To provide admissions committees a better understanding of your qualifications, you must attach a graduate school resume with your graduate school application. Your education (related coursework, honours, awards, and accomplishments), internship/volunteer experience, and talents relevant to the programme you’re applying to should all be highlighted on your graduate school resume.
To help you develop a successful graduate school resume, consider the following tips:
Create a graduate school resume objective
A powerful resume introduction will pique admissions committees’ curiosity and persuade them that you are the best applicant for their program. While there are various introductions, a resume objective is the best option for grad school applications because it allows you to directly address the hiring committee at a university.
Without focusing extensively on your job history or specialised talents, resume objectives enlighten committee members about your achievements and goals (which you might be lacking at this point). A resume objective is usually two or three sentences long, and it should highlight:
- Grades and an undergraduate degree
- Hard and soft skills that can be exhibited
- Internship/volunteer experience that is relevant
- Name of the programme and university you are applying to
Create a comprehensive education section
Because it gives application committees a summary of your educational achievements and experience, the education section of your resume is one of the most crucial elements of a graduate school application.
Include the following information about your qualifications in your education section to create an appealing education section:
- University or college name
- The location of the college (city, state)
- Date of graduation (month and year)
- Bachelor’s degree (s) (including minors)
- GPA on your resume
- Honours and awards (such as magna cum laude)
Also, if you made the Dean’s list more than once or if you attended a particularly prestigious university, highlight it on your resume.
Focus on appropriate education, internships, volunteer and employment experience
Any significant accomplishments on your CV should be highlighted in the experience section.
You definitely wouldn’t have much formal work experience to list if you’re like most graduate school applicants. In this scenario, your achievements section should highlight any relevant accomplishments that show you’re a good fit for the program. This includes the following:
- Relevant coursework during your college years
- Your internship experience and skill(s)
- Volunteering or extracurricular activities
- Jobs that are part-time or on-campus
- Studying abroad experience that is relevant
Make sure you only indicate education that qualifies you for the programme you’re applying to when applying to graduate schools. Leave coursework off your CV if it isn’t related to the programme.
Emphasise the talents you learned as a student
To demonstrate to admissions committees that you have a good set of talents, you don’t need formal employment experience. Use the abilities section of your resume to showcase the hard and soft skills you gained as an undergraduate that appear to be transferable to graduate school.
You’ve most certainly learned a number of relevant abilities through your courses, part-time work, and extracurricular activities, such as:
Hard Skills
- Computer programming languages
- Translation
- Proficiency in one or more foreign language(s)
- Photo Editing
- Writing and editing
- Research
Soft Skills
- Stress management
- Critical thinking
- Communication skills
- Efficient time
- management
- Leadership
- Public speaking
Candidates with a good blend of soft skills and technical talents are highly valued by graduate programmes, as they are more likely to have the tools needed to succeed in a range of situations and industries.
Your achievements should be highlighted
The most crucial goal of a graduate school CV is to demonstrate what you’ve accomplished and why the person reading it should accept you. This implies you’ll have to brag a little to let schools know how terrific you are. Among the ways to demonstrate your successes is to list the responsibilities you held at the time and how you helped the organization or firm where you worked. To make your successes more clear, include numbers whenever possible.
The layout and design.
In most circumstances, your graduate school resume should be no more than one page long, similar to a job resume. Your resume should be brief, well-formatted, easy to read, and error-free.
You’ll also want to make sure your resume is well-organised and scannable. While you should be as specific as possible when discussing your experiences and responsibilities and how they relate to your chosen programme, keep it brief and to the point. A neat, polished CV can help you demonstrate your unique qualifications as a good fit for the programme.
Some schools may need a curriculum vitae (CV), however most admissions officers are charged with reading through a huge number of applications and resumes, so a well-written and presented resume is likely to be appreciated.
Be succinct
Even if there are no restrictions on the number of pages your resume can contain, you should keep it simple and succinct. During the application process, admissions staff read a lot of resumes, so you want to make it easy for them to see why you’d be a good fit.
As previously stated, you should emphasise your achievements in your resume, which should take up the majority of the space. Don’t include extraneous details; instead, focus on crucial aspects that demonstrate what you accomplished and how well you did it. A fantastic method to go is to use short, straightforward phrases that begin with an action verb.
Proofread!
When you’ve put in a lot of effort to create an excellent resume, so don’t let yourself down by failing to proofread it!
Check your resume thoroughly before submitting it, looking for any spelling or grammatical issues. You’ve just spent all this effort demonstrating to the school how smart and qualified you are; don’t tarnish your reputation with a casual error.
It may be beneficial to wait a day or two before the final proofreading of your resume so that you can see it with new eyes. You might also have a friend or family member check over your resume to see if they see something that you may have overlooked.
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