Colleges That Do Not Accept Resumes
Some schools fully recognize that you are, in many cases, not even yet a legal adult, let alone one whose career accomplishments would necessitate a resume. The University of Virginia explicitly states: We do not accept resumes, research abstracts, or writing portfolios. In 2018, Duke University adopted a similar ban on resume submission for undergraduate hopefuls. Yale is a smidgen less concrete, warning that, Generally speaking, applicants should not submit additional résumés, except in the case of professional employment experience in the performing arts. The New Haven gatekeepers go on to elaborate that they have zero interest in hearing about more than your ten most recent/important activities already included elsewhere in the application. Tufts University is another elite institution that is a full-fledged member of Team No-Resume, stating that we are not able to accept a supplemental resume of activities. Before you submit a single resume with one of your applications, carefully read the admissions homepages of all of your prospective schools to make sure that they dont have a comparably discouraging language.
Position/leadership Description And Organization Name
After you choose the activity type, the application will ask you to describe the position you held and the organization name. This section is limited to 50 characters.
Be as specific as possible here. If you participate in a club, define your role, rather than just listing member. If you participated in an activity for multiple years and have had multiple roles within it,;list your roles in order of importance rather than chronologically. For example, if you were Student Council Vice President freshman year and a class representative the other three years, list these out as: Vice President , Class Representative .
You should also be specific in defining the organization. If it has a name, say it, and define what it is if that is unclear. If the activity is typically referred to by an acronym, be sure to list the full name, as you never want to assume that admissions committees will be familiar with the activity to which you are referring.
You are limited to 150 characters for details, accomplishments, honors won, and accomplishments within each activity, so you will need to be concise and offer only the most pertinent details. If you absolutely need more room to thoroughly explain truly important details about the activity, use the additional information section to expand, or describe it in more detail in your essay if it relates to the topic you choose.
Post-graduate: After High School
How Important Is The Activities Section
Selective colleges use grades and test scores to filter out applicants, but once you get past that initial stage, extracurriculars make up about 30% of your admissions decision. This shows us that theyre almost as important as academics! Since there are many applicants with similar academic backgrounds, colleges use extracurriculars to help them differentiate and choose between applicants. For more information about how colleges filter applicants, check out our post on the Academic Index.
While extracurriculars might seem subjective, colleges are methodical in their evaluation of them. They use the 4 Tiers of Extracurriculars:
Tier 1: These are rare activities that show exceptional achievement or leadership. They include national awards or other prestigious achievements.
Tier 2: These are little more common than Tier 1, but these activities still showcase high levels of achievement and leadership. They include top leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations, winning regional competitions, or state-level sports/music distinctions.
Tier 3: These lack the distinction of Tier 1 and 2, but still highlight students interests. They include minor leadership positions for well-known clubs and organizations and smaller athletic/musical distinctions.
Tier 4: These are the most common activities and are seen most often by admissions committees. They include general club/sports/musical membership and general volunteering.
You May Like: How To List Language Skills On Resume
What Is Common App
Each year, more than 1 million students apply to more than 900 Common App member colleges worldwide through our online college application platform. Learn more about applying through our first-year application by following our step-by-step guide below.
The information youâll need to complete your applications
A Resume Is An Opportunity To Tell More
I believe all students should create and submit activity resumes. This is a great opportunity to further explain an involvement or honor you have received. Organize your resumes by type of activity, include years of participation and hours completed. Also make sure to add descriptions if needed but be clear and concise in your descriptions. The resumes can be easily uploaded to a Common Application under the Additional Information section. In addition, you may also hand out a resume to an alumni representative after you have had an interview or as a follow-up with an admissions officer. Make sure your school counselor has a copy of your resume and in some cases teachers who are writing your recommendations may ask for one.
PrincipalWendy Kahn College Consulting, LLC
Also Check: Where To List Languages On Resume
Resume Writing Is A Life Skill
Your colleges instructions on the application should always be your first point of reference for whether a college wants you to submit a resume as part of their online application. Having said that, when I work with students I always have them draft an academic resume, to help organize their information about their experiences, involvement, honors/awards by category. Resume writing is a great exercise because now if applications are requesting this information in a bulleted format, limiting the number of comments a student can make, writing the resume as a first step helps prioritize and organize each category to apply this information in the required format. Resumes evolve over time, so by becoming familiar with the layout and concepts of effective resume development, students learn the skills needed to recreate resumes for various purposes in the future. READ THE APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY! If the college does not make a statement about NO RESUME, it can be very helpful to supply one by snail mail. When would a student provide a resume if an application does not request one? If the student is a powerhouse and the other information on the resume is additive to the application and because of space constraints this information was not included, it could be sent.
