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

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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.

Five Steps to Write a 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.

💡 On top of that, inquiring current students of the interested schools and departments is also helpful as they can solve questions rapidly and effortlessly.

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.

💁‍♂️ Choosing appropriate layout when structuring a college admission resume according to your situation may work since different forms highlight different aspects of an applicant.

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.

❗ Proofread your articles to avoid grammatical or vocabulary errors.

What to Put on an Academic Resume for College Application


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.

Examples:

High school final-year student with enthusiasm to study in Biomedical Science at University of Kangaroo. Engaged in three international science fairs, two biology seminars and one internship in a laboratory. Currently participating in two research projects of Koala conservation.

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.

Examples:

Team Management / Managed a team of 10 members and held two inter-class scientific competitions. Got a 70% satisfaction rate from the feedback of teammates at the end of the term.

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.

Examples:

Actively took part in Photo Club in high school. Collaborated with excellent photographers and learned Photoshop skills.

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.

Examples:

2021 / Awardee of Jonathan Scholarship of Excellence

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. 

Examples:

Photography - as it enables me to observe the world surrounding me in another point of view.

CakeResume provides the best free resume builder for all students and job seekers. With our rich and free resume template library & examples, you can instantly create a resume and a portfolio, and enter your dream college with a strong resume (free download)!

Tips for Writing the Best College Application Resume for High School Students

Tip 1: Customize the resume for the school.

As above-mentioned, take care of all colleges and departments’ differences and generate tailor-made academic resumes for college applications. 

In addition to potential errors such as forgetting to change the name of the college/department, tailoring the college admission resume can show that you have conducted research and put lots of effort into the application processes.

Tip 2: Highlight what makes you unique.

After a primary screening of all applicants’ backgrounds, applicants who get into the second-round selection have similar academic experiences. 

💡 To beat your potential competitors, choose what differentiate you, and share them in the following interview or your resume for college applications. In this way, you may seize the opportunity to be admitted before your competitors.

Tip 3: Unify the content

Unify the word style and content of your resume for college applications before you finalize it. Any inconsistency or contradiction within the paragraphs may confuse the interviewers.

Once they show interest in you and entirely screen your college application resume, it would be a pity if such accidents occur and cause mark deduction.

Tip 4: Quantify results on resumes.

Quantified results provide comparable and transparent information that admissions tutors can browse.

They are measurable and thus easy for the department to judge applicants’ performances. The chances that the college ignores essential elements of a college admission resume are also reduced.

Tip 5: Adopt resume action words (verbs).

Particular vocabularies and terms are widely adopted when writing a college application resume. When it comes to verbs, resume action words are professional and specific. 

💡 For example, to replace “created,” you can use “initiated,” ”implemented,” “introduced,”; to replace “increased,” “enhanced,” “expanded,” “boosted” are all very nice words. 

🔍 Try to search “word + synonym” on the internet. You’ll be able to discover a large variety of substituting resume action words.

How to Pick the Best Resume Template for College Application

How long should a college application resume be?

Similar to a typical resume, a resume for college admission should only last for 1 page. Nonetheless, if you still have high-quality stories or valuable experiences after filling in the first page, it’s still acceptable to add a second page.

What is the best font to use in a resume for college admission?

The unwritten rule is that the font size of normal text should be set in 11-12 pt for college admission resume, while the headings are 14-16 pt.

What format should a resume for college applications be in, Word or PDF?

Avoid submitting any college application materials in Word format. Saving your college application resume in Word format may make a mess of formatting.

College Application Resume Example

Lisa Chen

Lisa Chen
+886-975678900
[email protected]

Profile

High school graduate aiming to study at University of Mango to gain insightful and cutting-edged FinTech knowledge in a top-tier university while making use of strong competencies.

Work Experience

Finance Intern in Orange Corp.

2021 Summer

  • Inputted financial data and observed the growth of financial situation of more than 10 clients from FMCG industry
  • Successfully predicted two potential financial failures for a company

Finance Intern in Office of International Affairs of High School

2019 - 2020

  • Produced three charts per week regarding school’s financial sustainability 
  • Was selected as student representative for high school annual financial conferences 

Skills

Soft skills
Hard skills
Photoshop
Illustrator
Video Editing 
JavaScript
RStudio
Leadership
Good Communication
Teamwork
Crisis Handling 

Education

Taipei Municipal Apple High School 
Awarded The Mayor's Award 
2019 - 2022

GPA: 3.85

Extracurricular Activities

2020: Cheerleader Captain – Led a 15-people cheer-leading squad and organized three team-building activities

2018: Participated in International Exchange Program with Seoul First High School

Awards and Honors 

2020 FinTech Competition – Second Runner Up

2019 Marketing Case Competition – First Runner Up

Hobbies and Interests

  • Travel 
  • Singing 
  • Dancing 
  • Banking 
  • Programming

--- Originally written by Chen Fu-Yen ---

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