How To List College On Resume

One Part Of The Big Picture

Having a college degree doesnt guarantee you a job, notanymore. Still, a college education is one of the job requirements forhigh-paying work. So you should learn how to list your education on a resume in away that paints you as a skilled and knowledgeable professional, not just astudent who only did the minimum work to pass.

Now that you’re done listing your education on a resume, why not improve the other parts of your resume too?

Example Of Placing Relevant Classes On A Management Resume

Master of Business Administration – Executive Management

Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ

Graduation: 2013

Relevant Courses: Operations Management, Modern Leadership Fundamentals, Technology and Innovation Management, Effective Verbal & Written Communication, Organizational Behavior and Strategic Planning, Advanced Decision Making for Leaders.

Should You Include A Gpa

New graduates often list their final GPA on a resume, believing that its a requirement for the job. Additionally, mentioning a high GPA can give you a sense of pride. Deciding to include your GPA on a resume is understandable.

Listing your GPA or the fact that you received Deans List or cum laude honors wont hurt your chances of getting an interview. However, it wont typically give you an edge over your competition, especially if your competition has more relevant work experience. In truth, employers arent as swayed by high or low GPAs as many applicants believe.

If you do decide to include your GPA, heres a way to format it:

West Seneca State College | West Seneca, NY | May 2016Bachelor of Science, Accounting | 3.45 GPA

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How To List A Minor On Your Resume

If your minor relates directly to the job youre applying for, it may be worth including on your resume. Listing your minor can help highlight relevant skills that can set you ahead of the competition.

You should list your minor on your resume just beside your major. For example:

DePaul University, Chicago, IL, December 2009-March 2013

Bachelor of Arts, Major English Composition, Minor Journalism

If you are including your GPA, it can go at the very end, beside the minor, like this:

DePaul University, Chicago, IL, December 2009-March 2013

Bachelor of Arts, Major English Composition, Minor Journalism

Why Is A Resume Education Section Important

Like numbers quantifying accomplishments in other parts of a resume, education is proven by degrees and diplomas earned.

On top of that, a resume education section helps show direction

Employers want hires who are willing to learn and improve, and your education on resume shows that.

When you dress it up with impressive extracurricular activities, relevant coursework, and honorsall the better!

Expert Hint: Double-check if there are no typos in your resume. They undermine your educationand your chances for employment. 58% of employers auto-reject resumes that contain typos.

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What Takes Priority Education Or Work Experience

Whether education or work experience is more important is determined by the job posting and your qualifications.

Generally, experienced candidates should list their previous work experience first, if the experience is relevant for the job.

However, teens, students, recent grads, and candidates with less work experience could list education and relevant qualifications first.

Where To Place Education In Progress On Your Resume

The second issue you need to address is placement. Where should you place these details when youâre trying to figure out how to list education in progress on a resume? There are two main possibilities, depending upon whether the degree is needed for the job youâre seeking.

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Cases When You May Want To Omit An Unfinished Degree

There are cases where its best to leave an incomplete degree off your resume.

For example, if an incomplete degree is irrelevant to the work you want to do and doesnt add value to your resume, simply leave it off your resume.

Another case is when including the degree has the potential to do more harm than good.

For example, if you didnt complete your degree for reasons that dont reflect well on you , then you may want to leave it off your resume.

On the contrary, if youve successfully completed your degree, then youll want to take full advantage of your hard work by learning how to properly list a degree on a resume.

Committed To Finishing A Required Degree

Should you give up on an opportunity simply because you havent finished your degree? Maybe not. If youre a great candidate otherwise, an employer may be willing to hire you with the condition that you finish your degree quickly.

Of course, this isnt going to work if you are years away from graduating. This is more appropriate for students who are within a semester of attaining their degree.

To do this, simply include your unfinished degree in the education section of your resume. Then, address the situation in your cover letter. For example, you may write something like this:

Im currently on a two-semester leave from the Haus Cooking Academy as I focused on honing my skills as a sous-chef at Parkers. However, Im committed to returning to school in April 2021 to earn my BA and get a food handler license.

Dont let an unfinished degree stop you from pursuing a great job! To maximize your chances of landing the job interview, frame your college experience as an asset, rather than a liability. The examples weve provided should help you do just that!

