A lot of kids ask us whether or not a resume is necessary for a college application. Our answer? It’s good to have. Yes, the Common App has an activities section that is, in essence, a resume. So, while a resume won’t make or break your application, it’s a good thing to get in the practice of having. Your resume will be your calling card from the time you enter college throughout your entire career. But besides just building the skill, it’s what could set you apart from the competition.
How to Get Started
First thing’s first. Your resume should not exceed a page. I don’t care if you’ve built a reentry shield for Elon Musk’s rocket ship in your spare time. If you’ve only been alive for 18 years, squeeze it all into one page. With the length in mind, start off by making a list of your high school accomplishments. Include rigorous classes, awards, extracurricular activities and GPA. This is the brain-dump that you will edit down as you go on.
Format
As we mentioned, your resume should not exceed one page. It should also include a header with your name and contact information. The presentation is really important. If you’re not great with this sort of thing, enlist the help of a friend who is. It doesn’t need to be over the top with graphic design, but it does need to be very neat and clear in a legible font and different sections. Below the header you should also include your educational information. Your high school’s name and anticipated graduation date should go there, along with your GPA and standardized test scores. Next, you should create a section with any academic awards or distinctions.
Building Your Brand
As for the meat of the resume, remember that the goal of your application process is to establish a personal brand and present yourself as an expert in a particular academic niche. The resume is a great tool to help you in highlighting that area of expertise. Your essays are going to highlight different aspects of your personality (i.e.: leadership skills, great sense of humor, excellent listener…) The resume should do that too, but first and foremost it is really an opportunity to show that you’re a future leader in a very specific academic field. Refer to the brain-dump you did above. Flesh out your extracurriculars here, particularly those that underscore the idea that you’re an expert in a niche. If you’re presenting yourself as an expert in molecular biology, your resume should reflect that. If you were in the Olympics Fan Club for a brief stint, it doesn’t necessarily need to be on there. Write one to two lines of description for each activity. Take soccer for example. If you’re not being recruited as a college athlete you have to consider what the purpose of the sport is on your resume. Remember when we said the application is meant to highlight aspects of your personality? Use the resume to position yourself as a leader. Don’t worry about saying how many goals you scored. Write a sentence about what you did as team captain to support your teammates on and off the field. You should also include any interests or hobbies that fit into your academic niche. Say you’re an aspiring literary scholar. Include the fact that you read more than 100 books that weren’t part of the assigned reading over the last two years.
While the resume isn’t a required component in the college application process, it’s a little something extra that could give you a needed boost. College is really competitive these days. With standardized testing becoming optional at many institutions, there are fewer ways to distinguish yourself in a hyper-competitive environment. Focus on using the resume as a tool to show a school that you’re going to be a Nobel Prize winner in a certain field one day so they can’t say no to you.
Need some help crafting a great resume? Reach out to us. We’re experts at helping students navigate extracurriculars and interests.