Just For Fun

05 Oct 2023

Top 15 Law School Websites

We have spent a great deal of time browsing and evaluating the websites of every ABA-approved law school, and we identified the following 15 as the strongest examples.

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03 Jan 2021

Congratulations on Your Admit to Princeton Law School!

Dear [Insert applicant's Last Name and LSAT score and Identifying Information for our Massive Listserv].

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01 Aug 2019

Where the 2020 Presidential Candidates Went to Law School

Republicans * Donald Trump: did not go to law school * Bill Weld: Harvard ('70) Democrats (In alphabetical order by surname, including all declared, even those who have not participated in debates) * Michael Bennet: Yale ('93) * Joe Biden: Syracuse ('68) * Cory Booker: Yale ('97) * Steve Bullock: Columbia ('94) * Pete Buttigieg: did not go to law school * Julián Castro: Harvard ('00) * Bill de Blasio: did not go to law school * John Delaney: Georgetown ('88) * Tulsi Gabbard: did not

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08 May 2019

Law Schools in Order of Selectivity

Data is based on acceptance rates for the incoming class of 2018. Source: ABA-required disclosures. 1 Yale University 6.85% 2 Stanford University 8.72% 3 Harvard University 12.86% 4 University of Pennsylvania 14.58% 5 University of Virginia 15.33% 6 Columbia University 16.79% 7 University of Chicago 17.48% 8 University of Southern California 19.24% 9 Northwestern University 19.33% 10 University of Michigan 19.60% 11 University of California—Berkeley 19.69% 12 Duke University 20.15%

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06 May 2019

What the U.S. News Law School Rankings Looked Like in 1987

The U.S. News & World Report law school rankings have changed quite a bit over the years. In 1987, the methodology included just one metric—the percentage of law school deans who ranked the school, in their subjective estimation, as a "top 10 law school." See below the resulting top 20. As a bonus, you can also see what tuition rates looked like in 1987—the highest figure of which is under $14,000 (Columbia), and the lowest of which is just $4,500 (UT Austin—which is out-of-state) (note that all

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01 Mar 2019

Suggested Reading for New Law Students

If you are looking for books to read or other media to watch before or during your 1L year, below is a list from the Spivey Consultants of their recommendations! Disclaimer: do not think of this list as mandatory reading for you to be a successful law student — it is only meant to serve as a list of ideas for you to read for fun and for different perspectives on the legal world. * A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr For a somewhat dated but still descriptive view of civil litigation. –Joe

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24 Oct 2018

Spooky Halloween Blog: Real Stories of Things That Creep Out Admissions Offices

For Halloween this year, we'd like to share some peculiar stories from some of the Spivey consultants' days as admissions officers at top schools such as Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Penn, Michigan, Duke, and many more. If you want to avoid spooking the person making a decision on your file (and making a lasting bad impression), avoid these creepy tactics! Nikki Laubenstein, former Assistant Dean for Enrollment Management at Syracuse University College of Law, had a coworker who was once

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24 Sep 2018

Spivey Consulting Group's 17 Best College Campuses

Methodology: The Spivey consultants voted on their favorite, most beautiful college campuses that they've visited (and we have visited hundreds upon hundreds cumulatively in our careers), and these are the top 17.  How did we pick 17? It was the cut-off point where each school had been voted on by at least two of us. You may think that there are some blatant, egregious exclusions, and that's probably true—there are so many beautiful colleges and universities, one of the best parts of admissions

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03 Jul 2018

2018 Top 10 Law School Websites

Ever year we get to know law school applicants who have extensive web development experience, who have just been through the admissions process, and who incredibly generously agree to look at all ABA law school websites to pick us their collective top 10. Here are this year's rankings per one such applicant years! BU Law [http://www.bu.edu/law/] Boston University Law School’s website is one of my favorites. The sans serif font is fun and fresh, especially compared to the more traditional, all c

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07 Jun 2018