Admissions

29 Mar 2019

How to choose between a higher ranked school at sticker price and a lower ranked school with a scholarship

Introduction We were asked to write about choosing between a T14 school at sticker (full tuition) versus a T20 to T30 school with merit aid. The below constitutes our best stab at that, but please keep in mind that, as always, these are arbitrary cutoff points based on one flawed rankings system and not designed for you as an individual. Point being that a school ranked 18 may be much more valuable to you for any number of reasons that a school ranked 13, etc. If you want to read or watch more

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15 Mar 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

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13 Mar 2019

Spivey Consulting Group Statement on College Admissions Scandal

I am writing to address the cheating scandal in undergraduate admissions. At the start of my academic career, I taught business ethics at the University of Alabama. In that course, we spent the vast amount of time talking about different ethical imperatives: what is morally and ethically important to people and to societies and why. But at the end of the class I added one more element: we case studied companies and people who cheated. I wanted students to see that even if they possessed any ince

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24 Feb 2019

Poll: How do you feel about your admission cycle so far?

If you are currently a law school applicant for the 2018-2019 admissions cycle, please fill out the brief, one-question poll below! Overall, how do you feel about your admissions cycle so far?Very satisfied Somewhat satisfiedNot sure/neutralSomewhat disappointedVery Disappointed##

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23 Feb 2019

How Many People Actually Go to the T14?

This data and analysis comes from Reddit user u/HYSLawHopeful [https://www.reddit.com/r/lawschooladmissions/comments/atn0g3/how_many_people_actually_go_to_the_t14_random/] , who graciously gave us permission to repost his great data on our blog. HYSLawHopeful sought out to answer the question of what percentage of law school applicants actually ended up at a T14 law school for the Class of 2021 (2017-2018 admissions cycle). Last year, there were 56,900 total CAS registrants. Note: * EA = En

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21 Feb 2019

Every piece of Spivey Consulting Law School Waitlist Advice

It's that time of year again — law schools are beginning to place applicants on the dreaded waitlist. Luckily, we have two helpful resources if you've been waitlisted this cycle.

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19 Feb 2019

Examples of Letters of Recommendation

Below are three sample letters of recommendation, all three for admission consideration (both college and law school). Sample 1 is for a family friend for undergraduate college admissions. Sample 2 is for a former student for law school admissions. Sample 3 is for a current student for law school transfer admissions.

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28 Jan 2019

2018/2019 Midpoint Cycle Update

We are about 50% through the cycle, and I wanted to share some observations, data, and then remaining predictions with everyone. Much of the data can be found here [https://www.lsac.org/data-research/data/current-volume-summaries-region-raceethnicity-sex-lsat-score] , and, for the first time ever, is publicly available and updated daily by LSAC. A deep-dive analysis is also done weekly by our intern on his blog weekly blog here [https://docs.google.com/document/d/14qVpQWwtDdplBXBitItcHOP5I2xWHX

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15 Dec 2018

Breaking Down the 2018 Law School Data

You can see the full data here [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sFeqvSqCJGyk9o4fYJjpW_sUq0hR7NQU-bOhUHh5eVc/edit#gid=1117512034] . LSAT median changes for the fall 2018 entering class: No Change 1 point increase 2 point increase 3+ point increase Decrease Top 14 Ranked Schools 8 (57%) 6 (42%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Top 20 Ranked Schools 10 (50%) 10 (50%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) Top 100 Ranked Schools 39 (39%) 50 (50%) 5 (5%) 0 (0%) 6 (6%) Top 150 Ranked Schools 63 (41%) 68 (45%) 6 (4%) 3 (2

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08 Dec 2018

How many times can you take the LSAT in a 3 year period?

To be brief, the answer is "unlimited" or technically "limited only by how many tests there will administered in a three year period" and has been since September of 2017. Before then there was a limiting number, and there is still a good deal of bad information out there about that old policy, hence this incredibly brief blog. Again, there is no longer a policy limiting takes, and you can take it and keep taking it. Whether you should is a bit more nuanced [https://blog.spiveyconsulting.com

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