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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 episode of Status Check with Spivey, current applicant and Redditor Extension_Ad_1432, who we call "Julia," interviews Spivey Consulting's new President, Anna Hicks-Jaco—unscripted and unprepared, "Ask Me Anything"-style—on anything and everything that was on her mind. They discuss factors impacting this cycle, advice for applicants who applied early but still haven't heard back, weighing law school choices between a higher scholarship or a higher ranked school, scholarship reconsideration, public interest career goals, and more. Huge thank you to "Julia" for some insightful questions and a great conversation!
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.
In this brief episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses the changes U.S. News made to their methodology this year.
You can view the full list of new law school rankings (with +/-) here. You can listen to Mike's last podcast, "Why Rankings Matter to People (& Why They Should Not)," here.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.
Please note: When Mike discusses U.S. News rounding up or down at .5 for different "schools," we mean "metrics" and not schools.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with two Spivey consultants, Peter Cramer and Tom Robinson (you can read their bios here), on differences in the admissions process for international applicants, how law school admissions has changed for international students over time, and our best advice for strategically navigating the current realities of the application process.
Two of our blog posts are referenced in this episode—our sample personal statements (the essay Tom references is #5!) and a few sample letters of recommendation.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, five Spivey consultants discuss their experiences as first-generation college students, law students, and lawyers, with a particular focus on passing along advice and knowledge that they wish they had known.
The episode includes Sir Williams, Derek Meeker, Sam Kwak, Peter Cramer, and Rob Cacace, who, among their numerous other accomplishments, have served as law school admissions officers at Stanford, UChicago, Penn, Northwestern, Georgetown, WashU, Indiana University, and the University of Wisconsin. They have also clerked for federal judges, worked for biglaw firms, led law school career services offices, created pipeline programs, taught law school classes, and published legal writing textbooks. You can read their bios here.
You can listen to the transfer applicant podcast Derek mentioned in this episode here. You can listen to the rankings podcast from Mike Spivey that Rob mentions here.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses some of the psychological and societal reasons that rankings seem to matter so much to people—then explains the reasons that they shouldn't matter as much as they do.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with PowerScore Founder & CEO Dave Killoran about the removal of the Logic Games section of the LSAT, the new writing section, and what all this might mean for the future of the law school admissions.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.
