When making a college resume template, keep in mind that your resume isn’t you. It’s merely a document that says something about you relevant to an objective you’re pursuing. A good resume should include important details about yourself even before including the usual contact information, education history, experiences, awards or honors, and any additional skills.

College Resume Templates

What is the importance of a college resume template?

For admission in many colleges, you need a strong recommendation to submit along with your college resume template and an application letter. Some colleges, however, forbid this. To ensure that comply with requirements, so you know the kind of resume template for college students they prefer.

One of the most important things is to always keep a professionally-written resume as you can use this in many different ways:

  • It gives your teachers and advisers a framework when writing their recommendation letters.
  • It gives you a list of conversation points for when you have a scheduled admissions interview.
  • It’s a requirement for several scholarships as well as internship or employment opportunities.
  • Finally, a resume is almost like a business card. It has a tone of professionalism. Moreover, a good resume is something you can confidently submit to any school’s admissions department.

High School Resume for College

How to choose a college resume template?

Your college resume template should have that “IT” factor to leave a good impression on the reader. When composing your college resume format, always remember that looks matter. Here are a few pointers to think about for the design and format of your resume:

  • Avoid using Helvetica and other casual fonts
    Helvetica refers to a widely used sans-serif typeface characterized with “no feet” at the bottom of the letters. The opposite is serif fonts which have, well, those “little feet,” The latter is more professional and traditional for use in a resume.
  • Come up with a specific style for each of the levels of information
    There are many computer functions you can use to emphasize points in your resume. You can use bold or capitalized headings, italics or underlines when needed, bullet points for enumerations, and more. Consistency is the main key here. There’s no one standard way. Just select a specific style then stick with it.
  • Make sure to limit your resume to a single page
    Keep your resume as short as possible but still containing the salient points. Being concise can already earn you extra points from college admission counselors who have read a lot of these wordy resumes.
  • Make sure there is enough white space
    Margin formats always make an example resume college student clean and professional. One-inch margins are the standard. Keep a gap between the sections. White space is an effective design tool. It’s also gentler on the eyes of the reader.

College Resume Formats

Parts of a college resume template

A college resume template usually has four basic sections. Make sure that you include all of these sections in your resume template for college student. There should be a separate section if you have received many awards and honors. Here are brief descriptions of the basic sections of a college resume template:

  • Contact Information
    This includes the following details:
    Your name
    Make sure to use the same name as the one on your application. Again, the key here is consistency.
    Your professional email
    Make sure to check this email frequently. If you don’t have a professional email, create one. If you still use your email from high school, create a new one too.
    Your mobile phone number
  • Education
    This involves a bit more work as it includes:
    The name of the High School you attended, the City, the State, and the inclusive years.
    Your GPA both unweighted and weighted.
    Your highest test scores including, ACT, SAT, and others.
    Any relevant coursework. This part would give you the opportunity to talk about any additional classes, which you’ve taken back in high school which also reflect your interest in the course you plan to major in.
  • Experience
    This section allows you to state the reasons why you’re qualified for admission, that it isn’t just about responsibilities but accomplishments as well. But what is the difference? An illustrative example can explain this.
    Maybe you were a class president responsible for presiding over meetings, planning events, organizing fundraisers, and more. But if you didn’t accomplish any of these, then you should not include these in your college resume format.
    You need to consider both accomplishments and responsibilities in any of your endeavors, whether it be in a team, a club, a service project, and more. Also, try to think of your accomplishments in terms of numerical figures.
    Think about your choice in words when writing your college resume. Use active words to come up with a description of what you did exactly. Remember, this is the chance to explain that you have led, managed, created, organized, problem-solved, maintained, coached, budgeted, produced, presented, scheduled, written, built, traveled, bid, sold, developed, delivered, and so on.
    As you can see, these are all action words. Here are some helpful tips for writing this part of the resume:
    It’s recommended in any example resume college student to list experiences and education in reverse chronological order. Start with your most recent experiences and work backward.
    For each of the activities, list the business or organization (on-the-job training included), where it’s located, the position you held, and when these activities occurred. These dates show how much time you’ve spent on those activities.
    Avoid talking in the first person. Better to say “led,” rather than saying “I led.”
    Practice consistency in your verb tenses. If you’re still part of an activity, use the present tense. If not, use the past-tense.
  • Awards and Honors
    You can compare this section to your trophy case at home. If you won an essay-writing contest in a school-wide competition or you won first prize in a science fair or your miniature horse got a best-of-show award, then you can include all these in this section.
    As for experiences, take some time to make the details of your experiences brief while still capturing your awesomeness. Make sure to include the following:
    Naming the award gives credence to it. Make a brief description of what the award is all about.
    List all of the organizations you have been a part of, the positions you’ve held, and the dates when you received your awards. If possible, provide the month and the year.
    Being very specific and using numbers is highly recommended.
    Lastly, avoid using the first person.

College Student Resume Examples

Tips for writing a college resume template

A good college resume template should emphasize your education and work history. You may also include abilities and skills by citing as examples your participation in extracurricular activities and volunteer work. Here are some helpful points that can make your resume template for college student stronger:

  • Focus on your education
    Since applying for admission to college, your education history matters most. Emphasize the important points of your educational history. Aside from the usual name and degree, also include your achievements, like any academic awards or a high GPA. Also, mention any courses you’ve taken that are relevant to the position you’re applying for.
  • Include any relevant jobs
    You should now know with the experiences and skills required for the job you’re applying for. You can include the skills you’ve developed while performing other jobs in your resume.
    Even if your work experiences aren’t directly related, try thinking of ways to highlight those experiences. For instance, being a cashier before could have developed your skills in leadership or customer service.
  • Include your extracurricular activities
    For beginners, they may have limited experiences in terms of work. Here, they can emphasize non-working activities like a club membership, sports, volunteer work, babysitting or community service. Although these involve no compensation, they can show your abilities and skills.
  • Include your leadership experience
    If you have held a position that entails leadership in a sports team, a club or in previous jobs, these would be worth mentioning in your resume as these are an indication of your ability to lead.
  • Utilize action verbs
    This is a useful way to show responsibility. These become very effective when you describe your achievements. These words can depict your experiences in a compelling and energetic manner.
  • Quantify whenever possible
    Using numbers usually can highlight, if not enhance, your achievements. For instance, you can say that you have worked as a teller in a bank managing amounts of over $300,000 each day or you’ve worked in a retail shop helping out about 75 – 100 customers on average per day.
  • Keep editing as needed
    Never forget to carefully proofread the resume you’ve created before submitting. A finished one should be error-free spelling and grammar-wise. It should also comply with professional standards. As a double-check, ask a relative or friend to read your resume as well.
  • Download example resume college student
    You can use a college resume template as a guide when making your own. This greatly helps in deciding the content to include and how you should format it. Just make sure that the template you select will fit your own education, experiences, and the position you’re applying for.

College Resume Samples

Click to rate this post!
[Total: 0 Average: 0]
Tagged:CollegeCollege ResumeResumeStudent
TemplateLab April 29th, 2021