Admissions

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Blog Posts

August 21, 2020
Inside Scoop on the New LSAC Digital Forums

What to expect and important information.

August 20, 2020
Top 50 Law School Application Opening Dates for the 2020-2021 Cycle

Please note, these are the dates that the applications become available on LSAC for applicants to peruse and begin to prepare school-specific essays, not when they can be submitted (though for many schools this is the same date). Organized by School: * Yale: September 1 * Stanford: September 15 * Harvard: September 15 * University of Chicago: September 1 * Columbia: September 1 * NYU: September 1 * UPenn: September 1 * UVA: September 1 * UC Berkeley: September 1 * U Michigan: August 1

August 4, 2020
Guide to Completing LSAC Applications

So you’ve worked hard to prepare your materials, and it's time to submit! What's next?

July 7, 2020
Predicting the 2020/2021 Law School Admissions Cycle

The 2020-2021 admissions cycle is going to be the most challenging yet to predict, and most will understand a large part of that uncertainty.

June 22, 2020
LSAC Forums & Recruiting Events in the Time of COVID-19

Because of COVID-19, LSAC and law schools are creating virtual options for recruiting events.

May 7, 2020
Predicting the COVID-19 Summer Of Law School Waitlist Movement

Early in my admissions career, a former boss of mine would often use the following Niels Bohr quote when speaking of law school admissions: “prediction is difficult, especially when it involves the future.”

April 8, 2020
Law School/Law School Admissions COVID-19 Update, April 8, 2020

Please keep in mind that because so much is fluid right now, no one can say for certain where things will be in a few months.

March 28, 2020
When will larger numbers of law school admissions decisions come?

This will be a short but I hope important blog to consider. It's been a notoriously slow admission cycle, and it possibly would have stayed at an equally slow pace until COVID-19 changed things in many dramatic ways.

March 25, 2020

Podcasts

March 4, 2024
Why Rankings Matter to People (& Why They Should Not)

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses some of the psychological and societal reasons that rankings seem to matter so much to people—then explains the reasons that they shouldn't matter as much as they do.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

April 3, 2024
The New LSAT & The Elimination of Logic Games, with PowerScore's Dave Killoran

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with PowerScore Founder & CEO Dave Killoran about the removal of the Logic Games section of the LSAT, the new writing section, and what all this might mean for the future of the law school admissions.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

April 15, 2024
Transferring Law Schools: Strategy & Process with Two Successful Applicants

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with Paula Gluzman—a Spivey consultant and former law school admissions officer at UCLA and UW—as well as two of her past clients who successfully transferred law schools: Katie, who transferred from a regional law school in Texas to Columbia Law School, and Melissa, who transferred from a regional school on the west coast to Harvard Law School.

The conversation covers a wide range of topics related to transfer admissions, including personal statements, letters of recommendation, 1L activities, application timing, the relevance of undergraduate GPA and LSAT in transfer admissions, and more.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

April 29, 2024
Work Experience, Admissions Strategy, & Legal Employment: What You Need to Know

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco speaks with Pre-L consultants Rob Cacace and Jordana Confino (bios here) about the growing importance of work experience in admissions, why the impact of being a "KJD" (going "from Kindergarten through law school" without full-time work experience) has increased over time, and—importantly—how work experience (or a lack thereof) plays out during law school and in the search for legal employment.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

April 24, 2024
What Are Your Chances Off the Waitlist?

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

July 8, 2024
Law School Personal Statements: Deep Dive with Former Admissions Officers

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.