Becoming the Main Character of Your Law School Application
- Hadiyah Cummings
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
There’s a lot of advice out there about how to get into law school. Some of it’s helpful. Most of it is loud. But too much of it leaves applicants feeling like they need to twist themselves into someone else just to be considered. That’s not what we believe here.
At LawyHer, we believe that the strongest law school applications are the ones that make the admissions officer feel like they know you—your story, your purpose, your why. That’s why we created this series and coined what we call the Main Character Strategy.
And no, we don’t mean being self-centered or writing like you're the star of a movie. We mean recognizing that your application is your story—and you have the power to shape how it’s told.
What Does “Becoming the Main Character” Actually Mean?
Imagine your application is a novel. Each component—your personal statement, résumé, letters of recommendation, optional essays, and addenda—is a chapter. And at the center of all of it is you.
Being the main character means making sure that everything the admissions committee reads reveals something consistent and clear about who you are and why you’re headed to law school. It’s about control—not in a fake or forced way, but in the way any good storyteller makes intentional choices. You’re not just handing in a pile of documents. You’re showing them your narrative.
And here’s the most important part: your story doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be linear. It doesn’t have to follow a clean arc from Point A to Point B. Real life is messy. People take detours. Life happens. You can still be the main character even if your journey has twists, turns, or moments that don’t “make sense” at first glance. In fact, that’s often what makes a story compelling.
How This Strategy Came to Be
When I applied to law school, I didn’t have a perfect LSAT score. I didn’t have fancy connections. And to the Admissions predictors out there, I had a less than 1% chance of getting into most of the schools in the T14.
But what I did have was a deep understanding of my “why”—and I knew how to make sure that every single part of my application pointed back to it.
That clarity is what helped me get into top law schools, including Yale. And it’s the same clarity I now help others uncover. Not by asking them to become someone else, but by encouraging them to own who they already are—and showing them how to communicate that in a compelling way.
That’s the core of our Becoming the Main Character strategy: not overhauling your life to look good on paper, but owning your lived experience and telling your story on purpose.
The Main Character Strategy: Breaking It Down
Here’s how each part of your application contributes to your larger story—and how to make sure they’re working together, even if your path doesn’t follow a perfect arc.
1. Personal Statement → Your Chapter One
This is your narrative’s opening scene—the place where you introduce who you are and why law is part of your story. It’s not a résumé in paragraph form. It’s a space to lead with why. Even if your path to law has been winding or unconventional, this is where you anchor your reader in your voice, values, and vision.
2. Optional Essay (FKA as the "Diversity Statement" → Your Backstory & Perspective
Optional, but powerful. This essay is where you expand the lens—sharing how your background, identity, or lived experience has shaped the way you move through the world. It doesn’t have to center trauma. It just needs to be real. The most powerful ones make the admissions officer pause and say, “Oh. That explains so much," or "I can see them in our law school"
3. Résumé → Your Plot Timeline
Your résumé isn’t just a list of titles and dates. It shows the choices you’ve made, the causes you’ve invested in, the skills you’ve built—and the gaps and pivots, too. This document gives your story structure and additional context.
4. Letters of Recommendation → Your Character Witnesses
Every main character has people who’ve seen them grow. That’s who your recommenders are. Choose individuals who can speak to your work ethic, your voice, your evolution—not just those with big titles. These letters should help connect the dots and reinforce the themes you’ve already introduced.
5. LSAT + GPA → The Receipts (Not the Plot)
Admissions officers are trained to read numbers in context. These scores help place you in a broader pool, but they don’t tell your story. If you’re worried about your stats, your job is to make sure your narrative is strong enough that they can still see you—and understand why you are capable of keeping up with the academic rigor of law school.
6. Addenda → Your Author’s Note
Sometimes things happen that need clarification—a tough semester, a canceled LSAT, a red flag. This is where you explain it, briefly and clearly. But don’t spiral. Don’t center the detour. Just name it and re-center the focus on your growth.
What to Expect from This Series
Every episode of Becoming LawyHer (our podcast) and every post in this series will walk you through one part of the application process—from personal statements to résumés to character & fitness disclosures—while showing you how to use that part to tell your story more effectively.
We’ll break down real strategies, share lessons from admissions experts, and feature stories from women who became the main character of their application in very different ways. Because again, there’s no one way to tell a powerful story—and there’s no one version of what a “LawyHer” looks like.
You don’t have to be polished, rich, perfectly put-together, or even confident yet. You just have to start telling the truth about who you are and why you’re here.
And we’ll be right here helping you do it.
📲 You can watch Becoming LawyHer on YouTube, or listen wherever you stream your favorite podcasts—including Apple Podcasts and Spotify