Independent Educational ConsultantThe College Connection
Guidelines To Write Impressive High School Resume
Firstly, Resumes is not a required part of your college application process. In fact some universities even ban students from submitting their resumes.
However, I strongly recommend high school students to write a resume based on your common app because it might be wise to send it to some schools that you are applying too. The resume can be sent to some universities, used to apply for scholarships, and even internships when you are at college.
Also Check: Is My Perfect Resume Legit
Lastly Are There Other Reasons For Creating A Resume
Yes!;For example, if you are:
-
Applying for outside scholarships: When applying to scholarships from 3rd party organizations, many require resumes in addition to essays.
-
Applying to jobs or Internships: If applying to either of these as a high school student or college freshman, it would be easy to tweak your college resume and gear it towards specific internships or summer jobs.
-
Attending an interview: If you have college interviews with alumni or for jobs or internships, it might be a good idea bring a copy of your resume to provide some talking points during your interview. They may have seen it already, but it never hurts to be prepared.
Read on to part 2 to see how to turn your Common Application into a simple and clear resume for your university admissions application and see two more awesome sample college resumes.
Honors College Applications Sometimes Require Resumes
Florida International Universitys Wilkes Honors College states that To strengthen your Wilkes Honors College application, we encourage you to submit a resume and academic research paper. The College of Charlestons Honors College flat-out requires a resume. The Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin goes even further, requiring an expanded resume and practically begs for detail warning applicants that, This is NOT a place to be overly concise. Clarkson Universitys Honors Program also requires a CV but conversely limits the document to a one-page maximum. Visit our Top Honors Programs Dataverse page for more information.
Read Also: How To Write A Resume For Cna With No Experience
The Honors And Awards Section
If it wasnt obvious from the title, this is the place on your application where you list awards youve won and honors youve received.
Heres what Common App says:
Do you wish to report any honors related to your academic achievements?
So while the focus of this section will be on academic honors and awards, based on a few conversations with folks who work in admission, its OK to list other significant awards and honors that youd like to highlight here.
What if I havent won any awards?Dont worry. Many schools dont offer academic awards, many activities are not competitive, and some students dont have the time, money, or resources to compete. Admission officers understand this based on the context of the applicant and wont use it against you.
If you do have awards to list, here are…
Seven Tips for the Honors and Awards Section
1. List your awards in order of importance.Start with those that mean the most to you. If youre unclear on your awards personal meaning, start with international. Work down from there to national, state, regional, school-wide, club, then team-wide.
2. Specify what the award means.Congrats on winning the Beacon Award… but I have no idea what that means. Did you win a beacon? Were you the beacon? Say so! Similarly, an academic excellence award could mean so many things. Define the bar of excellence in the context of the award.
3. Emphasize selectivityWere you the best team out of four teams, or 400? We wont know unless you tell us.
What Counts Towards The Time Spent On An Activity
Your child should count not just the time they spend actually doing an activity, but also time spent preparing for and traveling to that activity. For example, if your child is a writing tutor and spends time reading and marking up their tutees essays before sessions, that preparation time counts. Or, say your child is a varsity cross country athlete and often travels a few hours away to attend meets on the weekendthey should include that travel time as well.
Read Also: What Is A Good Typing Speed For Resume
Tips For Returning Or Adult Students:
As a returning or adult student, you have the unique experience of having been away from school for a number of years. While the tips for all résumés listed above apply to you, you want to take extra care constructing your résumé. First, if an activity, job, experience, or award is over 10 years old, leave it out. Fill your résumé with relevant and current activities. If youve had the same job for a number of years and are worried about filling up a page, there are some steps you can take:
- Go into detail about the jobs that you do choose to include. Instead of just one bullet point describing your responsibilities, list two or three.
- If youve held different positions with the same company, separate them. This sample résumé lists two separate positions with the same employer and goes into detail about how the responsibilities differ between the two.
- Add information about career development or job training that youve completed. This can either go into your education section or as a bullet point beneath a position detailing informal training that youve received while on the job.
Page last updated: 05/2019
Are You Ready To Discover Your College Program
Applying to colleges and universities can put stress and strain on degree-seekers. Prospective students may find it difficult to search and choose potential schools, collect the necessary application information, and meet different deadlines. Luckily, the Common Application helps streamline this process.
Don’t Miss: What Is A Good Typing Speed For Resume
Your Gpa And Sat Dont Tell The Full Admissions Story
Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographics, and other holistic details. Well let you know what your chances are at your dream schools and how to improve your chances!
