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Blog Posts

April 12, 2023
U.S. News Significantly Reduces the Weight of LSAT/GRE & GPA. What's Next?

A few months ago, many law schools announced they would boycott sending U.S. News direct (and non-third party audited) data, essentially forcing U.S. News to change their methodology. The rates of the admissions metrics were significantly reduced. What does this mean?

April 11, 2023
2023-2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings T14

U.S. News has yet to publicly release the full 2023-2024 law school rankings, but today they released the Top 14 with their new methodology.

March 2, 2023
Some Commentary on the U.S. News Op-Ed

U.S. News & World Report is not sitting idle while its rankings come under fire. The CEO published an article in the Wall Street Journal offering his views on the rankings boycott. We have some thoughts.

January 2, 2023
Official U.S. News Statement on Law School Rankings Methodology Changes, Following Rankings Exodus

U.S. News & World Report has sent the following letter to law schools regarding methodology changes for the upcoming 2023-2024 rankings. This comes in the wake of 20+ law schools announcing they will no longer submit their data for rankings purposes.

November 19, 2022
List of Law Schools Withdrawing from U.S. News & World Report Rankings Participation

On November 16, 2022, as we recently blogged about, two law schools announced that they would no longer be participating in the U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings (first Yale, then Harvard). In the days since, other schools have begun to announce their plans to do the same.

November 17, 2022
Answering U.S. News Law School Rankings Withdrawal Questions from 11/16/2022

November 16, 2022 may not have been the single most pivotal day in law school decision-making, but it was likely up there.

November 16, 2022
Implications of Yale Law Withdrawing from the U.S. News Rankings

As many people have no doubt seen, Yale Law School will no longer participate in the U.S. News Law School Rankings.

May 5, 2022
ABA Strategic Review Committee Recommends Elimination of Standardized Test Requirement

Yesterday, the ABA publicly released an April 25 memo recommending the elimination of the standardized test requirement for admission to law school.

November 13, 2020
LSAC Statement on LSAT-Flex

Please note this comes directly from LSAC, not our firm.

Podcasts

July 23, 2021
Law School Admissions Q&A with Mike Spivey

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting COO Anna Hicks asks Mike some admissions questions from Reddit, covering large-scale changes to law school admissions due to the pandemic, reapplication strategies, how law schools look at "KJDs," whether or not you should explain why you want to go to law school in your personal statement, how to write Why X statements when you can't visit a law school and don't know anyone who attended, and more.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

We mentioned a number of other blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos in this podcast — they are linked below:

August 5, 2021
Law School Admissions 101

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting COO Anna Hicks goes over the basics of law school admissions for those who are at the beginning of their application process and don't know much about how it works yet.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

This episode is meant to provide context and a basis on which you can expand your research — here are some further resources you may want to check out next, many of which were mentioned in the podcast!

Basic Law School Information & Rankings

Personal Statements

Diversity Statements

Other Application Components

After You Submit Your Applications

Other Concepts Discussed in this Podcast

August 21, 2021
Interview with Author on Resilience & Former Biglaw Hiring Partner Clint Schumacher

In this podcast, Mike interviews Clint Schumacher — author, podcaster, and former biglaw hiring partner — on resilience in the legal profession, imposter syndrome in law school, what hiring partners look for in applicants, and more.

Clint spent the first part of his legal career at Locke Lord, where he went on to be a hiring partner, then transitioned to Dawson & Sodd, a boutique firm with a focus on eminent domain. In addition to his legal practice, Clint hosts a podcast, The Eminent Domain Podcast, and recently published a book about resilience and overcoming adversity, Second Wind.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

August 18, 2021
The Coming Law School Admissions Cycle: Brief Thoughts

In this podcast, Mike provides a brief recap of the historic last cycle (2020–2021) as well as the short version of our best predictions for what's to come this cycle (2021–2022). If you'd like a longer and more in-depth discussion of these topics, please listen to our full podcast on these topics, "Recapping the 2020-2021 Law School Admissions Cycle & Predicting the Upcoming Cycle" (featuring Spivey Consulting's data wonk Justin Kane and PowerScore CEO Dave Killoran).

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

August 25, 2021
Interview with UChicago Law Admissions Dean Ann Perry

In this podcast episode, Mike interviews the long-time Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid at University of Chicago Law School, Ann Perry. Mike and Ann discuss admissions across multiple dimensions, including how admissions has changed over the past 20 years, typos in applications, when you should submit your applications (and what counts as "late"), how admissions offices set target medians, character and fitness, admissions pet peeves, and more.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.

September 6, 2021
Bad Law School Admissions Advice & More with UMich Law's Dean Z

In this episode, Mike has a conversation with Dean Sarah Zearfoss (also known as "Dean Z") about a number of admissions topics, including the prevalence of bad admissions advice and how to identify and avoid it.

You can find Dean Z and much more admissions advice on her podcast, A2Z.

You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.