Admissions

23 Jun 2015

Q&A with Michigan Law Admissions Dean Sarah Zearfoss (ongoing series updated June 24)

June 26th update and joint answer There seems to be a perception that law school admissions are the most numbers-oriented of the professional graduate schools (i.e., law, business, and medical). Is there merit to that view? If so, why do you think that is? Mike Spivey Response: I was recently asked this from a B-School admissions consultant, sans the medical school allusion, so I am going to jump in with my response to her which I hope will address this question, albeit without reference to m

Read full post
11 Jun 2015

2015 Forum/Fair Recruitment Schedule and Advice

First, LSAC’s schedule of events [http://www.lsac.org/jd/choosing-a-law-school/forums-and-other-events]. Now, our advice: Admissions Forums and Admissions Fairs matter. I would argue that as attendance at these events has waned steadily in the past 12 years, they now matter more than ever for the simple reason you can make a last impression. Still, there are enough people at each law school’s table where you will have to do it the right  way. Here is how: 1. First impressions matter Research

Read full post
11 Jun 2015

How Law School Admissions Myths Get Started

From September through late November, most admissions officers are on the road. They crisscross the nation visiting colleges and universities (which is a pretty wonderful way to get paid). The nearly only downside is that this travel gets repetitious — not just in staying in hotel beds every night, but in hearing the same thing at every school. But it is because I lived through this repetition that I can dispel just about every bad piece of admissions advice you have heard from a fellow student.

Read full post
16 May 2015

Time off before law school? Gap year? What should I do?

Thinking About Work Experience Before Law School? There are more payoffs than the paycheck! For over a decade, I have been giving advice about taking time off before going to law school: If there is nothing else on the planet that you’d rather do than go to law school, then you can just go straight through from college. But it is important that this is an informed and conscious decision to go to law school straight out of college, and not a result of tunnel vision. Many students are so focused

Read full post
14 May 2015

Karen Buttenbaum Interviewed by USNWR on the "gap year"

For the record we (and many law admissions officers we know) don’t necessarily agree with the terminology “gap” — which originated to describe the space between a year off before going to undergraduate. But semantics be damned, here [http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/articles/2015/05/14/smart-ways-to-make-the-most-of-gap-years-before-law-school] is the article. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Getting ready t

Read full post
20 Apr 2015

The Top 5 Most Popular Spivey Consulting Blogs Of The Last 3 years

1. 103 Pages of Admissions Questions Answered [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/103-pages-of-free-law-school-admissions-advice/] 2. Scholarship Negotiation Advice [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/mistake-1-you-are-too-nice/] 3. Is an Early Decision Application Bump at t14 real? Some data. [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/early-decision-at-t14-is-the-bump-real/] (*note each year this advice changes slightly based on admit patterns by law schools)

Read full post
21 Mar 2015

Admissions Question of The Day (Comes to us from an AdComm)

Dear Spivey: Do you think there are many schools that admit (a) nobody with both a below-their-median LSAT and a below-their-median UGPA, or (b) no both-below folks other than diverse students? Or “almost nobody” both-numbers-submedian? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Answer: I think every school admits some people below both medians — beyond Special Interest and URM admits. But one way to think of the percentage of these admits is by loo

Read full post
21 Feb 2015

How do students select which law school to ultimately attend?

We measured 28 dimensions and received over 3,000 votes. The following is a rank order of what matters most in selecting which law school one ultimately attends:

Read full post
13 Feb 2015

20 Things Applicants Do That Annoy Admissions Deans and Hiring Partners

We reached out to a number of friends at law schools and at firms and companies to see what things applicants did that made them grouchy (pro tip — it isn’t in your best interest to make them grouchy!) This is what we got, not surprisingly a good deal related to emails. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. When they launch into a sales presentation about themselves the moment we meet -* CEO of Company* 2. Sending emails without subjects

Read full post
26 Jan 2015

Podcast Annoucement

As a few may recall, I was lucky enough to get to do a podcast for The Bucket List Life [http://thebucketlistlife.com/podcast-episodes/], one of iTunes' most popular podcasts. This constituted about 50 minutes covering a wide-variety of topics including law school admissions. We blogged it here [http://spiveyconsulting.com/blog/podcast-with-mike-spivey/]. It looks like I am lucky again. I will be doing another on February 23rd, this one entirely on goal-setting and motivation (research topics o

Read full post