“Mike and Karen, as the number of takers continues to drop, won’t it become MORE acceptable to drop a median point in favor of maintaining GPA? Won’t this make high scores LESS valuable? For example, if Harvard or Yale’s median is going to drop to 172, doesn’t a 173 become LESS valuable, not more? If the median drops a point, suddenly, the pool of at/above median expands, right? So, in theory, I should be rooting for medians to stay the same?” This is something we spend a good deal of time loo
What will next year’s (2015/2016) law school admissions cycle look like? While no one knows for sure, we are beginning to see some early markers that might indicate the historic shift to an applicant buyers’ market may be nearing its end (for the time being). If you have been an applicant of late, it’s been a good run [http://www.lsac.org/lsacresources/data/lsac-volume-summary]. Looking at next cycle, we have one piece of advice: Get your applications in early! That run might be over, but early
A question we get asked a lot these days is “will there be more waitlist activity this summer than in recent years?” It is, of course, a pertinent question for the vast majority of law school applicants because most applicants will be waitlisted at least somewhere. While there is no definitive answer yet, data from this cycle and historical trends give us at least one theory. And “the new norm” of law admissions leads to another. Let’s take a look at both. **Theory 1: The dominoes will fall. **
If you have not heard, the June LSAT test-taker numbers are out, and they are up. Indeed, they are up for the first time since 2010: 6.6% for all test takers and 10% for first-time takers. Most applicants applying next cycle (Sept 2015 – August 2016 are the dates we will use to define “next cycle”) understand that this isn’t necessarily good news. More test-takers means more competition. But it is still far too early to tell if this is a leading indicator for a more difficult cycle or just a bu
It is time for our annual forecasting into the upcoming cycle -- which means it is time to start thinking in macro-level terms about what is going on with the applicant pool and with schools. But first, a look into our last year's predictions: http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/predicting-the-20152016-law-school-admissions-cycle/ Notably, we said applications would be up, especially at the top bandwidths, and that you would be favored to get your applications in early, if possible. Holy smokes,
In this blog, we will: I. Make our annual upcoming law school admissions cycle predictions. II. Link to a survey that we would love for you to fill out (5 minutes or less) about a law school we are consulting for. III. Finally, after 6 years, start recommending some LSAT prep companies. Please stay around for all three parts of this blog — it helps (which we hope ultimately helps you). And on that note, without further ado, on to predictions and more! I. Predicting to 2017/2018 Law School C
1 — The "bump" this year looks more like an outlier than a trend, especially at the top. For starters, it has followed seven years of down cycles — so the macro trend is still down. How down? The 56,900 CAS registrations this year are almost 30,000 fewer than the high water mark in 2009-2010, and CAS was only first introduced by LSAC in 2009-2010. Additionally, when the cycle started, applications were up 17.1% and applicants were up 14.2%, and now they are down to 8.5% in applicants and 9.2%
This article was co-written with Dave Killoran and Mike Spivey of PowerScore [https://www.powerscore.com/] and Spivey Consulting, respectively. What Happened? On Friday, May 11, 2018, an ABA council approved a proposal that formally removes the requirement that the LSAT be used for admissions purposes [http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ABA_legal_education_council_rule_change_end_admission_test_requirement] at every ABA-approved law school. In its place is broader language that allows sch
Some brief things I've heard from week 1 of travel that might be of interest to applicants. 1. Another WL wave is likely coming soon. That said, the general consensus is that this will be a slow summer as far as WL movement. Most schools feel "content" (precise word I keep hearing) with where they are right now. 2. The ABA ditching 503 might not be as much of a slam dunk as I (and my collegue Dave Killoran at PowerScore) have thought (see our blog on the topic [h
