College Resume Examples and Writing Guide
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Whether a current student or a recent graduate, your college resume must reframe your academic experience and skills based on job-related needs. This helpful writing guide and free college resume samples will help maximize your relevant skills.
Want a stronger resume? Try our resume templates. Simply edit and download. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click using our Resume Builder.
Or view our sample resumes made with our professional templates.
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What is a College Resume?
A college resume is a quick snapshot of any training and academic accomplishment that can serve you professionally. This professional document can summarize several topics, including your academic achievements, extracurricular activities, work experience, skills or other relevant information.
You’re likely to need a college resume in the following scenarios:
- College admissions applications
- Scholarship applications
- Internships
- Job opportunities
We’ll share some helpful college resume examples in this article, but here’s a helpful college student resume template to copy/paste and start your draft.
Free college resume template
[FULL NAME]
[City, State ZIP Code]
[Professional Email Address]
[Phone Number]
Resume Objective:
[Statement that outlines your career goals and how your education and extracurricular activities prepared you for the needs of the job/organization/scholarship/degree you’re applying to.]
Relevant Coursework:
[Name of Class]: [Relevant labs, projects or assignments related to your career interest or job requirements]
Relevant Experience:
[Job Title or Extracurricular Participant Title]
[Company/Organization] | [Dates of Employment]
- [Description of duties and achievements. Use quantifying data like percentages, project outcomes or success metrics.]
- [Description of duties and achievements. Use quantifying data like percentages, project outcomes or success metrics.]
- [Description of duties and achievements. Use quantifying data like percentages, project outcomes or success metrics.]
Skills:
[Skill 1]
[Skill 2]
[Skill 3]
[Skill 4]
[Skill 5]
[Skill 6]
Education:
[Name/Type of Degree] in [Major], Graduation Date/ Expected Graduation Date [MM/YYYY]
[Name of College/University] | [City, State]
GPA: [GPA if 3.4 or higher]
Pro tip: Try a professional tool like our Resume Builder to find transferable skills and volunteer experience for your resume!
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5 College Resume Examples
We created these free college resume examples based on everyday situations requiring a professional document. Use these examples like study guides to see how you reframe your informal experience.
1. Resume for college student
Find more examples of student worker resumes.
2. College graduate resume
3. Undergraduate college resume
Find examples of current and recent high school student resumes.
4. College student resume for internship
5. Recent college graduate resume
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How to Write a College Resume
You probably have little to no formal work experience as a current or recent student. You probably have more relevant experience for your college resume than you think. Consider your duties and responsibilities related to assignments, school clubs, extracurricular activities and volunteer work.
You develop valuable transferable skills through those experiences — time management, teamwork and interpersonal skills. With a strategic resume format, you can reframe these skills and personal experiences to relate to the needs of an open job, internship or apprenticeship. Let’s learn how to write a college resume.
1. Introduce yourself via a resume objective
Most modern resumes include an introduction in a resume objective or summary statement. Since some hiring managers spare as little as six seconds on your resume, this intro acts like a compelling teaser trailer to encourage them to read past the top third of your document.
Although we usually recommend a summary statement, a resume objective works better for college resumes because it describes your career goals and ambitions before promoting a job-relevant skill. This type of introduction helps address your need for a formal work history.
Sample college resume:
“Dynamic and motivated college student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management eager to apply theoretical knowledge. Eager to apply learned skills in project management, team collaboration and problem-solving in a hands-on role. Possess strong analytical skills, leadership capabilities and a passion for driving organizational growth.”
2. Leverage your relevant experience
You may think your college resume is limited to full- and part-time jobs. However, hiring managers will accept job-relevant experience from volunteer, extracurricular, and class-related activities as long as you can rephrase this in job-related terms.
For example, a former high-school tutor can highlight teaching, syllabus planning, time management, assignment review and student support skills when applying for a teacher’s assistant job and scholarship.
College Resume Example of Experience:
After-School Tutor | Woodrow Wilson High School
Beaufort, TX | Sept 2021 – May 2024
- Provided social and academic tutoring for middle-school-aged students.
- Specialized in delivering English, literature and social studies tutoring and revision support.
- Planned weekly stage performances to improve students’ public speaking and presentation skills.
