Advice

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Blog Posts

September 22, 2025
Basics of Law School Financial Aid

Financial aid is a necessary aspect of law school enrollment and one that benefits you most if you consider it early on in the process—not just at the end.

February 13, 2025
Start with the End in Mind: Preparing for 1L Exams from Day One

So much of your success in 1L is tethered to your performance on the final exam. It makes good sense to focus on those exams as early as possible. Here are our best tips.

January 31, 2025
10 Deceptively Tricky Law School Application Questions & How to Answer Them

There are some seemingly simple questions on law school applications that still have a tendency to confuse applicants. As former admissions officers, we hope to help you understand and feel confident answering them.

July 29, 2024
How to Create Your Law School List

In this post, we hope to help you think through the mountain of information and choices out there so that you can set yourself up for a successful application cycle.

July 16, 2024
All Things [Admissions] Considered

There are thousands of ways to differentiate yourself in law school admissions—here's a list of some of those ways.

March 21, 2024
Law School “Gap Years,” Work Experience, & Admissions Strategy

For several years now, the focus of law school admissions offices has been trending more and more toward employability. What does this mean for law school admissions strategy?

February 8, 2024
The Only 3 Things That Matter on the Waitlist

Being admitted off the waitlist is actually pretty simple—okay, not easy, but simple. There are really only three factors that law schools consider.

August 21, 2023
Three Tips for Brand New 1Ls (+ 1L Success Coaching)

Congrats to those of you launching your law school careers this month! As you navigate orientation and the heady first few days of classes, we thought it’d be a good time to share some advice—and an opportunity—from our Pre-L/1L Success team.

May 30, 2023
How to Assess Law Schools’ Student Affairs (or, “But How Will I Like It Once I'm There?”)

For many, now is the time for the hard part: deciding which law school is right for you. In this post, we discuss one aspect of the complex law school enrollment equation as you dig into the qualities of a law school that make it your best fit—Student Affairs.

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.

June 12, 2024
Dear 1L with Amanda Haverstick

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

July 22, 2024
Law School Application Resumes: Deep Dive with Former Admissions Officers

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.