Rankings

columnscolumns

Blog Posts

April 9, 2025
Law School and Higher Education Rankings Thoughts

I've been asked too many times to count to comment on the U.S. News 2025 law school rankings release a few days ago.

January 7, 2025
Predicted 2025-2026 U.S. News Law School Rankings

We now have sufficient data to predict the 2025-2026 U.S. News law school rankings with a high degree of accuracy. Here's the full list, this year in groups.

September 27, 2024
Top 11 U.S News Law Schools Modeled 2025 Rankings

Here are our modeled Top 11 (due to a four-way tie at 8) 2025 U.S. News Rankings. Please note a few things.

September 16, 2024
2024 U.S. News Best College Rankings

We’ve received from multiple universities the new 2024 U.S. News Best College Rankings and have decided to share the top 25.

April 8, 2024
U.S. News Law School Rankings: 2024 vs. 2023 (+/-)

With the embargo lifted at 12:01 ET today, here are the full U.S. News law school rankings.

April 3, 2024
New U.S. News Top 25 Law Schools 2024-2025 (with +/-)

Here are the new 2024-2025 U.S. News top 25 law schools.

December 15, 2023
Predicted 2024 U.S. News Law School Rankings

With today’s release of the new ABA-required 509 disclosures, we now have all law schools’ fall 2023 medians and class sizes, plus we have the ability to more accurately predict next year’s upcoming U.S. News law school rankings.

November 13, 2023
How does U.S. News *actually* rank law schools?

The U.S. News & World Report law school rankings methodology may appear simple at first glance, but it is also widely (and deeply) misunderstood. Here, we analyze the methodology + this year's changes.

September 18, 2023
U.S. News Best College Rankings (+/- 2024 vs. 2023)

The 2024 (published 2023) U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings were released today—here are the top 50 national universities with plus/minuses.

Podcasts

December 15, 2020
Law School “Yield Protection”: What It Is & Steps to Take to Prevent It

In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses the phenomenon in law school admissions known as "yield protection," and explains steps you can take to prevent being waitlisted as a result of it.

You can listen to this podcast below, or via SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

As promised in the podcast, here are some resources for how to choose which law school to attend:

January 4, 2021
Commonly Misunderstood—But Important—Parts of the Law School Application Process

In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses some of the most commonly held misconceptions about the law school admissions process, and how understanding them can help you get admitted.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

  • 0:30 – admissions is inherently comparative
  • 4:21 – admissions officers want to get to know you
  • 7:12 – how do law schools make money?
  • 11:03 – being a savvy applicant (regarding advice from law school admissions offices)
February 8, 2021
Anything is Possible

For today's podcast, a little something different — some advice on resiliency in the face of watching others succeed in the ways you'd like to be succeeding.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

January 19, 2021
Reddit AMA: Why haven't I gotten a decision yet? Is January too late to apply? + the worst PS we've ever seen

In this podcast, Mike answers a few questions from Reddit.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

January 16, 2021
Interviews with Law School Applicants About the Admissions Process

In this podcast, Mike Spivey interviews groups of current law school applicants about their experiences with the admissions process — what has surprised them, how they've handled the stress, what they expect for the future, and what advice they would give to someone at the beginning of the process. The participants are all volunteers from r/LawSchoolAdmissions, and only one happened to be a client of Spivey Consulting.

Here's a link to the blog post Mike mentioned in the podcast: Spivey Blog, The Malevolent Puppeteer.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts. Thank you for listening!

January 26, 2021
LOCIs & Law School Fit When You Can't Visit + International Applicant Considerations This Cycle

In this podcast, Mike Spivey answers more questions from Reddit. First up, he discusses differences international JD applicants might see in their admissions processes with the special considerations of this application cycle. Then, he talks about how to figure out whether a law school is the right fit for you when you can't visit in person — and, for those who haven't been admitted yet, how to write a strong letter of continued interest (LOCI) without visiting.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

  • International JD admissions considerations this cycle: 0:52
  • Getting to know a school's culture when you can't visit: 4:32
  • How to write a LOCI when you can't visit: 7:32