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Hi Guys,

A friend of mine recommended me the PowerScore admission consulting service, saying that with their help she got in many T14 schools with relatively low numbers. I'm wondering if anyone here has used or is using their service, and if so how you feel about it.

Also, if anyone has a recommendation of service offered by other admission consulting firms, or if there are any firms that are particularly awful, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate if you could briefly explain the reason for your recommendation/criticism

P.S. I'm sure I can get equally good or even better admission advice without hiring a consultant (TLS forum, for example). And I know such service can be costly. Just want to keep my options open and ask for some advice on the choice of firms.

Big thanks in advance to everyone who replies!!!!

I'm currently using PowerScore admission consultant, because I'm an ESL student and don't really want to hire some random guy from my university to read my personal statement. Their rate is cheapest, 100/hr. As far as I've seen my consultant is great, very patient and seems to know his stuff. But I'm not over with it so I'm not really sure how it will turn out in the end.

OP: No one gets into many T-14 law schools with low numbers.

Sorry about the wording. By "many", I meant 5. Also her numbers are not that low.

CanadianWolf wrote:OP: No one gets into many T-14 law schools with low numbers.

Thanks for your reply! Yea, the prelaw advisor from my school is not very helpful either. Mind if I ask how long have you been using their service?

PrayFor170 wrote:I'm currently using PowerScore admission consultant, because I'm an ESL student and don't really want to hire some random guy from my university to read my personal statement. Their rate is cheapest, 100/hr. As far as I've seen my consultant is great, very patient and seems to know his stuff. But I'm not over with it so I'm not really sure how it will turn out in the end.

OP: Did you get the NYU MBA scholarship info. I wrote about several days ago ? Only college seniors are eligible & it covers the full $104,000 per year.

Regardless, consultants are much more commonly used for MBA admissions than for law schools since law schools really only care about one's numbers.

GMW77 wrote:Thanks for your reply! Yea, the prelaw advisor from my school is not very helpful either. Mind if I ask how long have you been using their service?

PrayFor170 wrote:I'm currently using PowerScore admission consultant, because I'm an ESL student and don't really want to hire some random guy from my university to read my personal statement. Their rate is cheapest, 100/hr. As far as I've seen my consultant is great, very patient and seems to know his stuff. But I'm not over with it so I'm not really sure how it will turn out in the end.

I''ll pm you.

Post removed.

I used Powerscore's admission consulting, though it was a pretty informal process; just my LSAT instructor guiding me through the process of writing my various statements and editing my resume. As a non-traditional student with a crazy long resume, my guy was incredibly helpful in packaging everything up and helping me make informed decisions. I agree with the above comment about helping students on the margins: if you're a wild card student with an interesting background, this type of service can help you punch above your numbers. If you're an otherwise traditional candidate I doubt it would do much of anything, tbh. The main virtue of these services is that they prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot. While I used Powerscore for this (mainly because I liked my LSAT instructor), if I was doing it again I would probably go with Mike Spivey.

Thanks a lot for your reply Glasseyes. Actually I'm deciding between PowerScore and Spivey Consulting. So I assume that you got good results with PowerScore? Would you say that you outperform your numbers with their help?

Glasseyes wrote:I used Powerscore's admission consulting, though it was a pretty informal process; just my LSAT instructor guiding me through the process of writing my various statements and editing my resume. As a non-traditional student with a crazy long resume, my guy was incredibly helpful in packaging everything up and helping me make informed decisions. I agree with the above comment about helping students on the margins: if you're a wild card student with an interesting background, this type of service can help you punch above your numbers. If you're an otherwise traditional candidate I doubt it would do much of anything, tbh. The main virtue of these services is that they prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot. While I used Powerscore for this (mainly because I liked my LSAT instructor), if I was doing it again I would probably go with Mike Spivey.

Thanks a lot for your reply Mornincounselor. Well one important reason I want to hire a consultant is to save time. Still have to study for Dec retake besides writing my applications

mornincounselor wrote:I think consulting is really worth it in a few cases. If you are right in the margins they can really give you great advice for putting yourself in the right place at the right time. Further, their assistance is valuable in leveraging scholarship opportunities amongst multiple schools.

But, I agree, if you spend enough time searching on these forums you will learn most of the best information without the need of a consultant. Or at least you can learn a lot of things.

GMW77 wrote:Thanks a lot for your reply Glasseyes. Actually I'm deciding between PowerScore and Spivey Consulting. So I assume that you got good results with PowerScore? Would you say that you outperform your numbers with their help?

Glasseyes wrote:I used Powerscore's admission consulting, though it was a pretty informal process; just my LSAT instructor guiding me through the process of writing my various statements and editing my resume. As a non-traditional student with a crazy long resume, my guy was incredibly helpful in packaging everything up and helping me make informed decisions. I agree with the above comment about helping students on the margins: if you're a wild card student with an interesting background, this type of service can help you punch above your numbers. If you're an otherwise traditional candidate I doubt it would do much of anything, tbh. The main virtue of these services is that they prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot. While I used Powerscore for this (mainly because I liked my LSAT instructor), if I was doing it again I would probably go with Mike Spivey.

