Data

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Blog Posts

May 1, 2018
2017/2018 Cycle Data as of 5/1/18

Key figures: applicants are up 8.4% and applications are up 9.0% as compared to this time last year. See below for more detailed data.

March 28, 2018
New 2017-2018 Cycle Data as of 3/27/2018

As of 3/27/2018, there are 341,337 applications submitted by 50,908 applicants for the 2017–2018 cycle. Applicants are up 8.6% and applications are up 9.0% as compared to 2016-2017 cycle data from 3/28/2017. Highest LSAT# Applicants% Change YTD< 1402,958-1.7%140-1444,304-1.5%145-1497,492 3.4%150-1549,6385.3%155-1599,3796.0%160-1647,77615.3%165-1694,92728.0%170-174 2,31215.7%175-18067368.7%Highest LSAT# Applicants% Change YTD< 1402,958-1.7%140 674-5.2%1417747.9%142900-3.7%143844-2.9%1441,112-2.4

March 7, 2018
New 2017-2018 Cycle Data as of 3/6/18

As of 3/6/18, there are 306,549 applications submitted by 46,124 applicants for the 2017–2018 cycle. Applicants are up 7.4% and applications are up 7.0% as compared to 2016-2017 cycle data from 3/7/17.

January 25, 2018
Applicant & Application numbers throughout the cycle comparison: 2015-2018

Data on law school applicant and application volume between 2015 and 2018.

January 22, 2018
2017/2018 Cycle Data as of Jan. 12, 2018

Key figures: applicants are up 10.8% and applications are up 12.3% as compared to this time last year. See below for more detailed data.

January 8, 2018
2017/2018 Cycle Data as of 12/29/17

Applicants to ABA approved law schools are up 14.4% year-to-date, with a total of 22,200 applicants vs. last year's 19,400 by 12/29/17. Applications are up 17.1% year-to-date, with a total of 137,000 applications vs. last year's 117,000. The rest of the data we have is below: % Change in applications# SchoolsIncrease of 100% or more1Increase of 50% to 99% 9Increase of 40% to 49%9Increase of 30% to 39%17Increase of 20% to 29%39Increase of 10% to 19%58Increase of 1% to 9%36No change1Decrease of

January 2, 2018
Just What Can We Learn From LawSchoolNumbers.com?

This is a great guest blog post from Warren Buff, who took it upon himself to crunch the numbers and look at the data behind Law School Numbers.

December 7, 2017
How Competitive?

A look at this law school admissions cycle's competitiveness.

November 24, 2017
2017/2018 Cycle Data as of 11/24/2017 + LSAT Administrations and Law School Forum Attendance

As of 11/24/17 (data released now but the volumes are from that date), there are 81,877 applications submitted by 15,083 applicants for the 2017–2018 cycle. Applicants are up 14.2% and applications are up 17.1% from 2016–2017. Last year at this time, we had 24% of the preliminary final applicant count. LSAT Administrations LSAT Administration# Test Takers% ChangeJune 201727,606+19.8%September 2017 37,146+10.7%December 2017*45,632+26.4%*December # indicates LSAT registrants as of 12/1.______ **

Podcasts

August 12, 2024
How PARENTS Can Best Support Law School Applicants

In this special episode of Status Check with Spivey directed toward parents of law school applicants, Anna Hicks-Jaco and two Spivey consultants—Danielle Early, former Harvard Law Associate Director of Admissions, and Shannon Davis, former Assistant Dean for Admissions and Communications at Lewis & Clark Law—discuss how parents can best support their children through the application process. They walk through differences between the law school and the college admissions processes, how much parental involvement law school admissions offices expect, common mistakes parents can make that may end up hindering rather than helping, and some of the ways that parents can be most helpful and supportive to their applicants.

You can read Shannon and Danielle's full bios here.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

July 29, 2024
Addiction & Recovery in College with Author Mitch Leff

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike has a conversation with Mitch Leff, author of My Addiction, My Superpower, about his experiences overcoming addiction at a young age, the lessons he learned, and how others can use his insights to improve themselves. As attorneys suffer significantly higher rates of substance abuse and depression relative to the wider public, Mitch's insights are highly relevant to anyone who is a part of (or considering joining) the legal profession.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

March 3, 2025
Five Categories of Law School Admissions Interview Questions & How to Answer Them

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco is joined by Karen Buttenbaum, one of Spivey's most experienced consultants and a former Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, to talk about law school admissions interviews. They discuss a strategy for thinking about and preparing for interviews by categorizing the potential questions you could receive into five groups (plus a bonus sixth category at the end!).

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠. You can read a full transcript of this episode below.

August 26, 2024
Experience/Perspective Essays (Diversity Statements): Deep Dive with Former Law School Admissions Officers

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco speaks with three Spivey consultants—Tom Robinson, former Harvard Law Director of Admissions; Sir Williams, former Wisconsin Law Director of Admissions; and Anne Dutia, former Michigan Law Assistant Director of Admissions—about the relatively new category of law school admissions essays that we're calling "experience/perspective essays" or "E/P essays," many of which are variations on the essays previously known as "diversity statements." They walk through the specifics of what these essays can look like (going through several example prompts), how to approach those different prompts, common mistakes applicants make with these statements, traits of outstanding E/P essays, and more.

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 and our episode on resumes here.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

September 9, 2024
The Differences Between College & Law School, with “How I Lawyer” Host Jonah Perlin

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike interviews How I Lawyer podcast host Jonah Perlin on some of the many differences between college and law school, from cold calls to being graded on a curve to the nature of attending a professional school and more.

Links to other resources:

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

September 23, 2024
Making Your Law School List: Advice & Resources for Deciding Where to Apply

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Spivey Consulting President Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with three Spivey Consultants and former law school admissions officers—Sam Kwak (Stanford Law, Northwestern Law, Indiana University Law), Paula Gluzman (UCLA Law, UW Law), and Joe Pollak (Michigan Law)—a group that has collectively spent over 20 years advising law school applicants one-on-one as consultants. In that time, they have assisted hundreds of law school applicants in creating strategic school lists, the topic of today's episode.

How do you estimate your chances of admission to determine reach, target, and "safety" schools? How many schools should you apply to? How many schools do most applicants apply to (and how is the oft-cited average number of applications per applicant somewhat misleading here)? Where can you find the best and most up-to-date information about law schools when doing your research? We cover all of the above and more.

This episode is a companion to our recent blog post on this topic, How to Create Your Law School List. Here are a few other resources we mentioned in this episode:

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.