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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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  1. Lawyer or Paralegal
  2. When Should I Apply to Law School?
  3. What law school should I go to practice _____ law?
  4. How do I apply to Law School?
  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.

General

General chat about the legal profession.
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KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
18:47
@TruthTheX: praying for your gulc uprising
TruthTheX
19:15
Ty me too 🙏
TruthTheX
19:15
@Silver: if you want to practice in IL then there’s likely no better school than the in state schools
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
19:53
@SpectacularDefiantMouse: yeah, like condemnedpuffygnome, I'm not really preparing for law school by taking some courses or anything like that. The only way I'm going to be preparing is by getting myself into a rhythm schedule-wise, well enough in advance of the first day of classes, that I think will be necessary for me to do well 1L.
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
19:54
I'm very much not in rhythm now. lol. But I've 3-ish months.
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
19:55
I've got*
jb2028
19:55
@Silver: Cost of attendance is what matters. $37K in-state tuition = $47K sticker price with a $10K scholarship elsewhere, $70K sticker with a $40K scholarship is better than either, $40K sticker with a $0 scholarship worse than both.
jb2028
19:55
(Assuming placement etc. is comparable)
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
19:57
Congrats on Harvard, jb2028. Any reason you applied to A&M but not Texas at Austin? Seems odd.
jb2028
19:58
@BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool: Family connection, they gave me a CAS waiver so it was free
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
20:00
Ah, gotcha.
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
20:04
Question for the chat about judicial internships (not externships). My understanding is that judicial internships (as opposed to externships) during the summer are unpaid. How, then, do people who get them pay living expenses during the summer? Do they just make loans stretch for 12 months when they're only meant for 9? I heard that some people supplement the internship with, e.g., a research assistant position with a law professor. But would such a person both do the internship and the RA position at the same time? And if so, is that too much work or feasible?
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
20:04
I don't know what the workload is really like for judicial internships and RA positions.
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
20:05
Also curious what other things people might do to supplement an unpaid judicial internship over the summer with something paid.
jb2028
20:20
@BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool: Many schools will provide some type of stipend for unpaid summer roles with a public interest employer (defined broadly, often includes any gov or judicial job)
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
20:35
Right, I thought so. At BU, though, it appears that what's called BU's public interest project grant is not available to supplement judicial internships. And I think its public service summer funding is also limited. Oh well.
jb2028
21:13
@BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool: FWIW they allude to some type of funding ("BU Law has implemented separate funding sources for judicial interns") in this packet https://www.bu.edu/law/files/2023/11/Public-Service-Summer-Funding-Applicant-Packet-2024.pdf
jb2028
21:13
Although they don't give details, and as you note they don't guarantee funding to everyone (which is in line with other $ they offer, e.g. the LRAP)
TruthTheX
21:14
Anyone know how hard it is to do pro bono work as a 1L for judges or fed gov in general in the D.C. market
TruthTheX
21:14
Idk much about pro bono opportunities period but thinking I wanna try to get some work experience as soon as humanly possible
TruthTheX
21:14
When I begin law school I mean
jb2028
21:15
Lines up with BU's limited endowment: $81K per student a few years ago, i.e., enough to support a payout of about $3,250 per student per year at a 4% payout rate https://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2022/05/per-student-value-of-law-school-endowments-2021.html
jb2028
21:17
Seems like they're trying to compete with other schools on program headlines (we fund X, Y, and Z and we have an LRAP) but the endowment can't really support that, so they have all these programs but don't guarantee funding. Would not rely on that if you have alternatives.
BankruptcyAndRestructuringLawIsCool
21:19
Thanks for those links. I'll give the public service summer funding information packet, in particular, a careful read. But yeah, your takeaway seems right.
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:33
i could really use some fried chicken right now
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:34
kfc or popeyes
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:34
or korean with gochujang
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:35
i might order some gochujang sauce on amazon and cook some air fried chicken breast filets, they’re really good
KnowledgeableRitzyWasp
22:35
just letting you guys know :)
Mohammed
0:14
Where I can find the definition of the false-endowment?
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