Ann Levine — Worth da $$ ??? Forum

[Dr. Dre]

Is Ann Levine (LinkRemoved) worth Dre's $$ ? ? ?

She wrote this book.

[IAFG]

She was "director of admissions for two ABA approved law schools"? BOTH ABA approved?! Pretty impressive. Should be on your must-read list.

[JamMasterJ]

probably no more valuable than the hive mind

[North]

Former Director of Admissions at the prestigious Loyola LA and California Western Law Schools.

It's cool that she found anther way to leech cash from this generation, though.

[Ti Malice]

She even includes "Esq." with her name on the cover. So perfectly TTT.

[Bronck]

It sure is

[mx23250]

I recently bought and read this book. To be honest, most of the book discussed things I already knew just by common sense or by reading articles/forums ; however, I did find some of her advice to be pretty good and things I otherwise probably wouldn't have considered. For me it was worth the $13 even if there were only a few pages of the whole book I found "valuable".

[ManOfTheMinute]

Former Director of Admissions at the prestigious Loyola LA and California Western Law Schools.

It's cool that she found anther way to leech cash from this generation, though.

180

[ingeniusprep]

deleted

[North]

Hi all!

I'm a Dartmouth '11 and current student at Yale Law School. I am the co-founder of FUCKING SPAM, an admissions counseling company which helps students build their candidacy and perfect their applications for medical, law, and business schools.

Students work one-on-one with our professional admissions counselors. Our team includes over 30 former admissions officers from the top professional schools in the country, including: Harvard/Hopkins/Stanford/UCSF med schools, Harvard/Yale/Stanford law schools, Harvard/Wharton/Tuck Business Schools etc.

If you're thinking of applying to med school, law school, or business school, and would like to learn more about us, you can check out our new website (link above), or shoot me an email GARBAGE FUCKING SPAM SITE

We do what you do for free, bro, and we do it better.

[jrsbaseball5]

Is Ann Levine (LinkRemoved) worth Dre's $$ ? ? ?

She wrote this book.

She has a podcast that I've listened to a couple of times and the information seemed helpful though most of what was said I read here on TLS. I would suggest listening to the podcast to get a flavor of what she has to offer.

[Fussell]

Hi all!

I'm a Dartmouth '11 and current student at Yale Law School. I am the co-founder of FUCKING SPAM, an admissions counseling company which helps students build their candidacy and perfect their applications for medical, law, and business schools.

Students work one-on-one with our professional admissions counselors. Our team includes over 30 former admissions officers from the top professional schools in the country, including: Harvard/Hopkins/Stanford/UCSF med schools, Harvard/Yale/Stanford law schools, Harvard/Wharton/Tuck Business Schools etc.

If you're thinking of applying to med school, law school, or business school, and would like to learn more about us, you can check out our new website (link above), or shoot me an email GARBAGE FUCKING SPAM SITE

We do what you do for free, bro, and we do it better.

TITCR

[Br3v]

Hi all!

I'm a Dartmouth '11 and current student at Yale Law School. I am the co-founder of FUCKING SPAM, an admissions counseling company which helps students build their candidacy and perfect their applications for medical, law, and business schools.

Students work one-on-one with our professional admissions counselors. Our team includes over 30 former admissions officers from the top professional schools in the country, including: Harvard/Hopkins/Stanford/UCSF med schools, Harvard/Yale/Stanford law schools, Harvard/Wharton/Tuck Business Schools etc.

If you're thinking of applying to med school, law school, or business school, and would like to learn more about us, you can check out our new website (link above), or shoot me an email GARBAGE FUCKING SPAM SITE

We do what you do for free, bro, and we do it better.

Idk it may give me peace of mind to just shell out and pay a professional to tell me to retake and ED UVA

[JamMasterJ]

Hi all!

I'm a Dartmouth '11 and current student at Yale Law School. I am the co-founder of FUCKING SPAM, an admissions counseling company which helps students build their candidacy and perfect their applications for medical, law, and business schools.

Students work one-on-one with our professional admissions counselors. Our team includes over 30 former admissions officers from the top professional schools in the country, including: Harvard/Hopkins/Stanford/UCSF med schools, Harvard/Yale/Stanford law schools, Harvard/Wharton/Tuck Business Schools etc.