Your GPA and SAT dont tell the full admissions story
Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographic, and other holistic details.
Your GPA and SAT dont tell the full admissions story
Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographic, and other holistic details. Well let you know what your chances are at your dream schools and how to improve your chances!
Benefits Of The Common App
The Common Application offers several advantages. For schools, its inclusivity encourages a diverse selection of applicants. For individual degree-seekers, the service allows them to:
- Apply more quickly.
- Avoid filling out the same information multiple times.
- Receive updates on mobile devices.
- Easily manage application requirements and deadlines.
Recommended Reading: When Will Corvette Plant Tours Resume
What If My Child Spends Different Amounts Of Time On An Activity During The School Year Vs Over The Summer
While in the past weve advised students in this situation to simply total the number of hours spent and list start and end dates, the Common Apps current format doesnt allow you to input this kind of information. Thus, we recommend that your child simply total their hours and average it over the number of weeks they spent on an activity.
For example, if your child spent 5 hours per week volunteering at an organization for 30 weeks during the school year, plus 25 hours per week for 10 weeks over the summer, they should write that they volunteered for 10 hours per week for 40 weeks. Ideally, they should also work relevant details into the description box to convey how that time was distributedfor instance, they might note that they took on additional responsibilities or more time-intensive tasks during the summer.
All Colleges Need Things Like Official School Forms Many Colleges Will Also Ask For Letters Of Recommendation
Counselors, teachers, and recommenders will submit these kinds of forms on your behalf. Here are the types of recommenders you can invite in the Common App.
Counselors share their perspective using the context of the entire graduating class. They also submit the School Report and transcripts.
Parents will only need to submit a form if you apply using a college’s early decision deadline. They will fill out part of your early decision agreement.
Teachers give a firsthand account of your intellectual curiosity and creative thought.
Other recommenders are usually non academic recommenders like coaches, employers, and peers. They give insight into your interests and activities outside of the classroom.
Advisors do not submit any forms. They track and check in on your application progress.
Don’t Miss: How To Put Lines In Word For Resume
Where Does Your Resume Go On The Common App
I am often asked where a students resume goes on the common app and the answer is simple.
No where.
Thats right, colleges do not want to see a resume in your common application. And no that doesnt mean that you should send it by mail or email to the colleges.
Think about this like a college. Could they ask you for a resume? Of course, and there are a few colleges that do. But what does that tell you about all of the colleges that dont ask for a resume?
More and more selective colleges are using the common application because it is an easy way for them to get the information they want in an easy to read format. The common app provides you space for 10 activities. The colleges could ask the common app to increase the number of spaces for activities. After all, the common app is run by the colleges. But colleges are not pushing for more than 10 activities. And the descriptions also have been fairly static for several years. College want to see how well you can describe what you do without being verbose.
As I discussed last time, the reason is obvious. Very few students truly have more than 10 significant activities that need to be brought to the attention of the colleges.
Having a resume is fine in case the college asks for it or to use as a reminder to you of what you have done to make sure you dont forget something on the common app list of activities. ;But dont worry about submitting it to the colleges because most dont want to see it.
Track Your Application Status
We use email as our official method of communication. Students should also regularly monitor the Application Status Check to confirm the status of their application, required materials, missing items, and admission decision. Please ensure that we always have your most up-to-date email address, and include in your address book.
You May Like: Do You Need A Photo On Your Resume
Do I Need A Resume For My College Applications
If you are a teenage prodigy who spent your spare time in high school interning at a cancer research laboratory and founding a charitable organization which distributes prescription glasses in Zimbabwe, then being asked to formulate a resume as part of your college application might sound like a perfectly natural proposition. Its quite easy to summarize your prodigious achievements in resume form if you happen to be a wunderkind with a list of accomplishments longer than most MacArthur Fellows.
Yet, for 17/18-year-olds who happen to be mere mortals, the task of writing a resume might feel as absurdly impossible as being asked to perform an act of alchemy. Tasked with magically creating pure gold from a menacingly blank MS Word document, crazed thoughts begin to flood your mind: The only people agonizing over a resume should be middle-aged executives who were downsized after a hostile corporate takeover, whatever that isIm a senior in high school for crying out loudI go to school and work the cash register at CVS in the summers. What more do you want from me!?
Try to take a deep breath as you emerge from your Mike-Judgean nightmare and back into reality. In the following article, we will explain everything you need to know about college application resumes, including:
- Which college accept resumes
- Honors College applications that require resumes
- How to write a college resume