Entries by David Petersam

⚖️ Is Stanford Law “Off Limits” to Conservatives?

For conservative law school applicants, a provocative question has resurfaced: Is Stanford Law School a place where conservative students can genuinely thrive—or has the ideological climate become sufficiently one-sided that they should look elsewhere? The immediate inspiration for the question comes from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Speaking at a Hoover Institution event last month, […]

🎓 3-Year BBA Programs: 120 Credits vs. 90 Credits

For families worried about the rising cost of college, the traditional four-year bachelor’s degree is beginning to look less inevitable. A growing number of colleges are experimenting with three-year business degrees, allowing students to graduate sooner, reduce tuition and living expenses, and enter the workforce earlier. But there is a critical distinction that parents and […]

🤖 The Future of the MBA: Why Generalists May Win in the Age of AI

For decades, MBA applicants have been encouraged to develop a clear area of expertise. Finance. Marketing. Strategy. Operations. Technology. Healthcare. Real estate. Specialization has traditionally been a sensible career strategy because employers were willing to pay a premium for people who possessed scarce knowledge and could perform tasks that others could not. Artificial intelligence may […]

🎓 University of Chicago Admissions: What 10 Years of Data Mean for Applicants

The University of Chicago has long been one of the nation’s most academically distinctive universities. Known for its rigorous Core Curriculum, intellectual culture, and famously unconventional essay prompts, UChicago also has become dramatically more selective over the past decade. For prospective students and their parents, the most important question isn’t simply “What is UChicago’s acceptance […]

🎓 Standardized Tests Are Back: What High School Seniors Need to Know for College Admissions

For several years, the college admissions landscape seemed to be moving decisively away from standardized testing. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the trend, and thousands of colleges adopted test-optional or test-free policies. But the pendulum has started to swing back. For the 2026–27 college admissions cycle, a growing number of colleges once again require applicants to […]

📱 MBA Admissions and Social Media: What Applicants Need to Know

Social media has become an increasingly important part of the MBA admissions landscape. For most applicants, however, the biggest misconception is that admissions committees routinely conduct deep investigations of every candidate’s Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, Facebook, Reddit, or other online accounts. They generally don’t have the time or incentive to conduct exhaustive searches of every […]

⚖️ Clerkship Stacking Is Changing the Law School Career Pipeline

For decades, a federal judicial clerkship was generally viewed as a prestigious one-year bridge between law school and a legal career. A recent trend is changing that model. More law graduates are now “stacking” judicial clerkships—completing two, three, or even four clerkships consecutively before entering private practice, government, academia, or another long-term legal position. For […]

🎓 Cornell University Admissions: What 10 Years of Data Mean for Applicants

For students and parents considering Cornell University, one fact stands out from the university’s admissions data: getting into Cornell has become substantially more competitive over the past decade. The biggest reason is not that Cornell has dramatically reduced the number of students it admits. Instead, the applicant pool has grown much faster than the number […]

🎓 Notre Dame Admissions Is Getting More Competitive: What the 10-Year REA Trend Means for Class of 2031 Applicants

If you’re hoping to attend the University of Notre Dame, there is an important trend you should understand before submitting your application: Notre Dame’s Restrictive Early Action (REA) applicant pool has more than doubled over the past decade, while the number of students admitted early has remained relatively stable. That combination has made Notre Dame’s […]

U.S. Law School Applications Surge Again: What the 2026 Applicant Boom Means for Admissions and Future Lawyer Earnings

⚖️ Law School Applications Reached Their Highest Level Since 2010 If you are applying to law school this year, you are entering a significantly more competitive market than applicants faced just a few years ago. The 2025–26 U.S. law school application cycle produced 82,484 applicants, an increase of approximately 8% from the previous year and […]

⚖️ Northwestern’s New MiM-JD and LLM-MiM Programs: What Law School Applicants Need to Know

Northwestern University is giving future lawyers a new way to combine legal training with business education. Last week, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the Kellogg School of Management announced two new programs designed for students who want to build careers at the intersection of law and business: the Northwestern Master in Management and JD Program […]