If you're thinking of applying to med school, law school, or business school, and would like to learn more about us, you can check out our new website (link above), or shoot me an email GARBAGE FUCKING SPAM SITE

We do what you do for free, bro, and we do it better.

Idk it may give me peace of mind to just shell out and pay a professional to tell me to retake and ED UVA

would you like my paypal account number?

[Borg]

Seems like a waste, and those credentials aren't terribly impressive. Back in my day everyone read the Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, which I bought and found somewhat useful when writing my essays. The woman who wrote it was an admissions dean at the University of Chicago, so her advice is a bit more applicable for people targeting top schools. If you're going to get a book, I'd recommend that one.

[tractal]

Her blog is loaded with stories about how she helped kids with 147 LSAT's "achieve their admissions goals." I'm assuming that didn't mean "got them to retake", which sends a strong signal about whose interests she's advancing. Also, Esq. In any case, Montauk's How to Get Into Top Law Schools is a good bet if you feel like you need some more information about the process/what to do with your PS etc.

[Br3v]

Seems like a waste, and those credentials aren't terribly impressive. Back in my day everyone read the Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, which I bought and found somewhat useful when writing my essays. The woman who wrote it was an admissions dean at the University of Chicago, so her advice is a bit more applicable for people targeting top schools. If you're going to get a book, I'd recommend that one.

I would recommend Ivey still. A lot of it is common TLS knowledge but I found the parts about essays to be pretty helpful and it was nice knowing the advice was coming from her rather than some stranger on the internet.

[jrsbaseball5]

Seems like a waste, and those credentials aren't terribly impressive. Back in my day everyone read the Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, which I bought and found somewhat useful when writing my essays. The woman who wrote it was an admissions dean at the University of Chicago, so her advice is a bit more applicable for people targeting top schools. If you're going to get a book, I'd recommend that one.

I would recommend Ivey still. A lot of it is common TLS knowledge but I found the parts about essays to be pretty helpful and it was nice knowing the advice was coming from her rather than some stranger on the internet.

I agree. Ivey still has some pretty solid advice in my opinion.

[MKC]

Hi all!

I'm a Dartmouth '11 and current student at Yale Law School. I am the co-founder of FUCKING SPAM, an admissions counseling company which helps students build their candidacy and perfect their applications for medical, law, and business schools.

Students work one-on-one with our professional admissions counselors. Our team includes over 30 former admissions officers from the top professional schools in the country, including: Harvard/Hopkins/Stanford/UCSF med schools, Harvard/Yale/Stanford law schools, Harvard/Wharton/Tuck Business Schools etc.

If you're thinking of applying to med school, law school, or business school, and would like to learn more about us, you can check out our new website (link above), or shoot me an email GARBAGE FUCKING SPAM SITE

We do what you do for free, bro, and we do it better.

Idk it may give me peace of mind to just shell out and pay a professional to tell me to retake and ED UVA

Do you think we could get this stickied as a Topic in the "What are my Chances" and "Choosing a Law School" Forums, you know, as a "Read before posting in this forum." thing? Because that would be fantastic.

[lzyovrachievr]

Former Director of Admissions at the prestigious Loyola LA and California Western Law Schools.

It's cool that she found anther way to leech cash from this generation, though.

I'm not sure a couple of schools on her resume means her advice is shit, bro. It's not like admissions are substantially different between different school tiers.

[North]

Former Director of Admissions at the prestigious Loyola LA and California Western Law Schools.

It's cool that she found anther way to leech cash from this generation, though.

I'm not sure a couple of schools on her resume means her advice is shit, bro. It's not like admissions are substantially different between different school tiers.

Oh I'm sure the advice is solid, but that wasn't what the jab was after.

[DaleCooper]

Hi, I'm Dale, and I've actually 1.) read her book, and 2.) used her service.

As for the book, it's really good for its time. It's pretty honest, and occasionally brutal at times (in a lot of the same ways TLS is these days), but it's also full of good advice. And it's more accurate than the TLS hive mind, since it's actually based on how real admissions directors think (not just her, but she's friends with a few T1 directors and is at least in regular contact with a few of the T14 directors). She doesn't mince words. I recommend both her book and Ivey's book to anyone applying... both are much more organized and accessible than reading 10,000 conflicting forum posts scattered across 100 threads, and combined I think you're looking at like $30. They have generally overlapping advice but occasionally cover different areas with differing amounts of detail. Levine's book is more conversational in tone than Ivey's and has more jokes (which are often a device for concealing brutal truths about how little the average admissions director cares about your Eagle Scout badge, the semester you spent learning that Italians only drink lattes in the morning, or the time you got injured mid-season but OVERCAME!).

