Status Check with Spivey

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco interviews Sam Parker, Spivey’s newest admissions consultant, on her top 25 (or so) strategic law school admissions insights from her years as Associate Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School. They discuss advice for prospective law students getting ready to apply for the 2025-2026 cycle, advice for recent college graduates, and a...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike Spivey and Anna Hicks-Jaco have a conversation with Sarah Zearfoss (also known as "Dean Z"), who has long led the admissions office at the University of Michigan Law School as Senior Assistant Dean and who hosts the admissions podcast A2Z with Dean Z . The group discusses using generative AI to write your essays vs. to research admission...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike discusses the various factors that are at play for this cycle's waitlist season, his predictions for how it will go, and his advice for waitlisted applicants. For more on waitlist strategy, check out our Waitlist Deep Dive podcast episode! You can listen and subscribe to  Status Check with Spivey  on  ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠ ,  ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ , and  ⁠...

In this episode of  Status Check with Spivey , we have our third and final interview with "John" (not his real name; u/Muvanji on Reddit), who we've followed throughout his law school admissions cycle for 2024-2025. John discusses his final decision on where to attend, his process of requesting scholarship reconsideration, his decision not to pursue waitlists, admitted students days,...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco is joined by Karen Buttenbaum, one of Spivey's most experienced consultants and a former Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, to talk about law school admissions interviews. They discuss a strategy for thinking about and preparing for interviews by categorizing the potential questions you could receive into five groups (plu...

In this episode of  Status Check with Spivey , we catch up with "John" (not his real name; u/Muvanji on Reddit), the applicant who we're following throughout his law school admissions cycle for 2024-2025. We talk about rejection, decisions he has (or hasn't) received, interviews he's done, typos in applications, and more. Stick around until the end for one last update on his...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco has a discussion with two Spivey consultants—Joe Pollak, former Associate Director of Admissions at the University of Michigan Law School, and Nathan Neely, former Director and Associate Director of Admissions at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Law and The University of Houston Law Center—all about the waitlist process. Th...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike gives a brief update and pep talk for current law school applicants during the 2024-2025 admissions cycle. Mike mentions our podcast with world-renowned psychologist Dr. Guy Winch in this episode—you can listen to the full interview here: Dr. Guy Winch on Handling Rejection (& Waiting) in the Admissions and Job Search Process You can listen an...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike has a conversation with Kyle McEntee, LSAC's Senior Director of Prelaw Engagement and the founder of Law School Transparency, centering around the newly released 2024 ABA 509 disclosures and how applicants should consider the data therein. They discuss interpreting class size changes, the ongoing rise of GPAs and grade inflation, LSAT inflation an...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with two Spivey consultants and former law school admissions deans—Derek Meeker, former Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid for the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Shannon Davis, former Assistant Dean for Admissions and Communications at Lewis & Clark Law School—on "Why X" essays (advice, bes...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike has a conversation with Megan Carpenter, Dean of the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, on the highlights and challenges of being a dean, the future of law school and innovation in legal education, generative artificial intelligence as it relates to both admissions and the practice of law, and her best law school admissions advice (plus, what res...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco has a discussion with two Spivey consultants—Derek Meeker, former Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid for the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Danielle Early, former Harvard Law School Associate Director of Admissions—diving deep into the law school application addendum . This episode covers guidelines, best practices, common...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike Spivey has a conversation with Associate Dean Don Rebstock—who, among multiple other departments, heads both Admissions and Career Services at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law—about the first 2024-2025 law school applicant data that was released last week, what it means for applicants, and why it's not as scary as it looks. Some of t...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco introduces "John" (not his real name; u/Muvanji on Reddit), the applicant who we'll be following throughout his law school admissions cycle for 2024-2025 (a series back by popular demand!). We talk more about John, his background, his application materials, and his goals in the episode, but here are some basics about his profile: John g...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Spivey Consulting President Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with three Spivey Consultants and former law school admissions officers—Sam Kwak (Stanford Law, Northwestern Law, Indiana University Law), Paula Gluzman (UCLA Law, UW Law), and Joe Pollak (Michigan Law)—a group that has collectively spent over 20 years advising law school applicants one-on-...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike interviews How I Lawyer podcast host Jonah Perlin on some of the many differences between college and law school, from cold calls to being graded on a curve to the nature of attending a professional school and more. Links to other resources: How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin How I Lawyer #134: Mike Spivey - On Law School Rankings, Admissions,...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco speaks with three Spivey consultants—Tom Robinson, former Harvard Law Director of Admissions; Sir Williams, former Wisconsin Law Director of Admissions; and Anne Dutia, former Michigan Law Assistant Director of Admissions—about the relatively new category of law school admissions essays that we're calling " experience/perspecti...

In this special episode of Status Check with Spivey directed toward parents of law school applicants, Anna Hicks-Jaco and two Spivey consultants—Danielle Early, former Harvard Law Associate Director of Admissions, and Shannon Davis, former Assistant Dean for Admissions and Communications at Lewis & Clark Law—discuss how parents can best support their children through the application process. T...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike has a conversation with Mitch Leff, author of My Addiction, My Superpower , about his experiences overcoming addiction at a young age, the lessons he learned, and how others can use his insights to improve themselves. As attorneys suffer significantly higher rates of substance abuse and depression relative to the wider public, Mitch's insights...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco speaks with two Spivey consultants—Karen Buttenbaum, former Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, and Nathan Neely, former Associate Director of Admissions and Director of Global and Graduate Programs at the University of Houston Law Center—about the law school application resume: what to include and what not to include, differe...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco has a conversation with three Spivey consultants—Anne Dutia, Paula Gluzman, and Derek Meeker, former law school admissions officers at Michigan, UCLA, Penn, and more—diving deep into the law school personal statement. They discuss the brainstorming and topic selection process, how to structure a personal statement, writing tips, broad-l...

In this episode of  Status Check with Spivey , SCG Pre-L Consultant and Fordham Law professor  Jordana Confino  has a conversation with legal writing coach and  Dear 1L  author Amanda Haverstick about legal writing and tackling your 1L year. You can learn more about  Dear 1L  here , connect with Amanda via LinkedIn  here , or email her directly at amanda@dear1L.com. You can listen and subscribe to...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Ann Perry, the University of Chicago Law School's Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid, joins Mike Spivey and Anna Hicks-Jaco to tier-rank law school admissions strategies sourced from the folks over on the r/LawSchoolAdmissions subreddit. They talk about a huge range of topics, including personal statements, letters of recommendation, re...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Anna Hicks-Jaco speaks with Pre-L consultants Rob Cacace and Jordana Confino (bios here ) about the growing importance of work experience in admissions, why the impact of being a "KJD" (going "from Kindergarten through law school" without full-time work experience) has increased over time, and—importantly—how work experience (or a l...

In this episode of Status Check with Spivey , Mike discusses the various factors that play into any given applicant's chances of admission coming off the waitlist. He also gives a quick preview of our (very early) predictions for next cycle. You can listen and subscribe to  Status Check with Spivey  on  ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠ ,  ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠ ,  ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ , and  ⁠⁠Google Podcasts⁠⁠ . You can read...