A rising 2L was kind enough to submit this piece of advice for everyone heading to Law School. It is both humorous and credited — and much appreciated. Feel free to submit your advice to us at info@spiveyconsulting.com. If it is good, it’ll be on here (…and then up on the top of your resume too). Five observations from a 1L #5: There is such a thing as too much Chipotle. Crafty universities have used the free lunch for decades to keep students from rioting over tuition. Law School is no diffe
When you are a Dean of Admissions, or an Admissions Consultant for that matter, seemingly innocuous everyday sights have a way of relating back to the admissions process. I saw this shirt and it had me thinking how annoyed admissions officers get when applicants confuse “you’re” from “your” or “there” from “their.” That, then, got me thinking about how annoyances to admissions officers can make all the difference between admit and deny. In other words, you are clicking away, getting to know the
A deranged student sent the following email to a close friend and CSO officer this morning. Redacted: I woke up this morning and was disappointed to see that I did not have any job offers from any of the firms I applied to last night. Some of them have had my application materials for nearly 12 hours now, so I went ahead and sent them all very angry and profane letters of retraction. So here is his dilemma. How do you get all of the hiring partners to click on the user recalled email in their
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 on first impressions in a business context shows that we are not forming a single first impression but rather two. One, we a
Many thanks to this recent graduate from Fordham Law for sending me this email for a blog article! Want to blow off some steam? Write a blog, send it my way, and I will likely publish it! In fact this is the third time it’s happened and I’d like to keep the streak going. 5 Things I Learned About in Law School 1. Don’t get down on yourself: If you are attending law school right now, you have every reason to be proud of yourself. It was not an easy process to get into law school — you
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
Don’t do your best proofreading after you hit submit! Over the years, I have seen many grammatical errors in applications. We all make mistakes, but some of these are becoming so increasingly common that I want to share them with you so that you can avoid them. Here are my top ten grammatical (or other) errors that I have seen in applications over the years: 10. Improper use of to, two, and too. Spell check won’t fix this; there is no substitute for proofreading. 9. Usi
The hardest part of the admissions cycle is the wait. For many it is worse than logic games, worse than filling out applications, dropdown boxes, questions that you have to answer that you should not have to (e.g. has anyone influenced your decision to attend our law school, yes or yes?), etc. The wait only gets intensified when others start hearing from your dream school and you are, well, waiting. What is more, if you are applying to law school you are likely a proactive person. You WANT to b
Every generation, it seems, gets a label. It’s what older, grouchier people like to do — label those younger than themselves as worse at something than they are. And it makes life more simple. For my generation, "Generation X", we were dubbed “lackluster.” We lacked passion and focus. To a great extent, I believe that was accurate. When I was 20 I wasn’t worried about graduate school or my career. Indeed, the only career thoughts I had was of opening some small business at a ski town. But most
