Rankings

columnscolumns

Blog Posts

February 16, 2015
Which Law Schools Give The Biggest Employment Value Relative to Their Rankings?

We compiled a list of every ABA Accredited law school, along with their latest US News & World Report ranking and their Law School Transparency employment score. To determine which law schools are the most underrated relative to the above, we plotted this data (see below) and came up with a linear trend line, then measured each data point’s vertical distance from the trend line. This distance is also called the “Residual,” which you can see below for each law school. Positive residuals indicate

February 16, 2015
The 25 Most “Underrated” Law Schools

We looked at every ABA Accredited law school to assess their latest US News & World Report ranking (2015) against their Law School Transparency employment score here [http://spiveyconsulting.com/blog/which-law-schools-give-the-biggest-employment-value-relative-to-their-rankings/] . For the below, we have now sorted through a variety of categories to derive a ranking, which for kicks and giggles we will call an "underrated law schools” ranking. This list does not include unranked schools because

March 10, 2014
USNWR 51-100 with +/- from last year

Excited for the new USNWR Law School Rankings coming March 10th, 2015? We will get them March 9th! Follow us on Twitter to see who is at the top and who is falling a day early.https://twitter.com/SpiveyConsult And finally, 51 -100. 51. Baylor University (+3) 51. Penn State University (+13)51. University of Richmond (+2)54. Pepperdine University (+7)54. UC Hastings (-6)54. University of Connecticut (+4)54. University of Nebraska—Lincoln (+7)58. University of Houston (-10)58. University of K

May 1, 2013
USNWR v. ATL Top 50

A quick look at individual school differences between USNWR and ATL rankings, with USNWR as the baseline. The first numerical column indicates school that gained in the ATL rankings, while the second column indicates schools that went down. No number equates to neither a rise or gain. Note this does not show which schools dropped out. In respect to students rating Career Services Offices, the highest schools (all with an A+) were Stanford, Harvard, Penn, UVA, Berkeley, NYU, North Carolina, Ne

February 16, 2013
U.S. News Rankings (with +/-) from 2012/2013

Here is a look at last year’s rankings, with who moved up and down, in anticipation of the upcoming rankings release.

Podcasts

April 14, 2025
Following a Law School Applicant Through the 2024-2025 Cycle (Part 3, Decisions & Wrap-Up)

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, we have our third and final interview with "John" (not his real name; u/Muvanji on Reddit), who we've followed throughout his law school admissions cycle for 2024-2025. John discusses his final decision on where to attend, his process of requesting scholarship reconsideration, his decision not to pursue waitlists, admitted students days, what he's looking forward to in law school, and his thoughts and reflections on the law school admissions process now that it's over.

Prior episodes with John:

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠. You can read a full transcript of this episode below.

May 19, 2025
Dean Z of Michigan Law on Admissions Advice and AI—The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike Spivey and Anna Hicks-Jaco have a conversation with Sarah Zearfoss (also known as "Dean Z"), who has long led the admissions office at the University of Michigan Law School as Senior Assistant Dean and who hosts the admissions podcast A2Z with Dean Z.

The group discusses using generative AI to write your essays vs. to research admissions advice (including asking ChatGPT a few admissions questions and critiquing its answers), the prospect of law schools using AI to evaluate applications, grade inflation (and how admissions officers saw it before open access to generative AI vs. now), application timing (and how early applications correlate to stronger admit rates without necessarily causing them), and more. Plus, Dean Z introduces a new question being added to Michigan Law's application this upcoming 2025-2026 cycle.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠. You can read a full transcript of this episode below.

May 5, 2025
Waitlist Predictions for the 2024-2025 Law School Admissions Cycle

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike discusses the various factors that are at play for this cycle's waitlist season, his predictions for how it will go, and his advice for waitlisted applicants. For more on waitlist strategy, check out our Waitlist Deep Dive podcast episode!

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠. You can read a full transcript of this episode below.