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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.
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.
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.
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 16, 2022 may not have been the single most pivotal day in law school decision-making, but it was likely up there.
As many people have no doubt seen, Yale Law School will no longer participate in the U.S. News Law School Rankings.
Yesterday, the ABA publicly released an April 25 memo recommending the elimination of the standardized test requirement for admission to law school.
Please note this comes directly from LSAC, not our firm.
I wanted to answer a few questions our podcast raised that we apologize if we did not answer or were not clear about.
COVID-19 isn't going anywhere in the near future, yet only 3 law schools and only 8% of universities and colleges have announced they will be entirely remote for fall 2020.
What is the most recent update, and is there a middle ground that can be reached to decrease on-campus density so that the likelihood of cluster outbreaks is significantly reduced?
Watch below, or listen on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
Spivey Consulting Partner Mike Spivey talks about the two primary things at the highest order that make applications stand out and elevate in the admissions process.
Danielle Early and Mike Spivey speak for 30 minutes on application submission timing. And a bit more below from Michigan Law Dean of Admissions Sarah Zearfoss.
Here is Dean Z.:
"Totally agree that before Thanksgiving is “early” in any school’s universe. All law school admissions officers are hitting the bricks from mid-September to mid-November; some offices are structured in a way that allows them to make some decisions despite the travel schedule, but the number of offers are a mere pittance compared to the overall number that will be made. People who don’t have their applications in when they start hearing about early September acceptances might feel dismayed, and worry that by the time they apply, nothing will be left—but that’s not even close to true. In general, I would advise people to try to get their applications in before the 1st of the year, simply because most people apply after that, creating a bottleneck. That means your outcome might be slowed down, which will be anxiety producing, but it doesn’t mean you’ll not get admitted because your application is somehow fatally “late.”
Remember, too, that some schools take a lot of care with their applications. If you want to be judged on factors apart from/in addition to your LSAT and UGPA, then try to have some patience with the fact that those holistic processes are necessarily time intensive.
It’s all good practice for being a lawyer. Judges take a lot of time about issuing their opinions, and seem not to take into account that the lawyer submitted a kick-ass brief and did a stellar oral argument."
And the podcast:
Something we encounter all too often is applicants who put so much pressure on themselves when they are taking the LSAT that it ends up being counterproductive, barring them from performing near the highest level of which they are capable. If we can help calm even one test-taker's nerves with this podcast, it will be worth it.
Something we encounter all too often is applicants who put so much pressure on themselves when they are taking the LSAT that it ends up being counterproductive, barring them from performing near the highest level of which they are capable. If we can help calm even one test-taker's nerves with this podcast, it will be worth it.
Note: You can also listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts or SoundCloud. The blog post Mike mentions in the podcast is here.
Also check out a related blog post on "The Over-Estimated Impact of Median LSAT Change on USNWR Rankings." And our rankings/data tool for comparing law schools, My Rank.
In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group founder and higher education expert Mike Spivey discusses the plans universities are making to resume on-campus operations this fall, as well as challenges to those plans from the medical community.
You can listen to the podcast via the YouTube video below, or via SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group Founder and Partner Mike Spivey discusses the hardest part of the law school admissions process—the waiting—and how it can cause some applicants to hurt their own chances of admission.
Here's the blog post mentioned in the podcast: Spooky Halloween Blog: Real Stories of Things That Creep Out Admissions Offices.
Mike's other blog which is mentioned in this podcast: Spivey Blog.
Find our podcasts on YouTube, SoundCloud, and Apple Podcasts. And check out our law school data/rankings tool My Rank.
