Best College Application Resume/CV with Examples [Resume Writing Guideline]

To get admitted by the dream colleges, all applicants have to go through complicated college application processes, including school/department selection, preparing entrance exams, interviews, and so on. Many high school graduates are busy preparing required documents during the college admission period. A resume for college application is important as it is the most direct way that the university can have profound insights into applicants. Your resume for college applications can show not only your abilities and personalities but also clear views of your experiences. 

In this article, we will share with you all tips to write the perfect resume for college application.

Step 1: Conduct research on the desired school and the major.

Applicants should gain more information before initializing the application processes via the internet. Browse web pages that compare each college and major curriculum. They introduce the differences between majors under the same department, or describe the student life studying in a specific college, allowing senior students to develop interests in universities and majors to different extents.

Step 2: Choose a suitable college application resume format.

Firstly, verify the personal profile required. Some colleges ask the applicants to submit a college application CV (curriculum vitae) instead of a resume.

If you are applying to such colleges, you are expected to write an article that is lengthier than a college application resume while providing a detailed list of comprehensive past experiences. On the other hand, several resume formats for college admission have been adopted worldwide in recent years.

Step 3: Look up resume templates & resume examples online as references.

Many resources such as college admission resume examples and templates are accessible online nowadays. Refer to them and create your unique style of academic resume for college applications.

Step 4: Tailor your resume according to the school and the major. 

Although you have prepared basic structure and content for all schools/departments applied, remember to customize every resume for college applications you upload because they may contain unrelated elements and deduce marks.

Step 5: Proofread.

Remember to check again before submitting the file of the student resume for college application. Proofread your articles to avoid grammatical or vocabulary errors. Some mistakes, such as misplacement of the content and typos, may cause severe problems to the professors when screening your materials.

1. Personal & contact information

On the top of your student resume for college application, make sure you put your full name, basic contact information such as phone number, brief address (i.e., city, state, and country is enough), and email address. 

Additionally, if you have your website or blog, feel free to share the link in this part so that the college will have higher chances to observe your potential upon reading your college application resume.

2. Resume objective

Three concise and professional sentences for the objective for college admission resume are enough to reflect what you can contribute or bring to the college if getting admitted. 

Highlighting your goals, briefly showing your traits, and even including fun facts about you that can amaze professors is adequate to attract interviewers’ attention. They will have more intention to read through your objective for a college admission resume.

3. Education

List out the details of your secondary school, its locations (city & country), graduation year, and GPA. If you graduate with honors or awards, have taken elective courses, or have obtained qualifications, mention them in this section. 

4. Work experience

Only write down work experiences that are relevant to the major you want to study. Suppose a specific work experience is highly related to your development of personality or abilities. In that case, it is also acceptable that you specify it and connect it with other elements in your university application resume.

5. Skills

To bear out proposed skills, link them to experiences. For example, you can describe how you lead a school club with 30 members to show your leadership skills; you can illustrate how you deal with emergencies with problem-solving skills. 

Kindly be reminded that you can indicate imperative numbers in an activity as information. For instance, it will be better that you write “Held two inter-class sports contests with 200+ participants” than “Held two big inter-class sports contests.” 

With numbers, the department can easily imagine how significant and influential your contributions are, and thus your skills stand out from all resumes for high school students applying to college.

6. Extracurricular activities

To perform as many aspects of you as possible to the college, try to diversify the extracurricular activities in your college application resume. 

These activities include serving as a volunteer, joining clubs and student unions, engaging in all varieties of competition, etc. Engaging in these events shows your passion for broadening horizons and discovering yourself.

7. Awards & honors

In addition to the graduation honors, if you have any other academic/non-academic achievements during high school, you can also raise them in the college application resume. You can showcase your competencies with these achievements, but don’t forget to attach certificates or proofs in the supporting document part.

8. Hobbies & interests

For college application resumes for high school students, it is suggested that students reveal their hobbies if adequate or special enough. 

Colleges peculiarly select students. They want new students with outstanding academic performances and the potential to grow or have specialties. 

That’s why your interests mentioned in the resume or curriculum vitae for college application may be the key to get you’re your dream university.