3. Make the most of your transferable skills
Your college resume will include intersocial soft skills, hard skills and specialized technical skills.
College student-friendly skills include:
4. Highlight your education
Your resume’s education section will usually look the same across all resume formats. The only difference will be including your GPA. Only add this information if your GPA is over. 3.4 When this achievement is relevant, you’re within two years of graduation. After two years, you should focus your resume on career achievements and not school accomplishments.
Sample college resume:
Bachelor’s Degree in Financial Accounting, Expected Graduation Date 06/2025
University of California, Davis | Davis, CA
GPA: 3.7
5. Additional sections
College students can add additional sections to their resume to help highlight that career-relevant training or transferable experience.
Sections you can include are:
- Relevant projects/coursework:
- Certifications
- Professional/Academic memberships
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3 Tips for a Great College Resume
These three writing tips can help you personalize your college resume to fit your personal experience and professional goals.
1Prioritize job-relevant skills
It’s tempting to load your resume with every professional skill you have, but your college resume needs a tailored, targeted approach to have a meaningful impact. By adding every skill you possess without explaining how those skills address a hiring need, you risk being careless or inattentive to hiring managers.
Employers care about your ability to perform job duties efficiently. Carefully reading the job description and identifying matching skills demonstrates your attention to detail and immediate ability to contribute to a team or workplace.
2Focus on related experience over past jobs
Most hiring managers can overlook your lack of experience if you demonstrate a deep understanding of the job’s role and responsibilities. Do this by carefully reading the job description, finding the core skills needed to complete the job, and identifying existing examples of these skills from your personal and academic experience.
For example, a finance student can highlight managing budgets as club treasurer or tracking stocks for an economics assignment as relevant college resume experience for an internship application. Visit our high school student and no-experience resume articles to find similar career-related skills and transferable examples.
3Reframe your education in terms of the job
Make the most out of your education and classwork. Find assignments and projects that helped you develop relevant job skills or prepare you for your specialized job. For example, aspiring agriculture workers can use their previous experience in 4-H or Future Farmers of America (FFA) clubs.
Consider the following strategies to highlight relevant skills and experiences from your class and extracurricular activities:
- Highlight projects with notable examples of problem-solving, teamwork or communication skills similar to the open job.
- Describe job- or career-related coursework that provided hands-on practice of career-related tasks or theories.
- Reframe your education in terms of practical job applications to demonstrate your understanding of job responsibilities.
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Key Takeaways
You may be a student at the precipice of your career, but don’t underestimate your informal experience and existing skills. Make the most of your college resume by:
College Resume FAQ
How do you put college on your resume if you still need to graduate?
Your education section will follow the same format before and after you graduate. However, you should mark that your graduation is pending until graduation. You can then revisit your resume and remove that little caveat. Here’s an example of what your resume will look like before and after graduation
Pending graduation example:
Bachelor’s in Technology, Media and Communications, Columbia University
New York City, NY | Expected Graduation Date: May 2025
GPA: 3.8
Specialization: Policymaking and voter outreach.
Post-graduation example:
Bachelor’s in Technology, Media and Communications, Columbia University
New York City, NY | Graduation Date: May 2023
GPA: 3.7
Specialization: Policymaking and voter outreach.
How to list unfinished college on a resume.
Sometimes, life will interrupt our academic and professional plans. If you didn’t finish college for personal, medical or financial reasons, you can still highlight relevant coursework and extracurricular experience if they relate to a job. For example, a former law student can list their knowledge or pre-trial prep and paperwork to get a legal assistant or paralegal job.
Relevant Training and Experience
Student Volunteer | UC Hastings School of Law — Legal Clinic
San Francisco, CA | Dec 2022 – May 2023
- Gathered and arranged evidence and other legal documents for attorney review and case preparation.
- Wrote and summarized reports, witness interviews and depositions to help lawyers prepare for trials.
- Drafted correspondence and legal documents, such as contracts, affidavits and other formal statements.
Is a college resume the same as a resume?
A college resume requires creativity and knowledge of your career path to reframe your relevant skills and experience to the job.
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[6 Free College Resume Samples with Writing Tips]
Last edited by: Amaury Gonzalez - September 09, 2024