Universities in US, Europe, Canada and Australia have similar application processes. Students need to submit official transcripts, test score (IELTS, TOEFL, SAT or GRE), one or more personal essays, letters of recommendation, and a resume.
In this blog, will cover everything you need to know about preparing a resume for college applications:
- How to prepare a Resume for College applications
- Templates for writing a resume
- CV review - scoring your resume
- Tips from Admissions Committee reviewers
How to prepare a Resume for College Applications?
Bachelors, Masters and PhD applicants have a big difference in what they should write in their CV. Read on to know more -
How to write a CV for undergraduate / Bachelors applicants?
The CV / Resume is often the trickiest part for Bachelors applicants, as many high school students do not have much work experience. Here's are 5 things you want to focus on:
- Name and contact information - At the top of your resume, clearly write your name, email and phone number. If you have any URLs of a blog / personal website, this is the place to include them.
- Academic performance - List the name of your high school and the dates you attended. You can also provide information like GPA, class rank, AB or IP courses, ACT / SAT scores if they are strong.
- Projects, work & volunteer experience - If you have done any internships or projects (from science fairs , clubs, exchange semesters etc.), write about them briefly. Make sure to highlight any leadership positions you held or currently hold.
- Extracurricular activities - Colleges want students who participate in and contribute to campus life beyond the classroom. Mention sports, arts (music, theatre, dance etc.), clubs and outside school activities here.
- Honors and awards - Showcase the scholarships, prizes you have won in the past in this section.
How to write a CV for Masters / PhD applications?
When applying for tertiary education, your resume needs to be more focused on the area of specialization. At this stage, universities often ask for specific information on the resume. These are the 5 important sections of your resume:
- Name and contact information - Your name, email and phone number at the top of the resume. Include LinkedIn, personal website, blog and others URLs here. Avoid adding a photo to your CV unless explicitly requested by the program.
- Academics - List your previous degrees, university names and dates of the programs. Highlight your research publications (papers, patents). Mention your GPA & course electives if it helps your application.
- Professional experience - In this section, write about your jobs, internships and projects relevant to the field of study. The past experience is an indication of your skill in the subject and ability to deliver results.
- Skills & achievements - Include a list of "key-phrases" in the area of your study here. This helps the resume score well on automatic parsers. Add achievements and certifications related to your field of study here.
- Hobbies - Colleges like students who contribute to the university beyond their study. Very briefly mention sports, arts (music, theatre, dance etc.), clubs and volunteering work here.
Templates for writing a resume
Many students make a mistake here by picking beautiful, fancy templates. In large institutions, resumes are filtered by programs and a decorative CV can cost you the chance of an admit.
How to pick a CV template:
- Choose a simple, clean, standard template. This increases the odds of your resume being read correctly by automatic systems.
- Steer clear of CV with small fonts, graphics and symbols.
- Use popular tools for building CVs. Our favorites are Overleaf (for PhD) and FlowCV (for Bachelors and Masters applicants).
CV review - scoring your resume
Once you're done creating your resume, it's time for a review. You don't need to pay consultants hundreds of dollars for this, it quite easy to do a comprehensive CV review by yourself with some AI 😉
Self review checklist for your resume (mark yes / no):
Resume review checklist | Safety checks | Yes | No |
| Is the resume free from spelling mistakes? (use tools like Grammarly) | | |
| Are the links (LinkedIn etc.) correct and working? | | |
| Have you included your email and phone number so that you can be contacted easily? | | |
| Academic Section | Yes | No |
| Are your degrees included with time? | | |
| Did you include your publications, test scores and GPA (only if high)? | | |
| Experience | Yes | No |
| Are all projects / jobs listed in reverse chronological order (latest one at top)? | | |
| Did you list the position, company and time clearly? | | |
| Results are quantified for every point. | | |
| Each sentence begins with a verb. | | |
| (For Masters & above) Only relevant projects are described. | | |
| Other sections | Yes | No |
| If you have research publications, are they all listed clearly with the date, journal and reference? | | |
| (For Bachelors) Did you include things that make you unique? (volunteer work, extracurriculars, sports) | | |
| The resume includes keywords related to the program you're applying to | | |
| No points are repeated | | |
| Format | Yes | No |
| Template is simple and clean | | |
| You have one page for every 10 years of work experience | | |
| The descriptions contain bullet points instead of emojis, stars or other graphics | | |
| Consistency: verbs are in the same tense, dates in the same format. | | |
| The resume does not include personal pronouns such as I, me, my, we, our etc. | | |
| The resume has been reviewed by someone (teacher, friend, AI like GradGPT) | | |
If you score is:
- 16 - 20: Your CV is in good shape
- 11 - 15: Your résumé could benefit from extra work
- 0 - 10: A score in this range indicates your résumé is not up to the expected standard.
Tips from Admissions Committee reviewers
We asked members from AdCom on what makes a good CV, and here's what we found:
- Always quantify your achievements - Use numbers to explain the impact of your work for eg.: "I built a website" vs "Increase sales by 300% by building a website".
- Use action verbs to start your sentences - CVs which go like "I did XYZ / We built ABC" are boring. We get excited by reading action verbs, so start sentences with verbs like "Designed, Implemented, Led, Grew, Multiplied" etc.
- KISS principle (Keep It Simple Silly) - Bullet points, short descriptions instead of a long paragraph. Do not cram as much information as possible in the Resume.
- ATR framework - Describe projects as Action. Task. Result.
"Executed a targeted email campaign (Action) to reach 500 prospective clients (Task), resulting in a 20% increase in lead conversions (Result)."
"Collaborated with the marketing team (Action) to develop and implement a social media strategy (Task), resulting in a 30% growth in follower engagement (Result)."
"Analyzed financial data (Action) to identify cost-saving opportunities (Task), leading to annual savings of $50,000 (Result)."
"Designed and coded a user-friendly mobile app feature (Action) that improved user retention (Task), resulting in a 15% increase in app downloads (Result)."
Research references
To create this blog, we researched the following sources:
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