When are law school applications opening?
Note: Since the time this blog was published, the landscape of law school admissions has developed a great deal with regards to the importance of work experience prior to law school. Check out this updated 2024 blog for more information and advice. This post was written by Tom Robinson, Spivey Consulting Group's newest Senior Consultant. Hi Everyone, I’m excited to be on the Spivey team and enjoyed working with clients in my first week with Spivey Consulting after spending my last three at Ha
The easiest answer to this question is "almost never" — but obviously there are some qualifications. So let me start with a real life story and then the qualifications. A few cycle ago I got a call from someone who had taken the June LSAT and just received his score, in the upper 170s. He also had a strong LSAC computed GPA and was asking me if I thought he could get into Harvard next cycle (keeping in mind it was like roughly July 1 and Harvard clearly said on their website the application dea
Advice from a below-both-medians student who got accepted to her (T-14) dream school.
When are applications opening this fall?
This is an important post, notably because there are a few critical misconceptions out there about how files are read.
*Please note, schools can change these dates, it is possible when we called to ask them that they gave us the dates applications open rather than are accepted (although we were very careful to clearly articulate when can you submit), etc. But this should be highly accurate to the extent we can control it. Please also note, just because they accept by a certain date doesn't mean they start reading on that date. FAR FROM IT, in most cases. These are good to know but September and October are cons
Here is what is (barring C&F and sloppy application factors) happening.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with Paula Gluzman—a Spivey consultant and former law school admissions officer at UCLA and UW—as well as two of her past clients who successfully transferred law schools: Katie, who transferred from a regional law school in Texas to Columbia Law School, and Melissa, who transferred from a regional school on the west coast to Harvard Law School.
The conversation covers a wide range of topics related to transfer admissions, including personal statements, letters of recommendation, 1L activities, application timing, the relevance of undergraduate GPA and LSAT in transfer admissions, and more.
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 speaks with Pre-L consultants Rob Cacace and Jordana Confino (bios here) about the growing importance of work experience in admissions, why the impact of being a "KJD" (going "from Kindergarten through law school" without full-time work experience) has increased over time, and—importantly—how work experience (or a lack thereof) plays out during law school and in the search for legal employment.
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 the various factors that play into any given applicant's chances of admission coming off the waitlist. He also gives a quick preview of our (very early) predictions for next cycle.
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 three Spivey consultants—Anne Dutia, Paula Gluzman, and Derek Meeker, former law school admissions officers at Michigan, UCLA, Penn, and more—diving deep into the law school personal statement. They discuss the brainstorming and topic selection process, how to structure a personal statement, writing tips, broad-level traits of A+ personal statements, common mistakes, and more.
You can watch the video Derek mentions in this episode, in which he walks through how to choose a personal statement topic, here. You can read bios for Anne, Paula, Derek, and Anna here.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, SCG Pre-L Consultant and Fordham Law professor Jordana Confino has a conversation with legal writing coach and Dear 1L author Amanda Haverstick about legal writing and tackling your 1L year.
You can learn more about Dear 1L here, connect with Amanda via LinkedIn here, or email her directly at amanda@dear1L.com.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco speaks with two Spivey consultants—Karen Buttenbaum, former Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, and Nathan Neely, former Associate Director of Admissions and Director of Global and Graduate Programs at the University of Houston Law Center—about the law school application resume: what to include and what not to include, differences from professional resumes, common mistakes, best practices, and more. You can read Karen and Nathan's full bios here.
This episode is part of an ongoing deep dive series on the main components of the law school application. You can listen to our episode on personal statements here. Next up: diversity statements (the new versions—also known as E/P essays).
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.