Admissions

Finding Balance in Law School Admissions and Beyond

Preface The legal profession, law school, and law school admissions can be very tough on people. The following comes from a 2014 joint study conducted by the American Bar Association and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation: 33 percent drink problematically. 28 percent suffer from depression. 19 percent exhibit symptoms of anxiety. Those are just numbers, percentages to be exact, to many. But there have been a number of recent articles in the media that put a poignant and troubled face on these

Top 50 Law School Application Opening Calendar - 2017/2018 Cycle

*Please note, schools can change these dates, and it is possible that when we called to ask them that they gave us the dates applications open rather than when they are accepted (although we were very careful to clearly articulate when can you submit), etc. But this should be highly accurate to the extent we can control it. August 15 * U Chicago * Washington & Lee September 1 * Stanford * Columbia * NYU * U Penn * U Michigan * UVA * Duke * Northwestern * Berkeley * Cornell * U

Examples of Successful Diversity Statements

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of 2023, most law schools no longer ask for a “diversity statement,” instead opting for a broader category of essays that we are calling “experience/perspective essays” or “E/P essays.” You can read examples of successful E/P essays here. We've been asked for examples of diversity statements many times; below are several great ones. It is important to note that diversity statements are truly optional, and not everyone should write one. Contrary to what you may have heard, it

The Multiple Deposit Dance

Over the past few years more and more schools have tried a variety of methods to control the arms-race of scholarship negotiation; one way is asking for people to withdraw from all schools to which they have been admitted and to verify that they have done so when depositing. Below is a link to the LSAC Statement of Good Admissions Practices – a good reference this time of year. Note the section on Commitments: http://www.lsac.org/docs/default-source/publications-%28lsac-resources%29/ statemen

5 Scholarship Negotiation Necessities

As deposit deadlines are nearing, scholarship negotiation season is in full swing. While some law schools are playing hardball (do check back with them after their first deposit deadline), others are playing quite nicely if you have something they want (particularly if it’s an LSAT above last year’s median). We are getting many questions about the most effective means of negotiating — namely, “what else can I do besides present them with another school’s scholarship offer?” We are also hearing h

Top 100 Law School Applicant Feeder Schools

Spivey Consulting in USNWR on a successful Harvard Law resume

Hi Mr. Spivey, I wanted to thank your for your review of my resume in yesterday’s U.S. News & World Report article on law school resumes [http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/articles/2017-02-02/a-law-school-resume-that-made-the-cut] . Surely, my success is due in-part to your willingness to support prospective applicants via your guidance on the Top Law Schools forums. I do not believe I would have applied to Harvard without the encouragement I felt from readin

An Exceptional Personal Statement

Another example [http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/homerun-law-school-personal-statement/] of an applicant who was admitted to their dream school and stood out with a wonderfully sincere and powerful Personal Statement. We will keep sharing exceptional examples of how to do the process -- these matter so much. -- Mike I sat, pondering both the murky nature of the grey slush on the floor and my own murky future as my university applications sat on an admission officer’s desk somewhere. Then I t

How Long Does it Take for Law School Applications to be Read?

This is an important post, notably because there are a few critical misconceptions out there about how files are read — and thus when they should be completed. But first, a semantic. Note I could have said "how short does it take..." in the title. Or, "how PAINFULLY" long?" The fact of the matter is the process is highly variable, depending mostly on you, but also on the school you apply to, when you apply, and a slough of other factors (competitor school read-rates, scholarship considerations,

Choosing a Personal Statement Topic

“But I don’t have a WOW factor.” It is that time of year when applicants realize the LSAT may not be the hardest part of the law school admissions process after all. For many, it will be writing the personal statement. This difficulty often stems from one of two sentiments: the perceived lack of a “wow factor” altogether or the perceived lack of a “wow factor” that is unique. Two of the most common questions we hear from law school applicants are: “But there’s nothing unique about me; I grew up