Timing

columnscolumns

Blog Posts

August 4, 2020
Guide to Completing LSAC Applications

So you’ve worked hard to prepare your materials, and it's time to submit! What's next?

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.

July 25, 2019
Top 50 Law School Application Opening Dates for the 2019-2020 Cycle

When are law school applications opening this fall?

June 30, 2019
Application Timing

An explanation of "rolling admissions" and a look at application timing data.

April 25, 2019
The June LSAT and Waitlists

Registration for the June 2019 LSAT closed yesterday.

March 15, 2019
When a school drops in rank significantly, does that affect how “desperate” schools get?

This is an applicant question, and a timely one due to the recent USNWR rankings release and upcoming seat deposit deadlines. The applicant asking the question, I believe, uses “desperate” to mean, will a school that just dropped in the rankings suffer applicant pool consequences and thus need to go deeper into their own pool to admit? I will get to that a bit later in this post (and there is available data that anyone could look up by looking at schools that have dropped in the rankings in past

January 28, 2019
2018/2019 Midpoint Cycle Update

An update from approximately 50% of the way through the cycle.

September 26, 2018
It's Early. You're Early. This Whole Damn Place is Early.*

A message of calm for applicants who are stressed about timelines.

Podcasts

January 22, 2024
Law School Admissions Reddit AMA with Anna Hicks-Jaco

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

April 9, 2024
The New 2024 Law School Rankings Explained

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, 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.

February 26, 2024
International Students: Differences in Law School Admissions + Our Best Advice

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

March 20, 2024
First-Gen Students: What We Wish We'd Known as Applicants, Law Students, & Young Lawyers

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

March 4, 2024
Why Rankings Matter to People (& Why They Should Not)

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.

April 3, 2024
The New LSAT & The Elimination of Logic Games, with PowerScore's Dave Killoran

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 Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠.