Admissions

20 May 2019

2018-2019 Waitlist Movement and Advice, Mid-May Update

It's that time of year: waitlist movement time. Many first and second deposit deadlines have passed, and schools are starting the process of finalizing their entering 2019 classes. That's good news for thousands of nervous applicants who are sitting on waitlists anxiously hoping for news. Those of you who were around in the 2017-2018 cycle remember it as a summer of disappointment. The dramatic 7.9% increase in LSAT applicants in that cycle overwhelmed many schools unprepared for such drastic

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16 May 2019

Predicting the 2019/2020 Law School Admissions Cycle

It's that time of year: but before our predictions, our exciting annual disclaimer. I feel like this is more important than ever, so please read, even if after jumping down below. Disclaimer: the future is hard to see. When we do this annual blog, we talk to many experts—CEOs of LSAT prep companies, deans of law schools, deans of admissions, and so forth. The first thing almost everyone says is, "Well who knows what next cycle will be like?" then the second thing is often "Wait, aren't you the p

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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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25 Apr 2019

The June LSAT and Waitlists

Registration for the June 2019 LSAT closed yesterday. Most people who are signed up for that LSAT administration are going to be using it to apply in the 2019-2020 cycle. But as law school applicants become increasingly savvy to the importance of LSAT scores in admissions, many applicants are re-taking the test in June to improve their chances of getting off a waitlist. Last year alone an additional 7% of June LSAT takers were retaking the test over historical averages—many presumably in hopes o

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15 Apr 2019

Accurate Names of Law Schools

When referring to a school, you should make sure that you are using the names that they prefer to be called rather than what you may know them as colloquially.  Also make sure that you are using the correct name – some are schools of law, some are law schools, while others are colleges of law.  You don’t want to miss such details. Here is a (likely incomplete) list of how the top 50-ish schools refer to themselves in their marketing materials: 1 - Yale Law School – YLS – Yale 2 - Stanford La

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06 Apr 2019

The Top 15 Characteristics of Applicants Who Have Admissions Success Beyond Their Numbers

1. They stay positive and engaged for the entire admissions cycle. 2. They pay attention to every little detail of their application. 3. They are genuine and write from the heart. 4. They are self-aware. 5. They are actively involved with things that are important to them outside of the application process. 6. They have a very clear reason why they are applying to law school and they can articulate verbally and in writing. 7. They are adaptable. 8. They utilize every op

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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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