Data

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Blog Posts

December 11, 2013
How down are applications? Consider this data...

As of 12/06/13 only 25 schools show an increase in applications, while 170 show a decline (5 show no change) Here is the breakdown: Increase of 100% or more: - Increase of 50% to 99%: 3 Increase of 40% to 49%: 1 Increase of 30% to 39%: 3 Increase of 20% to 29%: 2 Increase of 10% to 19%: 3 Increase of 1% to 9%: 13 No change: 5 Decrease of 1% to 9%: 23 Decrease of 10% to 19%: 52 Decrease of 20% to 29%: 48 Decrease of 30% or greater: 47

November 20, 2013
October LSAT Data by Region

A small glimmer of Oct LSAT Data is out *10/13 change from 10/12 LSAT by region. *** Far West 4,270 -12.8% Great Lakes 3,780 -16.0% Midsouth 4,100 -13.2% Midwest 1,090 -7.6% Mountain West 1,400 -13.1% New England 1,680 -10.9% Northeast 5,000 -9.4% Northwest 700 -4.9% South Central 2,970 -9.5% Southeast 4,050 -12.7% U.S. Regional Total 29,030 -11.9% Canada 3,280 -7.2% **

August 28, 2013
July 18, 2013
Percent change by LSAT bandwidth 2009/2010 to 2012/13*

Percent change (all decreases) by LSAT bandwidth from the 2009/2010 law school admissions cycle to 2012/13 law school admissions cycle. This data reflects applicant totals, not total volume (i.e. people who take LSAT but never apply) Highest LSATNumber of ApplicantsPct Chg YTD< 140-20%140–144-24%145–149-30% 150–154-36%155–159-35%160–164-44%165–169-35%170–174-44%175–180-47%The 2012/13 Data is as of 6/28/2013 and a final report has not been released by LSAC.** The final report should not reflec

July 16, 2013
Law School 2012/13 Applicant Data

ABA 2013 applicants and applications through 06/28/13 with the percent change from last year (last year at this time data was 98% complete: Currently there is one school with an application volume increase of 40% or more and 38 schools show a volume decrease of 30% or more. Twelve schools show an increase in applications, while 188 show a decline: Increase of 100% or more: 1 Increase of 50% to 99%: - Increase of 40% to 49%: - Increase of 30% to 39%: - Increase of 20% to 29%: - Increase of 10%

May 31, 2013
LSAC Data as of 5/31

Currently there is one school with an application volume increase of 40% or more, while 41 schools show a volume decrease of 30% or more. Twelve schools show an increase in applications, while 187 show a decline and 0 shows no change. Highest LSATPct Chg YTD< 140-7.5%140–144-12.7%145–149-11.8%150–154-13.2%155–159 -17.4%160–164-15.8%165–169-16.1%170–174-25.2%175–180-21.8%Get future releases first @https://twitter.com/SpiveyConsult

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.

April 13, 2021
Advice & Tips for Law School Scholarship Negotiation

In this podcast, Mike Spivey explains how the scholarship negotiation process works from the law school's perspective and gives some advice and tips for how to strategically approach increasing your merit aid offers.

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

You may also notice our new name and new look — thanks to u/lightningmcboops from r/lawschooladmissions for the name suggestion, and thank you all for listening to the first official episode of the Status Check with Spivey!

May 16, 2021
Interview with Dr. Gabor Maté, Author of “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts”

In this podcast, Mike Spivey speaks with Dr. Gabor Maté, one of the world’s leading experts on physical and mental health and author of four best-selling books including "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts" and "When the Body Says No." Dr. Maté shares his thoughts and advice on self-doubt, stress, anxiety, and addiction, and offers the following insight for prospective law students (among others):

"You're going to look at all your confident classmates, and you're going to go in there with all manner of self-doubt. You're making the big mistake of comparing their outside with your inside. You have no idea what their inside is like. And believe me, you're not the only one."

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

April 28, 2021
Cycle Recap, No Rejections in the Hardest Admissions Cycle Ever

In this episode of the Status Check podcast, Mike interviews Reddit user lightningmcboops (who for the purposes of this podcast we're calling "Megan") from the law school admissions subreddit. Megan applied with a 3.9x GPA and a 172 LSAT and received zero rejections despite applying in the most difficult law school admissions cycle we've ever seen, including straight admits from the majority of the T14, including Stanford. Mike and Megan walk through her application process and each of her application components, then discuss some takeaways and advice for future applicants.

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

June 8, 2021
Interview with Dr. Kristin Neff on How Self-Compassion Can Help You Achieve Your Goals

In this podcast, Mike Spivey has the opportunity to interview Dr. Kristin Neff, a leading researcher and advocate in the field of self-compassion, creator of the self-compassion scales, and author of two books, "Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself," and her upcoming book, "Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive," which will be released on June 15, 2021.

Mike and Dr. Neff discuss the power of self-compassion for motivation and achievement, and the research showing that, in a testing scenario, a boost to self-compassion proves a stronger motivator than a boost to self-esteem (and a far stronger motivator than self-criticism).

"There's so much pressure to achieve, to prove yourself," Dr. Neff says. "And I think people fall into the illusion of thinking, 'I need to be hard on myself, I need to drive myself so that I can get ahead in life,' where in fact, what the research shows is you're more likely to get ahead if you support yourself."

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