Just For Fun

16 Feb 2015

Which Law Schools Give The Biggest Employment Value Relative to Their Rankings?

We compiled a list of every ABA Accredited law school, along with their latest US News & World Report ranking and their Law School Transparency employment score. To determine which law schools are the most underrated relative to the above, we plotted this data (see below) and came up with a linear trend line, then measured each data point’s vertical distance from the trend line. This distance is also called the “Residual,” which you can see below for each law school. Positive residuals indicate

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15 Jan 2015

A never seen before LSAT addendum

Dear Admissions Committee, In application section 13.2 I am asked if my standardized test scores have been predictive of my success in school, and particularly if my LSAT score is for law school. I scored a 165 and would like to have scored higher, as I know your median LSAT is a 167, and you are my top school. But my highestest test scores were also at 165. So that seems about accurate to me. While I think my combined LSAT plus my undergraduate GPA of a 3.91 together is more predictive of my f

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04 Sep 2013

...A word or two (words to enjoy, words that annoy)

As I was cleaning out my office at Harvard Law School, I came across a list that I used to keep during file review season: my list of words. It started as a list of words/phrases that I didn’t like, but then I thought that was too negative, so I added a list of words/phrases that I like. I have always loved the art of language, the sound and meaning of words to convey facts, emotions, subtle hints of attitude, etc. After reading thousands of personal statements, additional statements, resumes an

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20 Mar 2013

By Popular Demand -- The Best (and a few worst) Law School Websites

I asked (in the world’s worst formatted poll) and you responded. The topic people most wanted to see was a rating of the best and worst law school websites. This is not a ranking, per se, but it is a rating of a few best and worst. Did we miss some? Let me know and we may very well do a Part II. Disclaimer: full disclosure, a prospective law school student, Alex P., did a great deal of the research and writing on this. Spivey Consulting’s wonderful intern, Kelly Campbell, researched and wrote

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15 Oct 2012

My top 5 favorite colleges I have visited

For no reason at all I am going to dish out my favorite colleges from the many years I was paid to visit colleges. Just a few disclaimers: 1. I did not say “most beautiful campuses,” although I imagine that comes significantly into play. Rather I mean, the entire “shabang” (which Urban Dictionary defines as everything including the extras – incidentally, never quote Urban Dictionary in a job interview). 2. I have not visited all 6,632 (per the National Center For Educat

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