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Fourth Incorporate Extracurricular Activities And Volunteer Work

Even if you have never worked as a paid employee in the field you are applying for, you might have completed extracurricular activities or volunteer work. For example, if you are applying for a job with a newspaper, include your experience working on the yearbook for both high school and college. If you wrote articles for your school newspaper, include this experience and even some writing samples.

Listing Education With Limited Work Experience

In resumes that have limited or no work experience, as may be the case with college students or recent graduates, the education section may be a good opportunity to show off educational achievements instead.

Additional information that can be included in longer education sections can include:

• Internships completed as part of a curriculum
• Academic assistantships with professors or other academic professionals

As covered, in documents such as CVs the education section could be fairly lengthy.

However, the education section for most resumes will be one of the shortest sections.

This is mostly because standard resumes will be used for entry-level or mid-level positions, while longer-form resumes like the CV will only come into play for more prestigious or hard to obtain positions.

It is much more important to show either a robust work history or detail relevant and transferable skills, using your education as support rather than the main point of interest.

Here are some quick tips for deciding what educational information to include in a resume:

1) When including professional hobbies and extra curricular activities, it is important to keep relevance in mind

Incorrect: Do not include information about sports clubs or other clubs that cannot be connected back to your qualifications for a job.

Keep your descriptions simple and concise

Correct: Use bullet points to separate bits of information to keep your resume easy to read or skim.

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Background On Pj Media:

I started the business in the summer of 2016 to sharpen my writing skills as well as to fund my college education. I had 2 more writers onboard and we worked remotely. In the past 4 years, the company has provided writing services to over 30 clients. We wrote blogs, e-books, product reviews, website copy, social media content, and research papers. A good number of our work has received awards and citations. Please click www.pjmedia.com/awards.

If Youre A Current Student

If youre still studying, your education section can be a lot bigger, since youre unlikely to have a lot of relevant work experience. You should include any major accomplishments, including awards and involvement in extracurricular activities, but only list your GPA if its particularly impressive . Any part-time work experience or internships can go in the work history section of your resume.

If you know when youll be graduating, go ahead and list the expected date.

Generally, you shouldnt include your high school information once youre in college, as its no longer relevant. If you do, keep it strictly to one line.

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When You Didn’t Go To College

If you didn’t go to college or only took a few courses, you don’t have to list them. Of course, you also have the option of leaving college off of your resume entirely, which becomes a better option as you gain valid, relevant work experience.

There are many things you can include on your resume besides college, to highlight and prove your qualifications for a job. Relevant coursework, awards, certifications, volunteer positions, and even clubs and hobbies can often be included appropriately in other sections of your resume.

If you don’t have work or much other experience, you may want to list your GED or high school information on your resume. Otherwise, you don’t need to include it. For example:

General Educational Development Certificate

• The Susan Jones Family
• The Dean and Janice Blake Family
• The Franklin Travers Family

Was It A Better School

If you transferred from a prestigious school to a lesser-known college or university, definitely list both schools, unless the reasons for leaving the prestigious school were negative. If you went from a big-name school to a smaller school, youre going to be asked why. Again, if the reason was negative, you might want to keep your attendance, even at a prestigious school, quiet.

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If Youre Taking A Break From College

If youre taking a break from college for a year or less, youre still a student. List your unfinished degree on your resume the same as you would if you were still attending college.

Just remember, its important to be upfront with your potential employers about resuming your studies. An employer wont be thrilled if they hire you for a full-time position only to have you leave 6 months later. In your interview, make sure to bring up the topic of your education and discuss the possibility of accommodating a more flexible or part-time schedule for when the time to finish your degree comes.

Which Resume Format Is For You

The choice of resume format comes down to your level of experience and the type of work you handled.

• Choose the reverse-chronological format if the type of work you did part-time, summer job, apprenticeship, or freelance is relevant to the position you are applying for.
• Choose the functional format if your work experience was related to the completion of your courses such as On-The-Job training and volunteer work.

Do not include work experience that isnt relevant to the position you are applying for.

The structure of the resume is not set. You can expand some sections to add more information.

For example, you can create a subheading under Education for Coursework or Seminars Attended. The objective is to leave no stone unturned and provide as much key information as possible.