She's supposed to be coming out with a new edition at some point in the near future (disclosure: she asked me to write a couple paragraphs for the waitlist chapter), and it will reflect all the ITE things we bitch about, but minus the over-the-top HYS W/ $$$$ OR DON'T GO!!! stuff you get here.

As for the service, I can only offer my personal experience and an implied counterfactual, but...

I had ED-to-UVA numbers, and LSP listed me as Consider at VCGT, Weak Consider at PM, Deny at HCCND. TLS hivemind said I should ED to UVA. I am not a bro, and I did not really want to ED to UVA. Ann told me not to ED to UVA. I did not ED to UVA. I was accepted to VDCG off the bat with $$ at DG and $$$$ at T, and I was waitlisted at HCCNP. I am now a student at NYU, I have not played beer pong all year, and I am happy.

I'm not sure how useful admissions consultants are compared to (a serious investment of time into) TLS if you're an absolutely bog-standard K-JD from an upper-middle suburban family who can edit their own essays and use LSP and knows that it's better to actually visit the schools than just trust TLS stereotypes. But since I was kind of a white trash weirdo with unusual (though not impressive) softs, I decided to call...

...Anna Ivey.

Because I had only read her book at that point. But she didn't return my calls, I guess because I wasn't exactly the kind of person she's used to dealing with. So then I found Ann Levine's book at B&N, and loved it. I looked up her up, found out she charges about half of what Ivey does and has carved out a bit of a rep for helping people who don't fit the mold, and hired her. And she was really, really awesome. There were a few moments where she tossed out not only TLS conventional wisdom, but even her own book's advice in reference to my particular weirdness. She decided that, given my background, I should use my résumé to show how crazyweird I am, my personal statement to be all professional and serious, and my white trash diversity statement (yes, apparently they accept those) and GPA addendum to show that I had been through some serious shit in my life. And that strategy appears to have worked... N, D, and G's admissions directors all knew me by name based on my diversity statement and GPA addendum when I met them in person. And on a personal level, Ann was really nice and friendly and I always felt like she was personally invested in me getting into one of my top choices (HCN, followed by D).

As for what OP should do, I think he should read the new edition of the book when it comes out. I mean, seriously, it's like $15. If her writing resonates with him (because the book is basically her in real life, just written down and directed at a general audience), and if he feels like he would benefit from tailored advice rather than the collective, generalized wisdom of a bunch of law students who have each been though the admissions process exactly once*, he should probably call her up and do the free consultation or whatever. I wouldn't write her off just because TLS recoils at the idea that there is good advice outside of TLS.

*I don't know how many times she has via clients, but I'm sure it's in the thousands (many of them HYS admits), and tapping into that experience was worth the price alone for me. I remember when I thought I had come up with a really awesome and original personal statement, and she returned it with a note saying something vaguely along the lines of: "No. This is boring and cliché, and I have read this essay 300 times in the past ten years. You can do better." That stung for 30 seconds, and then I was like, wait, that's exactly what I paid for.


(Edit: Just emailed her, and she says the new edition comes out June 11th.)

[dawyzest1]

Dre, you're experienced enough in this to know that URM admissions are different. She doesn't have much to say on the topic other than to confirm the existence of boosts etc.

I've yet to find a book that gives good substantive advice to URMs applying. The best resource by far is GAIA's thread on TLS.

[Dr. Dre]

Where are the pros that specialize in URM's then? Where they at? Who are they?

[dawyzest1]

Where are the pros that specialize in URM's then? Where they at? Who are they?

It's too small a market to generate any experts. We just have to depend on received folk wisdom and internet chat boards. Either that or go find someone who went where you want to go and ask them what they did.

I am a fool so I bought Levine, Levy, and Montauk. I even spent an inordinate time on DeLoggio's circa 1995 website. Learn from my mistakes...you already know all you need to know.

EDIT: Though, I did find some psychic comfort in identifying those little threads of information that suggested good things might be coming for me. Three cheers for confirmation bias!