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If you have not heard, the June LSAT test-taker numbers are out, and they are up.
A question we get asked a lot these days is “will there be more waitlist activity this summer than in recent years?” It is, of course, a pertinent question for the vast majority of law school applicants because most applicants will be waitlisted at least somewhere. While there is no definitive answer yet, data from this cycle and historical trends give us at least one theory. And “the new norm” of law admissions leads to another. Let’s take a look at both. **Theory 1: The dominoes will fall. **
What will the 2015-2016 law school admissions cycle look like?
“Mike and Karen, as the number of takers continues to drop, won’t it become MORE acceptable to drop a median point in favor of maintaining GPA? Won’t this make high scores LESS valuable? For example, if Harvard or Yale’s median is going to drop to 172, doesn’t a 173 become LESS valuable, not more? If the median drops a point, suddenly, the pool of at/above median expands, right? So, in theory, I should be rooting for medians to stay the same?” This is something we spend a good deal of time loo
After LSAC published the February 2014 LSAT test administration data, there was buzz that the long freeze of law school applications was about to thaw. For the first time in 15 LSAT administrations, test-taker numbers were up 1.1% and many speculated that applications during the 2014-2015 law school admissions cycle would either level or increase. Even more, a few media outlets were warming up to the idea that now might be a good time to get a law degree, for example: http://www.slate.com/artic
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.
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.
In this episode, Mike speaks with long-time legal education reporter Karen Sloan about her experiences and stories and the future of the legal field.
You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.
In this episode, Spivey Consulting's Derek Meeker — a former Penn Law Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid — interviews Renee Post, Penn Law's current and long-standing Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid. Derek and Dean Post walk through the components of the law school application, including the personal statement, resume, addenda, and Penn's "Core Strengths, Goals, and Values" essay, and they also discuss topics including joint degrees, the merits of going to law school straight from undergrad vs. getting full-time work experience, handling the stress of the admissions process, their craziest admissions stories, their favorite things about Philadelphia, and what gives some law school applicants that "it" factor.
You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.
In this episode, world-renowned author, speaker, teacher, and therapist Terry Real — who has been featured on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and many more — discusses the emotional health hazards of grad school and law school and how to stay human during these stressful and highly evaluative periods of life. Law school can feel a lot like high school at times, and this is so often expressed by both students and faculty in terms of grandiosity — "I am superior to others because." Real speaks on how the field of psychology has focused so much on bringing people up that it has ignored the equal need to help bring people down from that superior position based on covert insecurity. In Real's words, "We are all born equal, no better or worse to the person to our left or right." For anyone who has had self-doubt in the law school admissions process, in law school, or in practicing law, this podcast offers an amazingly insightful message with advice toward reclaiming self-esteem from one of the world's very best.
Terry's first book, I Don't Want to Talk About It — in which he writes about treating and destigmatizing depression in a patriarchal society — has been a best-seller for over 20 years since it was first published in 1997. He has written two other books and has a new book coming out in March of next year, Us: How Moving Relationships Beyond You and Me Creates More Love, Passion, and Understanding.
For more from Terry, you can receive free access to his very popular interview with Carol Gillian, an internationally recognized ethicist and psychologist, by texting OPT IN to (415) 813-1025.
You can listen and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.
In this episode, Mike has a conversation with our consultant Derek Meeker (former Dean of Admissions at Penn Law) and Sydney Montgomery (founder of S. Montgomery Admissions Consulting) about the role of diversity and adversity in law school admissions.
Derek's YouTube video on how to choose a personal statement topic was mentioned in this podcast; you can watch that video here.
You can listen to Sydney's podcast, "Break Into Law School," here.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and Google Podcasts.