You want to convince the recruiter to give this new college graduate a try your first big break an opportunity to launch a career.

Also Check: List Courses On Resume

Variations In Listing Your Degrees

Now that weve looked at how to list each type of degree, lets look at some acceptable variations.

First, you dont always have to list all the years you attended a college in style. Its also okay to just list the year you graduated.

You can also adjust the order of the listing if you want to emphasize what you studied rather than when you graduated. This is especially helpful if you completed your education many years ago. You can replace the year, school/place, degree order with a degree, school, year order. Heres an example of what that might look like:

You can also do this if youre still working on your degree. Then, it will look like this::

The important thing is that you maintain the same format throughout your resume.

What To Include In An Education Section

As we’ve covered, different formats of resumes may require different information to be included within an education section.

In general, there is some basic information that should be included within the education section of a resume:

• The name of the school â “e.g. Georgia Institute of Technology”
• The location of the school
• Your degree
• Graduation year
• Major field or department of study
• Minor field or department of study
• GPA

Here’s what that looks like for and university grad:

Georgia Institute of Technology ⢠Atlanta, GAB.S. in Computer Engineering, 2006 – 2010GPA: 3.9/4.0

For high-school students, you can do something like the following:

Georgia Institute of Technology ⢠Atlanta, GAHigh School Diploma, Graduated in 2010GPA: 3.9/4.0

Remember, including a GPA is optional. Only add it if it’s required by the job listing or it’s relatively high. If your GPA is low , it’s better to just leave it out.

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What Employers Are Looking For In The Resume Education Section

When employers review the education section of your resume, what theyre looking for depends on the requirements of the job.

They may scan for:

• Your schools name and location
• Your degree and field of study
• Graduation year
• GPA
• Relevant coursework, achievements, or honors

If youre a recent graduate, you may want to include a more detailed education section, since this will comprise the bulk of your relevant experience. Otherwise, youll focus more on your work experience. Different jobs will require varying levels of detail and varying levels of education.

For an entry level position, for instance, employers want to verify that you have a high school diploma or bachelors degree. For a higher level position, employers may prefer a graduate degree. Some professions require specific degrees or certifications.

Most job descriptions specify educational requirements. Review these requirements to determine whether youre truly a good fit for the position.

How To Build A Resume Using College Involvement As Experience

Think your college involvement isn’t applicable to your job search? Think again.

Entering the workforce as a professional is one of the most exciting moments after graduation. You’ve worked hard for your degree and are now ready to put those skills to the test. However, you may find yourself feeling as though those daunting job ads appear to seek more qualified team members. No need to pass the job over when deciding how to build a resume, look to your college activities for unexpected experience.

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How To Write A Strong Resume

Start with a blank document. We dont recommend templates as they become restrictive when you are trying to adjust formatting later. Then add each of the sections detailed below.

Use this worksheet to help you plan and develop your resume content.

First, add your contact information at the top of the page

Your name should be large

Your contact information should include your email address, phone number, city and state , and a personalized link to your LinkedIn profile.

To personalize your LinkedIn profile link, click on Edit Public Profile & URL in the top right corner of your profile page. Edit your custom URL to your name.

Example:

Next, as a current student, your education section should be listed at the top under your contact information.

Information that should be included:

• Institution name, city, and state
• School or college, including study abroad institutions and graduate schools, where relevant
• Date of graduation
• Major, if known
• GPA, if above a 3.0 or if required by an employer

Other optional information:

For most students, your experience section will come after Education. An exception would be if the position description calls for key technical skills.

Key tips:

How to write strong bullet statements for each experience:

Great bullet statements will describe your achievements rather than tasks.

Start each bullet with an action verb, then demonstrate the value you added to your work by stating what you did , how you did it , and why you did it .

Creative Fields

How To List Education On A Resume With Examples

• Education FAQs

The education section of your resume provides hiring managers with a detailed insight into your background and how it relates to the role. When written to reflect the job requirements, your education section can give you an advantage over other candidates. The best way to list your education depends on your work and academic achievements.

There are several ways to list education on your resume. Reading and understanding the job description can help identify the perfect location and level of qualification to include when applying to a position. Not all jobs need your full credentials, so you can check the job listing to see what the hiring managers are looking for. In this article, you can learn about how to list your education on a resume.

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