Data

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Blog Posts

April 14, 2020
Mean Salaries Of First Year Law School Graduates

For the first time ever, the Department of Education has released these figures.

April 1, 2020
LSAT score restoration (“zombie scores”) numbers

This is a first ever, and we are grateful to LSAC for sharing this data with us.

March 1, 2020
Cycle Data as of March 1st

Hi everyone, we're back with another data update. February is over, and it's been an interesting month for applicant and application volume. At this point last cycle, we had about 75% of our final applicant volume.

January 30, 2020
Cycle Data as of January 29th

Going forward we'll resume posting these after the 1st of each new month, but we'll be a bit too busy watching the Super Bowl to write this up on Sunday, so you get it now!

January 10, 2020
Brief LSAT Volume Update

LSAC has published the final counts for the November 2019 LSAT.

January 2, 2020
2019-2020 Cycle Volume as of January 1st

Happy New Year everyone! This marks the start of the "2020" part in the "2019-2020" application cycle.

December 28, 2019
Analyzing and Understanding Conditional Scholarships

One of the most important factors when deciding where to attend law school is your scholarship. What does it mean if that scholarship is conditional?

December 19, 2019
Mid-December Data Update

November 2019 LSAT scores are being released today. Congratulations to all those who took that test!

December 13, 2019
An in-depth analysis of the 2019 law school admissions & entering class data

The ABA has released the 2019 509 reports, so it's time for us to dive in and see what kind of information and trends can be gleaned from the data.

Podcasts

September 11, 2020
On the Prevalence of Bad Law School Admissions Advice

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group's Anna Hicks and Mike Spivey discuss bad advice in law school admissions — who gives it, how to identify it, and how to determine which advice is worthwhile. Plus, some bonus [good] advice on LinkedIn at the end!

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

Here's the podcast on when admissions officers do take note of a specific applicant's behavior online and the consequences it can have.

And here's the Family Guy parody video mentioned in the podcast regarding subjectivity in admissions.

Please note that we are currently at capacity and are not taking new clients for this cycle at this time (we are still working through our current waitlist in date order). However, we will soon be opening our reservation list for next cycle! You can monitor our blog and Twitter for updates on our future availability for this cycle and for the reservation list announcement.

You may not know that I, and several of my Spivey Consulting business partners, were meant to be at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. You can read the story and my thoughts nine years later in a blog post I just published to my motivational blog here. –Mike

June 5, 2020
Harvard Law Goes Fully Remote for Fall 2020. Will Other Law Schools Follow Suit and What It Means for Applicants

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group founder Mike Spivey discusses Harvard Law School's recent announcement that all classes will be held fully remotely for Fall 2020 — what does it mean for other law schools, for international students, the ABA, and current applicants? Will this cause more waitlist movement? What about deferrals? Plus, a bit of a look into what the 2020-2021 cycle might bring.

Listen below, or via SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

August 9, 2020
How to Tell If You're Overdoing It in Law School Admissions

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group founder Mike Spivey discusses one of the most common mistakes in law school admissions that we see from applicants who have underperformed their numbers — overdoing it in the admissions process — then details the most common types of applicants this happens to: the "over-explainer," the "over-spammer," the "over-[publicly] talker," the "permutator," and the "boundary pusher."

You can find the blog post Mike mentions in the podcast, "Spooky Halloween Blog: Real Stories of Things That Creep Out Admissions Offices" (examples of the most extreme "boundary pushers"), here.

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

And for our free tool for comparing law schools/medians/data, check out My Rank.

June 11, 2020
Recession Job Search Tips You Won’t Hear from Career Services

Mike Spivey served as a law school dean of career services during the Great Recession, and in this podcast he shares actionable advice for legal networking that you won't hear from your CSO.

Listen below via YouTube, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

June 18, 2020
Academics, Athletics, and COVID-19

Mike was asked by a rivals.com affiliate to speak about higher education as it relates to the upcoming fall athletic season. Listen to the interview below:

Spivey Consulting Group · VandySports Podcast Academics, athletics and COVID-19

November 26, 2020
What to Do When You Get Your First Waitlist

Chances are, if you're applying to a healthy range of target, safety, and reach schools, you're likely to get a waitlist or two (at least!). Especially if it happens relatively early in the cycle, or if it's your first decision, a waitlist can be difficult to interpret and hard to know how to respond. In this podcast, Mike Spivey talks about what to do when you get your first waitlist.

Our podcast is embedded below, but here are also links to podcasts/videos mentioned in this podcast:

And a bonus link: Blog — Every piece of Spivey Consulting Law School Waitlist Advice

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

Please note that our reservation list for next cycle (2021-2022) is now open.