Blog & Podcasts

How to solve the conundrum of “Finite You/Infinite Needs”

This is mostly geared toward work and school related finite resource needs. In other words, "how do I manage four organizations, four classes, and LSAT study all in the same semester?"

2019-2020 Cycle Volume as of January 1st

Happy New Year everyone! This marks the start of the "2020" part in the "2019-2020" application cycle.

Analyzing and Understanding Conditional Scholarships

One of the most important factors when deciding where to attend law school is an applicant's financial aid package.

Mid-December Data Update

November 2019 LSAT scores are being released today. Congratulations to all those who took that test!

New Package: Admissions Decision Analysis

Effective today, we have a new admissions package we hope will be useful to many.

A Quick, 5 Minute Podcast on Your First Job

Every ladder has a first step. Enjoy!

An in-depth analysis of the 2019 law school admissions & entering class data

The ABA has released the 2019 509 reports, so it's time for us to dive in and see what kind of information and trends can be gleaned from the data.

Statement on USNWR Law School Rankings

For the past 7 years, we have been fortunate to have received a copy of the law school rankings before they have been released, and we have provided that copy to the public.

Entering Class Data for Every ABA Law School

The link to all of the entering class data for every ABA-approved law school from the official 509 reports is here.

Particular People

A short blog Mike Spivey wrote on breaking out of your comfort zone.

Addition of Scott Moss + Current Consulting Availability

Good news on our current availability—we anticipate being off our wait list very soon, for the first time since mid-July.

Spivey Consulting Official Statement On A Counter-Cycle

2019-2020 Cycle Volume as of December 1st

We're now a few months into the 2019-2020 application cycle, and while it's still pretty early, a few trends are starting to emerge.

Law Schools Ranked by Debt to Starting Income Ratio

With recent data published by the Department of Education, Law School Transparency compiled and analyzed law school graduates' median law school debt and their median earnings in the year after graduation.

Choosing the Impossible

Linked is a blog post our founder, Mike Spivey, wrote on getting to determine your fate. Enjoy if you need a boost or a break from law school thoughts.

Podcast: The Waiting is Long and Full of Terrors

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group Founder and Partner Mike Spivey discusses the hardest part of the law school admissions process—the waiting—and how it can cause some applicants to hurt their own chances of admission.

Illustrative Interview Story

My partner, Karen Buttenbaum, used to be the Director of Admissions at Harvard. In fact, years ago it was called "KB1" for an interview and "KB2" for an admit.

The ETA Report

This link is to chapter 1 of a book Mike Spivey is writing on decision-making; relevant of course to law school applicants and students, but also covering a lot more than that.

Podcast: Mike Spivey on the Darker Side of Self-Doxing in Law School Admissions

In this podcast, Spivey Consulting Group Founder and Partner Mike Spivey discusses what happens when a law school applicant posts something that deeply offends or insults law school admissions officers who may know who they are in real life.

Early Indicators that the 2020/2021 Admissions Cycle Could Be Way Up

We didn't plan to parse the data yet; to be as precise as possible, the data started begging us to dig in.