Hear from industry-leading experts in admissions, legal education, mental health, and the practice of law.

For today's podcast, a little something different — some advice on resiliency in the face of watching others succeed in the ways you'd like to be succeeding.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses factors that lead to some applicants "underperforming" their numbers. You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud  or Apple Podcasts.

Introduction

• 0:46 - Will more people underperform this cycle? (2020-2021)
• 1:41 - Defining "Underperform"

Factors that can lead to underperforming your numbers

• 4:44 - Character & Fitness Issues (but maybe not in the way you think)
• 6:44 - Yield Protection
• 8:17 - Overcommunicating
• 10:40 - Sloppiness

Answering Questions from Reddit

• 13:05 - "Is it the essay or lack of an added essay (DS) that throws off an entire application?"
• 14:44 - "Is having a non legal job in Biglaw going in a boost as schools will see you connections that may help boost the schools standing?"
• 15:26 - "How disadvantaged are KJDs in the admissions process?"
• 16:59 - "Do GRE applicants more often underperform their numbers? With the high LSAT saturation, will this negatively affect GRE applicants?"
• 17:54 - "Considering how some services quantify the 'URM Boost' in applications (7Sage predictor and LSData URM LSAT/GPA differential, for example), what specifically causes URMs to underperform their stats?"
• 19:41 - "I’ve been rejected by UMich with a 3.mid and 17high, does this count as underperforming my numbers? If so, is this indicative of how the rest of my cycle with the T14 will go?"
• 20:02 - "Any data / longitudinal studies on engineers?"
• 20:42 - "I’m sure this will vary by schools, but in your experience as someone who made decisions on files, if a candidate is at/above both of a school’s target medians AND has demonstrated genuine interest, how much can those two factors carry them if the rest of the app is average? Will the answer to this question be different this year because of the availability of good stats?"
• 21:28 - "Would you say if there are multiple LSAT scores without a consistent increase in score (i.e. there was a score drop before the ultimate high score) then that person is likely to underperform? Especially asking for T6/T14? Would your answer change if the final score was a 175+?"

Conclusion

• 23:48 - Takeaways & Predictions for the Rest of the Cycle

In this podcast, Mike Spivey answers more questions from Reddit. First up, he discusses differences international JD applicants might see in their admissions processes with the special considerations of this application cycle. Then, he talks about how to figure out whether a law school is the right fit for you when you can't visit in person — and, for those who haven't been admitted yet, how to write a strong letter of continued interest (LOCI) without visiting.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

• International JD admissions considerations this cycle: 0:52
• Getting to know a school's culture when you can't visit: 4:32
• How to write a LOCI when you can't visit: 7:32

In this podcast, Mike answers a few questions from Reddit.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

In this podcast, Mike Spivey interviews groups of current law school applicants about their experiences with the admissions process — what has surprised them, how they've handled the stress, what they expect for the future, and what advice they would give to someone at the beginning of the process. The participants are all volunteers from r/LawSchoolAdmissions, and only one happened to be a client of Spivey Consulting.

Here's a link to the blog post Mike mentioned in the podcast: Spivey Blog, The Malevolent Puppeteer.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts. Thank you for listening!

In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses some of the most commonly held misconceptions about the law school admissions process, and how understanding them can help you get admitted.

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

• 0:30 – admissions is inherently comparative
• 4:21 – admissions officers want to get to know you
• 7:12 – how do law schools make money?
• 11:03 – being a savvy applicant (regarding advice from law school admissions offices)

In this podcast, Mike Spivey takes questions from Reddit!

You can listen to this podcast below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

Happy holidays from all of us at Spivey Consulting Group!

• 0:00 – Introduction
• 1:30 – Character & Fitness
• 4:43 – Scholarship vs. debt load in choosing a law school
• 8:08 – What to do if you make a mistake/typo in your law school application
• 12:37 – How much will LSAT medians move this cycle
• 14:09 – uGPA's importance this cycle
• 16:02 – How will splitters do this cycle
• 16:33 – Competitiveness of particular schools/bands
• 18:02 – In-person vs. remote law school next year and effects on deferrals/WL movement this summer
• 18:55 – How high LSAT-Flex scores will be seen in future cycles
• 20:00 – Non-traditional applicants this cycle
• 21:12 – Part-time programs this cycle
• 21:45 – What is Georgetown up to?

In this podcast, Mike Spivey discusses the phenomenon in law school admissions known as "yield protection," and explains steps you can take to prevent being waitlisted as a result of it.

You can listen to this podcast below, or via SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

As promised in the podcast, here are some resources for how to choose which law school to attend:

• My Rank by Spivey (personalized law school rankings based on the metrics you prioritize most)
• How to Choose Which Law School to Attend (blog post)
• How to Use the U.S. News Rankings to Choose a Law School (video)

In this newest episode of our podcast, Mike Spivey talks about how to stay calm in the law school admissions process.

You can listen below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

• 0:24 — outline
• 1:42 — good news for this cycle
• 4:43 — biological reasons for stress and how to manage it
• 11:07 — long-term optimism

Chances are, if you're applying to a healthy range of target, safety, and reach schools, you're likely to get a waitlist or two (at least!). Especially if it happens relatively early in the cycle, or if it's your first decision, a waitlist can be difficult to interpret and hard to know how to respond. In this podcast, Mike Spivey talks about what to do when you get your first waitlist.

Our podcast is embedded below, but here are also links to podcasts/videos mentioned in this podcast:

• Podcast — Law School Admissions/LSAT Q&A with Mike Spivey and PowerScore’s Dave Killoran
• Podcast: Self-Care, the Fallacy of Reductionism, and Something to Be Said for an N of 1
• Video — The Law School Waitlist: What It Means & How to Get Admitted

And a bonus link: Blog — Every piece of Spivey Consulting Law School Waitlist Advice

You can listen to this podcast below, or via SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

Please note that our reservation list for next cycle (2021-2022) is now open.

Today's podcast is from our consultant Sir Williams, former Director of Admissions at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he led the successful implementation of UW’s first pre-law diversity pipeline summer program. In this podcast, Sir gives a broad introduction to law school admissions for under-represented minority (URM) applicants — what "counts" as URM for admissions, why it matters, and some special considerations URM applicants might want to flag.

A few links mentioned in the podcast:

• MyRank, where you can create your own personalized rankings based on the metrics you prioritize
• LSAC Table on Diversity in the US & Legal Pipeline
• Paul Caron's TaxProf Blog post on diversity and the LSAT

You can listen below, or on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

Please note that our reservation list for next cycle (2021-2022) is now open.

In this podcast, Mike Spivey talks about the LSAT-Flex, particularly is it relates to timelines and the pace of admissions this cycle. It is important to note that LSAT scores are higher at the top bandwidths right now than one would expect in any cycle. There are several hypotheses out there for why that is.

LSAC maintains that they will organically come down to natural levels. Spivey Consulting (and others we should note) believes that we won't maintain this pace of increase, just like every cycle, but that we are already past the point where they could come down to "natural" levels barring some extremely inorganic occurrence, and that until now law schools have been trying to figure this equation out. To LSAC's credit, they have provided law schools with data that we think should now speed up the pace of admitting for the cycle — although exactly when and at what pace that happens is still impossible to predict.

You can listen to this podcast below or via SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.

Please note that our reservation list for next cycle (2021-2022) is now open.