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How do you even start the process of going to law school?

There is an LSAC, and an LSAT, and a Spivey, and I want a powerful score, but also 7 Sages sound helpful
Apr 2, 2023

These are all law school application specific terms that are often thrown around on Reddit and on our site. For a full and easy to search list of terms you can check out our term list here.

Table of Contents

  1. What is the LSAC
  2. What is the LSAT
  3. What is Spivey Consulting
  4. What is admissions consulting
  5. Related Articles

What is the LSAC?

The LSAC is the Law School Admission Council, a nonprofit organization that provides services to law schools and prospective law students. The LSAC administers the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), and provides other services to facilitate law school admission. The LSAC also provides information about financial aid and scholarships to help law school applicants pay for their education. 

The LSAC provides a variety of services to help law school applicants pay for their education. The LSAC administers the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), and provides other services to facilitate law school admission. The LSAC also provides information about financial aid and scholarships to help law school applicants pay for their education.

What is the LSAT?

The LSAT is a half-day standardized test that is offered about every other month and is used as an ‘objective’ measure for law schools to compare students. The LSAT is administered by the LSAC and is required for admission to most law schools in the United States, though more and more are accepting the GRE as well. The LSAT is a multiple-choice test that measures reading comprehension, logical reasoning, and analytical reasoning skills. 

What is Spivey Consulting?

Spivey is the most famous and prestigious law school admissions service in the US. From their website: 

“Spivey Consulting Group is the premiere law school admissions consulting firm, with collectively more than 250 years of law school admissions experience across our team. Our consultants are former admissions officers from law schools including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, Penn, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, UCLA, and more, and our mission is to help you get admitted to your dream school.”

What is admissions consulting?

Admissions consultants work with individual students to help with their application for getting into a law school. Admissions consultants help the student choose the right school and then help with all of the application process and documents. They may recommend an LSAT prep course and will act as pseudo tutors to help you with your personal statements and other essays.

Admissions consulting is not cheap. In fact it is painfully expensive. I looked into it when I was applying to business school and was quoted $4900 for help applying to one school and $6800 for two. I assume law school services are comparable though maybe a bit cheaper. If you have the money, this can be a great opportunity to make sure that you give yourself the best chance possible to get into a great school. But if you are deciding where you spend limited money, then we recommend putting it towards doing as well as possible on the LSAT because your score matters a lot for getting into law school. 

If anyone has experience with law school admission consulting please reach out because we would love to hear about your experience. (help@lsd.law)

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  2. When Should I Apply to Law School?
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  5. How Much do Lawyers Make?
Windsor MIT '22, Harvard College Advisor

I am the half of LSD that didn't take the LSAT, or go to law school (Sorry about that). But I did go to MIT business school while surrounded by law students and lawyers, so I am somewhat qualified to talk about the intricacies of law school apps and finances.

Windsor (the dog) didn't write this but he WAS a Resident Tutor and career advisor at Harvard College with me, so deserves some credit.

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hilltern
19:12
Why can’t you take it again
hilltern
19:12
@WhisperingWillingBoar: Penn won’t be 4 this year
[] NecessaryAquaticHuman
19:37
Yea who knows tbh with the new rankings methodology
[] NecessaryAquaticHuman
19:38
Also I know several OOS reverse splitters that go to uva fwiw
onetimesignin
19:40
Bro Keygan Church is peak and y'all ain't ready for that
onetimesignin
19:41
if you want some HYPE music that's where it's at
onetimesignin
19:41
Asgretalos and Tenebre Rosso Sangue are bangers
[] WhisperingWillingBoar
19:47
@hilltern: Your guess is as good as mine, but I've always been shocked that they weren't t6. I don't see them falling lower than 6 for the foreseeable future. Penn, to me, does better than Columbia and NYU in placements. So I think it stays within the t6 and Columbia and NYU join penn back into the t6. All of them are great schools, obviously, we are nitpicking very minor details when you get to schools ranked that high and that highly regarded.
ConservativeFlagBearer
19:50
Penn Columbia and nyu are the same but nyu does pi better Columbia does biglaw better and Penn is cheaper
ConservativeFlagBearer
19:51
U need higher grades at Penn for the v10
ConservativeFlagBearer
19:51
Not much of a difference until you hit Chicago at which point HYSC are a league of their own
[] WhisperingWillingBoar
20:09
@ConservativeFlagBearer: I agree with your sentiment that HYSC are in a league of their own, but using v10 to distinguish Columbia from penn is odd. While we are pre-law/law school applicants and may care about those, no one in the legal industry cares at all about the v5/10/15/20/30/50 distinctions. They all pay the same (most of them at least) and many of the ones that actually pay more are ranked lower because they are smaller. NYU is the best school for public interest, maybe outside of yale.
Isagi
20:13
What does v5/10 etc mean?
ConservativeFlagBearer
20:37
I said they’re basically the same, but this is something that differentiates them. V10 is desirable to some due to exit ops. And i think HLS has much better PI ops than NYU.
ConservativeFlagBearer
20:38
Vault rankings, basically rankings for BL firms
FurtiveBonobo
21:20
Anyone willing to give opinion on a 166 3.56 Puerto Rican, currently working as a biglaw paralegal? :)
FurtiveBonobo
21:21
For GW and Georgetown
thelawofthecricket
21:56
@FurtiveBonobo: youre below both 25ths for georgetown and both medians for GW so in either case i think it'll be tough...i think even with URM status georgetown will be a reach but GW could be a lock with strong statements/applying earlier
thelawofthecricket
21:56
do you plan on retaking the lsat?
FurtiveBonobo
22:08
Yeah, in October
thelawofthecricket
22:56
do your best and you'll kill it!
[] SplitDontQuit
23:14
Does anyone know much about the University of Minnesota? I have a 165 LSAT score but a 3.09 CAS GPA. I have a valid reason for the GPA and I will obviously explain that. I was planning on applying Early Decision, but I’m not sure if I should wait until after the October LSAT to try for a better score or if it would be better to get it in earlier.
DependentBizarreShoe
0:25
Any thoughts on a 168 3.7? Thinking of applying to Georgetown early decision. Korean American dual citizen who is currently a senior at Georgetown
[] NecessaryAquaticHuman
7:06
Unlikely
[] NecessaryAquaticHuman
7:06
Retake lsat and break 171 and yeah you got a sho
[] NecessaryAquaticHuman
7:06
Shot
[] NecessaryAquaticHuman
7:11
Unless you take a bunch of classes and get A+’s and somehow break median
DependentBizarreShoe
9:46
I took the lsat and got 168 back to back, so I don't know if that's my ceiling but I'm not sure if I can improve much more :'(
DependentBizarreShoe
9:47
+ applying early decision means I don't get my grades back for this semester as well
DependentBizarreShoe
9:47
That sucks, I was hoping being a gtown undergrad and applying ED might help me a bit
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