College Resume Templates
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A college resume is a document that represents a high school student’s academic achievement, after-school activities, work experience, and other relevant accomplishments.
It is used when applying for college or university and will accompany the student’s overall college application. Since high school students do not have an extensive list of professional work experience, the college resume highlights the student’s extracurricular involvement and achievements.
Sample College Application Resumes
What Should a College Resume Look Like?
While college resume templates have many structures and designs, each form must look clean and professional. University administrators prefer easy-to-read documents written in a business-like tone and free of grammar, spelling, and mechanical mistakes. Students should avoid flashy, distracting, or gimmicky resumes to boost the chances of receiving an acceptance letter. All information listed in the template needs to represent the student’s authentic experiences and accomplishments. Colleges automatically reject applicants who lie or include false information on their resumes.
College Resume Examples
How to Make a Resume for College
Identify what the college admissions committee is looking for in its candidates. Specific colleges or programs search for applicants who have served in leadership positions while others only emphasize academic achievement. Knowing this information ahead of time allows students to tailor their resumes to match the application requirements.
Compile a list of all the student’s relevant accomplishments, experiences, and awards. Consider exciting and innovative projects or presentations, in addition to standardized items, such as high grade-point-average (GPA) or being a captain of a varsity sports team.
For instance, if the college application is for a design school, the candidate should include their work from a high school project. Yearbook designs and other visual content or images help the applicant demonstrate their skill(s).
Which Skills Should be Included?
Each college resume has a unique style and format with specific information about the applicant. Although the templates look different from one another, they generally include the following information:
- Work experience (including seasonal and part-time positions)
- Extracurricular / club activities
- Volunteer work
- Leadership positions
- Projects, performances, and/or presentations
- Summer internships
- Academic achievements (i.e., high GPA, Honor roll, etc.)
Include both “hard” and “soft” skills in a resume. “Hard” skills are technical in nature and typically job-specific, such as coding in HTML, audio/video editing, or cabinetry. “Soft” skills are character or interpersonal traits that are transferrable to many types of positions, such as being a self-starter, possessing close attention to detail, or resolving conflicts effectively. Colleges want to see how applicants align with the goals and values of their program or institution.
For example, a student applying to a pre-med program should include the hard and soft skills that best match the program’s requirements. Applicants who can provide first aid (hard skill) and personable patient care (soft skill) best demonstrate that they are a good fit for the program.
College Application Resume Examples
Key Takeaways
A college resume summarizes the student’s background and achievements. It allows the candidate to highlight their best qualities, relevant experiences, and skills to admissions officers in the prospect of receiving an acceptance letter.
Recruiters will read a well-crafted resume that stands out against other candidates. For instance, a student can provide information about club activities or high school leadership positions to counteract a lack of work experience. Overall, applicants have the freedom to include the skills, experiences, and accomplishments that they feel best represent their personality and capabilities.
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3 High School Student for College Resume Examples
High School Student for College Resume
Formal high school student for college resume, elegant high school student for college resume.
- High School Student for College Resume Writing 101
Life as a high school student can be exhilarating, but it can also feel like you’re juggling five million things. You’re sending out college applications, doing interviews, taking extracurricular courses, trying to have a social life, and prepare your resume for that killer job you’ve been eyeing.
If you don’t have a lot of experience, you might feel like it’s impossible to create a resume as a high school student headed to college. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be!
We’ve helped thousands of high school students craft awesome resumes and master writing a great cover letter for that college job over the years, which is why we’ve created this guide with everything you need to know—starting with three sample high school student for college resumes.
or download as PDF
Related resume examples
- High school teacher
- English teacher
- Middle school teacher
- Social science teacher
- High school student
The Most Important Part: Skills & Work Experience
As a high school student, you may be short on career experience, but you can use this section to focus on all the skills you’ve gained from the activities that keep you busy!
Your goal here is to show that you’re a motivated go-getter, and you can use the skills section to do just that. Start by reading the job description carefully to see what kind of skills they might want, like verbal communication, time management, or research.
Then, think about what skills you’ve picked up from school clubs, after-school activities, odd jobs, or errands, and write those down. If you’re stuck, ask a friend: sometimes the skills may seem so obvious to you that you’ll forget to include it!
9 Best High School Student for College Skills
- Customer service
- Microsoft Office
- Social media marketing
- Determination/diligence
- Research/analytics
- Bilingualism
- Time management
- Collaboration
Sample High School Student for College Work Experience Bullet Points
So you’ve gotten the skills section out of the way. Now, you want to focus on letting your previous experience shine.
Sure, you may not have worked as a teen in a traditional 9-to-5 yet, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have the chops. So how can you convince the recruiter you can do what it takes as a high school student looking for a college job?
Focus on impact (using metrics) from previous roles like volunteer work, internships, regular chores, extracurricular activities, or side gigs. Showcase using numbers the impact you had. Recruiters will clearly see that you know what’s important, and more importantly know how to measure it.
Let’s look at a few examples:
- Started an Eastern European Literature club as a freshman, recruiting 35+ members in the first semester
- Assisted in fundraising events for inner-city kids, helping raise $40,000 in 2 weeks
- Founded and ran a comedy page on Instagram and TikTok, reaching 5 million views and 23,000 followers
- Surpassed sales targets by 6-9% on a weekly basis by upselling appetizers and desserts to diners
Top 5 Tips for Your High School Student for College Resume
- A career objective can help your resume stand out when you’re a high school student, but only if it’s not impactful. Clearly demonstrate your achievements and drive, and mention where you see yourself within the company you’re applying to. If it’s just generic fluff, it’s best to skip it.
- It can be easy to minimize your talents if you’re early on in your career. That’s a mistake! Focus on what makes you unique: are you a polyglot? A math whiz? Top of the class in Computer Science? If it could help you stand out, put it down!
- Conversely, don’t wax poetic when writing your high school student for college resume. It doesn’t need to be a two-page resume. If you’ve got the essentials, you’re good to go. Less is more, and filler will kill your chances of getting interviewed.
- Yes, we’re repeating this! Use your work experience to show what kind of positive impact you’ve had through your previous tasks and responsibilities. Whether it’s chairing class meetings, participating in community activities, or volunteering for a fundraiser, make it clear what your impact was.
- A good resume should be easy on the eyes. Have lots of white space, simple bullet points, and no fancy graphics or images that could mess up your layout. Remember, your resume as a high school student is the first impression your future employer might have of you!
Absolutely! Don’t worry if you haven’t had an internship or worked in retail yet. Focus on volunteer work, your education, extracurricular courses you’ve taken, hobbies, and any other achievements like a strong GPA. Remember, everyone needs to start somewhere.
Sure thing! In fact, it’s better to have less than too much. If you have all the essentials we talked about, then you should be good to go. And remember: recruiters aren’t expecting you to have that much experience out of high school.
All you need to do is make sure any skills the job description asks for are reflected in your resume. Plus, include relevant work experience that aligns with the mindset or profile they’re looking for. And don’t forget to customize your career objective !
