An Effective Resume for a College: Tips and Recommendations
By Dr. Sviatlana Kroitar
1. What is a resume and what is its purpose?
2. What information should a resume contain? How is it typically structured?
3. What are the key principles of effective resume writing?
A strong and engaging resume is a must to get into your dream college. With crowds of competitors vying for the same spot, your resume needs to stand out. This will make it more likely to attract the admission committee’s attention and convince them to choose you from hundreds of applicants.
In this article, we’ll share a few tips to help make your resume more effective and increase your chances of getting accepted into your desired institution.
What is a resume and what is its purpose?
A resume is a document that describes your educational history, academic achievements, and other accomplishments relevant to your future studies and can be your bargaining chip in the selection process.
However, if you want your resume to be impressive and memorable, simply presenting your academic results is not enough. You need to tell your story in a way that makes your advantages over other candidates visible and convincing. To do this, you should not only present yourself as a candidate with certain knowledge but also create an image of yourself as a bright and promising student. Therefore, do not limit your resume to indicating your academic scores, but also include information about your extracurricular activities, skills, and achievements – in sports, science competitions, language proficiency, volunteering, artistic initiatives, leadership, project participation, etc. Anything that demonstrates your curiosity and enthusiasm, broad-mindedness and erudition, ability to work in a team and motivate others, self-discipline, and creativity can work in your favor.
What information should a resume contain? How is it typically structured?
Structure matters because it determines how easy it is for admission officers to go through your resume. A good option would be to organize your resume in a traditional way familiar to readers and give it originality and strength through meaningful content and captivating presentation.
A resume for a college traditionally includes the following sections:
– a header,
– an objective statement, or a summary,
– education,
– work experience,
– volunteering experience,
– skills,
– awards,
– extracurricular activities,
– language skills.
Also, add information about attended conferences, received grants, and publications if any. Having them on your resume will be a big plus.
The CV header is an opening section in your resume from which admission officers get to know you. Indicate your first and last name and contact details, including your email address, phone number, home address (or just the name of the city you live in, at your discretion), and your LinkedIn profile if you have one and it is in the proper order (clear, up to date). Make your name visually stand out and catch the eye first.
Example:
JOHN SMITH
Chicago, Illinois
+1 (203) 501-5401
The resume objective statement, or a summary is a brief and compelling description of your relevant skills, motivation, and goals. Describe your academic background and enthusiasm in 2-3 sentences. Highlight the importance of attending your chosen college to build a successful professional career.
Example:
An ambitious young journalist with a talent for creative writing seeking to expand her knowledge at Northwestern University’s prestigious journalism department. Founder of my school’s online newspaper, The Daily Prophet, which currently has 1,000+ subscribers. A hard-working student with an A average in social disciplines, with a strong desire for self-development and high professional ethics.
The Education section displays your academic history and achievements. Include each degree earned, the start and the end/expected completion dates, and the institution at which it was earned. Be clear and specific and include numbers whenever possible. GPA, SAT/ACT scores, class rank, etc. will be useful here.
Example:
EDUCATION
Detroit Country Day School (Graduation 2021)
Beverly Hills, MI
SAT Score: 1370 | GPA 4.0/4.0
You may also emphasize courses and disciplines that reflect knowledge that meets the requirements of the college and the chosen educational program. Again, be specific, including the course cipher and title, the number of hours spent completing it, and the skills learned that will be functional for your next educational step.
The Work Experience section reveals your practical skills. Point out start and end dates, your position, company name, and location, and provide a brief description of your job responsibilities and accomplishments. Divide the text into 3-5 bullets for easy reading, and highlight your role in the teamwork. Use action verbs, numbers, percentages, and other indicators of success, rather than just listing your job responsibilities. If you have internship experience, also mention it here.
Example:
WORK EXPERIENCE
Office Assistant
McIntire Advocates and Advisory, Boston, MA (June –September 2023)
– received and forwarded more than 40 calls daily with 100% correctness
– ensured that all documents were photocopied and properly filed, resulting in the completion of the task ahead of schedule.
Courier
Lux Plus Delivery, New Haven, CT (June –September 2022)
– delivered 20+ parcels per shift, working 70 shifts
– all orders were delivered on time, 15% of orders were delivered ahead of schedule
– after three weeks of working in the company, I was entrusted with the delivery of particularly important orders, namely documents.
Structure the Volunteer Experience section similarly to the Work Experience.
Example:
VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Youth Volunteer
Best Friend Animal Society, Seattle, WA (May 2020 – September 2021)
– kept a card index of animals coming to the shelter: created and filled out a registration card for each pet (took photographs, wrote up descriptions), compiled cards for 23 animals
– found homes for 12 animals
A well-written Skills section can strengthen your resume by clarifying and expanding on your academic scores. This is where you present your abilities and potential, so try to emphasize your strengths.
To better organize the text, you may describe your hard and soft skills in two separate subsections. Hard skills are narrow, professional skills often confirmed by formal certificates. These could be knowledge of a particular subject, computer competencies, ability to use a certain research or software tool, as well as analytical, research, presentation, or academic writing skills. Soft skills reflect your personality strengths, emotional intelligence, active listening, creativity, leadership, ethics, interpersonal, organizational, and time management skills. They complement your hard skills, making you more effective at work and studies.
List your skills so that those most relevant to your chosen educational program and college will attract the admission officers’ attention first.