It's hard to say. From a pure number standpoint, I did outperform a bit. Wound up at a lower T14 with a good scholarship, which was better than i was expecting—I have no reason to complain. That said, I'm pretty sure the main reason I outperformed my numbers is because of my resume (10 years in a great-on-paper job in an interesting industry paired with some creative success for multiple artistic endeavors); the consulting guy helped me make sense of a complex/weird resume and package it in a way that would appeal to admissions folks. Admissions officers really only care about a few things: they love high numbers up front (GPAs and LSATs) and at the back-end (employment numbers), so the only thing that will compensate for lower numbers up front is if there's something special about you that will make you irresistible to employers. This is all just to say: for normal applicants—with 1-3 years of work experience and an appropriate mix of interesting but not outstanding extracurricular accomplishments (this describes 95% of my classmates, for what it's worth)—I don't think consulting would make a huge difference. It certainly won't hurt, and I think having someone coach you through a perfect personal statement is probably the difference between getting off of waitlists, but they're not miracle workers. You're not going to get into Harvard (or anywhere remotely close) with BU numbers, counseling or no.

Yes I think you're absolutely right about admission officers. I will take your advice into consideration. Thanks again

Glasseyes wrote:It's hard to say. From a pure number standpoint, I did outperform a bit. Wound up at a lower T14 with a good scholarship, which was better than i was expecting—I have no reason to complain. That said, I'm pretty sure the main reason I outperformed my numbers is because of my resume (10 years in a great-on-paper job in an interesting industry paired with some creative success for multiple artistic endeavors); the consulting guy helped me make sense of a complex/weird resume and package it in a way that would appeal to admissions folks. Admissions officers really only care about a few things: they love high numbers up front (GPAs and LSATs) and at the back-end (employment numbers), so the only thing that will compensate for lower numbers up front is if there's something special about you that will make you irresistible to employers. This is all just to say: for normal applicants—with 1-3 years of work experience and an appropriate mix of interesting but not outstanding extracurricular accomplishments (this describes 95% of my classmates, for what it's worth)—I don't think consulting would make a huge difference. It certainly won't hurt, and I think having someone coach you through a perfect personal statement is probably the difference between getting off of waitlists, but they're not miracle workers. You're not going to get into Harvard (or anywhere remotely close) with BU numbers, counseling or no.

Between those options, go Spivey by a wide margin. I used to work for Powerscore, the people that are helping you with apps are often just law students, the more professional options you see talked about on this board like Spivey often consist of whole teams of former adcomms. As far as I'm concerned the options are really only Spivey, or do it yourself.

First, you should determine what you expect from a consultant's service. Then, ask that consultant what you should expect from them. It's a big difference between hiring an editor and hiring someone for their connections.

Thanks a lot Clearly. Very Convincing. You confirmed one of my concerns about PowerScore. I already set up a call with Karen.

Clearly wrote:Between those options, go Spivey by a wide margin. I used to work for Powerscore, the people that are helping you with apps are often just law students, the more professional options you see talked about on this board like Spivey often consist of whole teams of former adcomms. As far as I'm concerned the options are really only Spivey, or do it yourself.

Hey all – Jon with PowerScore here. Love the discussion in this thread, and I’m pleased to read the success stories—with us or otherwise—recounted above! I just want to add two quick points to (hopefully) help everyone out as they consider their options: (1) We’re big fans of the great folks at Spivey, and have nothing but full endorsement for them! They do an excellent job, and the LSAT/LS prep industry is certainly better for them being in it. Hearing that others have found their programs so useful is unsurprising to us, and we recommend them to anyone who asks (2) Just to clarify one comment made above, we only employ a select handful of admissions consultants, each of whom is extremely knowledgeable in all things LSAT and admissions (and none of whom are law students ), but certainly you’ll get a different resume and background with every consultant you work with.

The truth is the programs we offer for admissions consulting and those offered by Spivey are simply different animals, so one-to-one comparisons feel a little apples and oranges to me. That is, our admissions programs tend to be extensions of our LSAT prep services, where we have admissions counselors who are also 99th percentile LSAT experts assist students already in our ecosystem, and already known to us, as they go beyond the LSAT and complete the rest of their application. For the most part I see what we do as complementary to our other offerings, rather than exclusively stand-alone. For some people that’s desirable, for others it may not make as much of a difference, so it really depends—as all successful admissions/prep work should—on the individual.

The comments above aren’t meant to be comprehensive, and I really can’t say enough good things about Spivey. I think you’ll find yourself well-served no matter which direction you choose.

I’m happy to answer any other questions anyone might have; post away and I’ll do my best to help however I can!

Jon