, 2021
Upcoming Podcast: Interview with Dr. Gabor Maté

We are thrilled to announce that we will be interviewing Dr. Gabor Maté — renowned physician, speaker, and author of four best-selling books including the critically-acclaimed In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts — for a podcast episode to be released on May 15. We will be discussing with Dr. Maté the roots of anxiety and addiction, particularly in relation to law school and the legal field. One in 5 attorneys struggle with alcohol abuse, 1 in 5 show symptoms of clinic anxiety, and 1 in 4 suffer from depression (source) — mental illness and addiction are very real and present problems in the legal field, and we look forward to sharing Dr. Maté's insights with you.

You can subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or YouTube for access to all of our past and upcoming episodes. We post advice, analysis, and predictions about law school admissions, plus we interview notable people about admissions, legal education, and the legal field. Our last two podcast interviews featured Gibson Dunn Partner/M&A Chair Jeff Chapman and acclaimed psychologist/TED Talk speaker Guy Winch, and we are excited for upcoming interviews with a law school dean, the preeminent researcher on self-compassion, a current admissions dean from a top 3 law school, and many more.