Writing A Cv For Graduate School

A graduate school resume is crucial to a student's admission into a graduate program, as they are evaluated by admissions personnel to assess the student's skills, strengths, experience, interests and education. These assessments are a large part of what admissions committees use when deciding which students will be a good fit for the program, so it's important to present a well-written, effective graduate school resume.

In this article, we will provide tips to help you write an effective graduate school resume and provide graduate school resume examples for reference.

What is a graduate school resume?

A graduate school resume is an accompanying document to provide admissions committees with additional information that may not be included on your entrance application to a graduate school program. This resume focuses on supplementing the information in your application so the admissions committee can better evaluate your candidacy. Graduate school resumes are like job search resumes in that they are meant to emphasize your suitability to the program you're applying to by highlighting your education, work and volunteer experience and relevant skills and career interests.

How to write a graduate school resume

Follow these tips to help you create an effective graduate school resume:

1. Focus on education.

Your graduate school resume should focus on highlighting your education. Include your educational experience at or near the top of the resume, with your school names and majors/minors, graduation dates and GPA. You can include major test scores if they enhance your suitability for the program. List relevant work experience underneath the education section, but try not to go into depth explaining jobs irrelevant to the program. Be sure to include your involvement with extracurricular clubs, honors and awards.

While writing your resume, keep in mind its purpose is to identify your suitability based upon your education and experience for the program you're trying to be accepted into.

2. Highlight your achievements.

This section should include anything that makes you stand out from other candidates. You can include honors and awards, being on the Dean's List, leadership experience, volunteering and internships or apprenticeships.

On a graduate school resume, these items highlight your achievements as a student and a member of your community. Some students apply to graduate programs immediately upon completion of their undergraduate degree and may not have the professional experience to include on this resume. That is perfectly acceptable, and the achievements section helps to display your other types of experiences at which you excelled. Admissions personnel consider your internships and volunteer work just as relevant as on-the-job experience. In either case, be sure to emphasize the duties you performed and the skills you learned in your roles.

3. Design and format.

Like a career resume, your graduate school resume should, in most cases, be no more than one page long. Your resume should be concise, formatted cleanly and be easy to read and error-free.

You will also want your resume to be well-organized and easily scannable. While you want to be detailed in describing your experiences and duties and how they align with your desired program, they should be concise and focused on what's most relevant. A clean, polished resume will help to show your standout qualifications as a fitting candidate for the program.

Some schools might ask for a curriculum vitae (CV), but in most cases, admissions personnel are tasked with reading through applications and resumes in large quantities, so they are likely to appreciate a concisely written and well-presented resume.

Functional Resume Format

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Functional Resume Format
1. Name and contact information
2. Summary
3. Skills grouped by theme
4. Any relevant professional experience
5. Education

Graduate school resume template

You want your resume to stand out among the dozens or even hundreds of resumes that admissions committees are presented with. Keep your design simple and clean, experiment with different font families, paying mind to readability. Your design should be cohesive and consistent. Make sections identifiable by differentiating section headers from the rest of the text using a larger, bolded, italicized or underlined font.

Your sections should at least loosely adhere to the following order:

1. Personal contact details

Include your full name, home address, phone number and email address at the top of the first page, either centered or aligned left. Use your header font size or a point larger to make this information visible.

2. Education

List the higher education institutions you have attended in reverse chronological order, starting with the current or most recent school and working back to high school. For each school, include the name of the institution, city, the degree you received (with major) and graduation dates.

3. Experience

As mentioned above, your experience section can include any relevant experience, whether it's volunteering, internships or tutoring. Admissions committees know that many students have not experienced the workplace yet and instead focus on how you use this section. The details of your experience (duties, skills, responsibilities) should be formatted using bullet points.

4. Awards/achievements

List these in order of relevance rather than chronological order. Include the name or title of the honor or award, the granting institution and the date you were awarded.

5. Professional or academic affiliations

Participation in professional or academic clubs, groups or membership organizations shows your willingness to reach out to learn, network and pursue your interests. List the name of the organization, membership dates and any leadership or representative roles you held.

Graduate school resume example

Leith S. Barber
245 Hummingbird Lane, Bradley, LA 00000, 555-555-5555, L.S.Barber@email.com

EDUCATION

Eldon University, Eldon, NC May 2012
Bachelor of English, Communications
Minor, Technical Writing

GPA: 3.88

AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS

Sigma Delta Kappa, National Leadership Honor Society
Selby Award for Graduate Study
Beta Pi Beta, English Honor Society
Phi Theta Kappa, Honor Society
Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor Society
William and Marie Selby Scholarship recipient
Eldon President's List (2009—2012)

ACADEMIC EXTRA-CURRICULAR INVOLVEMENT

Office of the Dean, Eldon University | 2010—2012

Work-study student worker
Attend school improvement meetings
Perform daily administrative duties (communications, data management) and necessary support for staff
Create event invitations and other collateral for donor events

Freshman Seminar, Eldon University | 2009—2010
Teaching Assistant

Worked with faculty to assist new students in adjusting to college life through comprehensive lesson plans

VOLUNTEER/SERVICE WORK

Hospice Palliative Care Center of Eldon County, NC | May 2009—present

Assisted caretakers with terminally ill patients through daily activities at their home and at the hospice
Completed a three-day volunteer training program

Lunch Buddies – Vedalias Elementary School, Eldon, NC | September 2008—May 2009

Accompanied children in need of lunch at a local elementary school every week
Served as a role model and provided interaction for local students