UVA Law Admissions Dean Natalie Blazer on the 2025-26 Cycle, Rising LSATs/GPAs, the "Why UVA" & More

Aug 12, 2025

Natalie Blazer, Assistant Dean for Admissions at UVA School of Law, shares invaluable insights into the 2025-26 law school admissions cycle. She discusses the rising LSAT and GPA medians, highlighting their impact on applicants. Natalie offers strategic advice on the crucial 'Why UVA' essay and emphasizes authenticity amid a competitive landscape. She touches on the significance of discussing current political climates in applications and gives hopeful encouragement for applicants navigating the complexities of law school admissions.

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ADVICE

Make 'Why UVA' Personal And Specific

Only answer the optional 'Why UVA' if you have a specific, personal reason tied to your goals.
Avoid listing programs or facts; tie any interest back to your personal story and plans.

INSIGHT

Softs Matter More As Metrics Cluster

With many applicants having high LSAT/GPA metrics, soft factors gain relative importance during differentiation.
Admissions still need metrics as a starting point, but resumes, personalities, and experiences increasingly decide at the margins.

INSIGHT

Why LSAT Scores Have Inflated

LSAT score inflation likely reflects easier access, more test administrations, score choice, remote formats, and abundant prep resources.
Retaking lowers stakes of any single test day and contributes to higher reported scores.

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In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco interviews Natalie Blazer, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Chief Admissions Officer at the University of Virginia School of Law, on the upcoming 2025-2026 admissions cycle, how applicants should be thinking about and taking into account relevant current events, and advice for prospective law students preparing to submit their applications. They discuss predictions for the 2025-26 cycle (1:56), rising LSAT and GPA medians (20:22, 27:45), changes they've made to their application this year (12:30), the new student loan cap (30:26), how admissions offices are considering applicants writing about politics and protest in the current political climate (4:18), how they evaluate applicants who have been unable to get a job after graduating from college (7:36), whether writing about AI is overdone (36:34), advice for the "Why UVA" essay (13:05), and much more. As a brief disclaimer, Dean Blazer speaks for herself and often for UVA Law in this episode; her opinions do not reflect those of all admissions officers.

In addition to her work at UVA Law, Natalie has served as Director of J.D. Admissions at Georgetown University Law Center and was Associate Director of Admissions at Columbia Law School. She hosts the UVA Law podcast Admissible, which "offers insights into the world of law school admissions and a behind-the-scenes look at life as a law student through interviews with students, faculty, alumni and staff."

We've interviewed Natalie twice for Status Check before, and though we weren't able to get to all of the questions that Redditors requested we ask, we answered many of them in these past episodes:

Please note: At the time that we recorded this episode, we noted that August 2025 LSAT registrants were up 27% relative to August 2024 registrants but that that number would come down over the days of the test administration. Ultimately, August LSAT registrants landed at a 23.7% increase vs. last year.

You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠. You can read a full transcript of this episode (with timestamps) here.