Example:
SKILLS
– MS Office: Excel, Word, PowerPoint – an advanced user
– Academic writing: won the Madison County Environmental Essay Contest, April 2023
– Critical thinking, and public speech: took part in 20+ debates in the Grove School Debate Team, Boston, MA
– Leadership: was a captain of the Lincoln High School, NY basketball team in 2018-2021
Awards. Indicate awards for academic results (academic ranks, wins in intellectual competitions, etc.), and your non-academic achievements (i.e., sports and art contests). Point out the award name, the organization that issued the award, and the award date.
Example:
AWARDS AND HONOURS
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (Providence, RI)
– Gold medal in the “Providence Long Run” running race for high school students (October 2021)
– Contributor to the “Providence Newsletter” – 11 contributions (September 2022 – May 2023)
Languages. If you speak any languages other than your native one, it makes sense to mention this in your resume. You can use one of the recognized scales to correctly describe your level of language proficiency.
The CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) includes three levels (A, B, C) and six sublevels (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2). Level A corresponds to the basic level of language competence and is divided into sublevels A1 Beginner and A2 Elementary. Level B reflects independent language proficiency and includes sublevels B1 Intermediate and B2 Upper-Intermediate. Level C refers to professional language skills and is traditionally split into C1 Advanced and C2 Fluent/Proficient.
Example:
You may also want to use the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Scale, which differentiates language competencies at the following levels: Distinguished/Superior, Advanced (low, mid, high), Intermediate (low, mid, high), and Novice (low, mid, high).
Example:
The ILS (The Interagency Language Roundtable) uses the following gradation to determine language level: Primary/Native Fluency (5), Full Professional Proficiency (4), Professional Working Proficiency (3), Limited Working Proficiency (2), and Elementary Proficiency (1).
Example:
If you have any language certificates, indicate the name of the certificate and the obtained score.
Example:
Extracurricular Activities. Use this section to show yourself as an active and enthusiastic person with a broad outlook and diverse interests, open to new experiences, and able to contribute to college life.
Example:
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
– a captain of the Ohio Liberty High School soccer team, which successfully reached the finals in 2021, 2022 and 2023
– participated in the Olympiad in Maths for high school students in New York City, NY (April 2023), winning the 5th place
– participated in Youth American Grand Prix 2024 Finals in Tampa, FL 2023, becoming one of the 12 best dancers with the highest scores in choreography and artistry.
Conferences. Indicate the topic of your speech, the organizer, the location, and the date of the event. If you participated as a listener without a speech, clarify this.
Example:
CONFERENCES
International Student Scientific Conference, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, June 23, 2024. Listener.
“Key principles of effective data visualization”, The City University of New York, New York City, NY, May 12, 2024.
Grants and Fellowships. Include the grant name, the project name, the name of the organization awarded the grant, and the project dates. Also, add 2-3 sentences to describe the key project activities and outcomes.
Example:
“Youth Social Projects” Grant Program, Wyoming Youth Projects Support Association
Project Title: Eco-friendly habits, or what we can do for the environment
October–December 2022
Project Summary: Lectures on environmental issues were held for primary schoolchildren in schools (10 schools, 150 trained students), Riverton, WY
Publications. Include personal and co-authored academic publications if any. If you have non-academic articles in blogs, online resources, or other media that deserve mention, list them in a separate subsection.
Example:
PUBLICATIONS
Donnellan, F. The Mythical Beasts in J. Tolkien’s Fiction. Journal of Modern Literature Studies, 34(4), 45-48.
What are the key principles of effective resume writing?
What else should you pay attention to when creating your resume? Here are a few recommendations to make it look better.
Be specific.
Tailor your resume to the specific college and program you are applying to. Emphasize academic achievements, such as high scores, scholarships, or research projects relevant to the curriculum and ethos of the college. Also, mention appropriate extracurricular activities, work and volunteer experience, leadership roles, skills, and awards. For example, if your target college is known for its athletic program, show your dedication to the sport by listing the sports teams you participate in and your role in them.
Refer to facts rather than general statements. For example, instead of claiming that you like sports and are involved in student clubs, indicate which sports teams, clubs, and other activities you are involved in at school.
Formatting tips.
Use reverse chronological order listing the most recent activities and experiences first.
Choose a professional font (Times New Roman or Arial), with a font size of at least 12 points to make your resume easily readable.
Leave more white space. Use margins, spaces between sections, and line spacing to prevent your text from looking overloaded and cluttered. Make subsections’ titles visually noticeable.
Don’t get carried away with colorful formatting. Keep the style and format of your resume subdued and professional.
Keep your resume to one page. There is an unspoken rule – 1 page of resume for every 10 years of educational and work experience. You have little experience yet, and if you write briefly and to the point, one page is enough.
Use traditional file name format: Yourname_resume.
Before you send your resume, export it to PDF format to avoid unexpected changes when downloading or emailing it.
Language and phrasing tips.
Use concise and clear language, stick to the same abbreviations, and make your phrases laconic and structurally similar.
Avoid jargon and technical language.
Carefully proofread the text several times and make sure that it does not contain grammatical errors.
What else is important?
Write the truth! Don’t make things up, don’t exaggerate your achievements, and don’t brag if you don’t want to look unprofessional. Write to the point, and mention specific facts – when, where, and what exactly was done, in collaboration with whom, with whose support, etc. In your resume, you can and should focus on your strengths, but in no case should you invent a new biography for yourself.
Good luck!
USEFUL RESOURCES AND LINKS
Writing an effective academic CV (elsevier.com)
What to Include in a CV [in 2024] | 11+ Essential Sections (novoresume.com)
Best Resume Formats (With Examples and Formatting Tips) (thebalancemoney.com) cv builder
