Predictions

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Blog Posts

March 20, 2025
2024-2025 Law School Admissions Cycle Progress

As of March 20, 2025, nearly 7,000 offers of admission remain at the top 100 law schools, including 2,500 from top 20 schools. While we don't have definitive data yet, these figures provide a snapshot of the cycle’s progress.

October 15, 2024
Predicting the 2024-2025 Law School Application Cycle (Early Data)

The very first LSAC Volume Summary Report of the cycle just dropped, which means we have our first applicant (and application) data for 2024-2025.

August 3, 2023
Predicting the 2023-2024 Law School Admissions Cycle

The 2022-2023 application cycle is coming to a close, and overall, it will finish with about 2% fewer applicants than the prior cycle—the lowest total number of applicants since the 2017-2018 cycle. In this blog, we look at 2023-2024.

June 20, 2022
Early Thoughts on the 2022-2023 Application Cycle + 2021-2022 Recap

It's certainly too early to make predictions with any sort of certainty, but given that we now have final June LSAT numbers, and registration for the August LSAT is now closed, we now have some early indicators of what we might expect to see in the 2022-2023 law school admissions cycle.

January 24, 2021
What Might the Second Half of the Law School Admissions Cycle Look Like?

We are essentially at the midway point of the admissions cycle. Predicting part 2.

July 7, 2020
Predicting the 2020/2021 Law School Admissions Cycle

The 2020-2021 admissions cycle is going to be the most challenging yet to predict, and most will understand a large part of that uncertainty.

May 7, 2020
Predicting the COVID-19 Summer Of Law School Waitlist Movement

Early in my admissions career, a former boss of mine would often use the following Niels Bohr quote when speaking of law school admissions: “prediction is difficult, especially when it involves the future.”

March 28, 2020
When will larger numbers of law school admissions decisions come?

This will be a short but I hope important blog to consider. It's been a notoriously slow admission cycle, and it possibly would have stayed at an equally slow pace until COVID-19 changed things in many dramatic ways.

January 21, 2020
How will the upcoming “Demographic Cliff” Impact Admissions? (Spoiler: it is going to be substantial)

In the past month or so, I’ve had the good fortune to speak with the Chancellors to the respective boards of two vastly different universities.

Podcasts

February 8, 2020
How will the rest of the 2019/2020 Law School Admissions Cycle Play Out?

In this podcast, SCG's Mike Spivey speaks on what to expect for the rest of the cycle — including why it might greatly favor some people with strong softs this summer, thus making it a "Soft Cycle," but also why it has and will continue to be slow. Also discussed are two internal LSAC changes that will have significant impact for the rest of the admissions cycle and in future years.

Finally, the link Mike mentioned to the blog he wrote to those who are done and checking out of the admissions process – or just want a different take on things —can be found here: 10 Lessons Life Has Taught Me.

February 22, 2020
How Mike Spivey Would Apply to Law School

This is a very encompassing podcast that features the A to Z of the law school admissions process, starting with "Why am I applying" and finishing with scholarship negotiation and the three things that applicants are doing who are punching above their numbers this competitive cycle—with most everything in between covered.

Three other blogs/podcasts are mentioned during this podcast:

  • This is the brief motivational blog Mike wrote that caught that eye of deans of admissions in respect to writing about what matters to YOU, which is what often stands out to others.
  • This is the podcast on being extroverted when visiting law schools.
  • Finally, the applicant who was admitted to Vanderbilt for standing out despite being 15-17 points below the median LSAT is mentioned here.

Also discussed: My Rank, Law School Transparency, and the Above the Law Rankings.

You can listen to this podcast through the YouTube video below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

March 12, 2020
April 2, 2020
How Will Law School Transfer Admissions Be Impacted by COVID-19?

In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses how COVID-19 and new grading systems will affect law school transfer admissions. Listen below through YouTube, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

Also, a quick note — for a look into Mike's daily schedule (which we've been asked about many times) and some advice on staying sane while quarantined, see this recent blog.

March 18, 2020
Update on COVID-19 / Coronavirus & Law School Admissions

Just a quick update from Mike Spivey on how the continuously developing situation with COVID-19 / coronavirus is impacting — and will continue to impact — law school admissions. Watch here or listen on SoundCloud or Apple 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