What are some do’s and don’ts for an applicant’s resume?
DON’T…
**Do not submit a first draft of your resume. Take time to edit and revise, just as you will do for your essay. Get your resume to a perfect state now, so that you have it ready to submit with each application for admission and scholarship. Just make updates as they occur senior year.
**Don’t let information get away! Keep a block of text for a particular activity on the same page. This may require moving margins, deleting extra words, etc. You don’t want the reader to forget what the activity was when they have to flip the page to continue reading.
**Inconsistency can make your resume difficult to read. Don’t bold one heading and not the next. Don’t put a period at the end of one description and not at the end of others. Don’t use multiple fonts. Etc.
**Don’t turn your resume into a novel. Remember, this is your resume, not your essay.
**Skip the abbreviations. Opt to spell out National Honor Society (NHS), Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), and similarly named student organizations.
**Don’t include your school’s contact information on your resume. That information is included in other places within your application for admission. Save the space to highlight your own personal achievements.
**There is no need to double up on your academic record. Your official transcript is where the admission office will refer for course selection, test scores, and grades earned…not your student resume.
**Eighth grade does not count. Your resume should be based upon your accomplishments in high school, not what you did in grade school or junior high. Exceptions might be (as an example) a particular activity that you started in seventh grade and continue to do consistently now.
**Th does not belong. Simply use (9,10,11,12) to indicate the grade level during which a particular activity was performed instead of (9th,10th,11th,12th). Those th notations can become difficult to read when the admission representative has reviewed 50+ other files that same day.
**”Who’s Who Among American High School Students” and other similar “awards” are not considered by colleges/universities to be legitimate and should not be listed on your resume.
DO…
** Make sure to list your name, mailing address, home phone number, and email address at the top of the first page of your resume. On subsequent pages, including just your name (usually top right hand corner) is sufficient.
**Brag about how you spend your time outside of the classroom! Include everything in your first draft. Revision may allow you to delete less important items, but don’t edit yourself at the start.
**Create categories for your high school activities and accomplishments. Typical groupings may include honors and awards, athletics, community service, extra-curricular activities, and employment.
**Use numbers (9,10,11,12) to specify which grades each activity was performed. Freshman year, sophomore, junior year, and senior year is quite wordy when you have a several page resume.
**On that same note, stick to grades (9,10,11,12) years versus calendar years (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011). No reader wants to calculate what grade you were in during which year.
**Longevity (9-12) and most recent (12) should be listed first within each category, then work backward to (9) items. This more clearly demonstrates where your heart lies and establishes a more uniform approach for easy reading.
**Pick a format that works best for you. Some will have a grid/table; others will opt for a bullet point list. There is no right or wrong format, only the layout that best emphasizes what you have pulled off in high school and what you will be bringing to the college campus community.
**Indicate your time commitment for each endeavor. Let the admission representative know how many hours you put into an activity. Be consistent with how that time is reported (hours per week, weeks per month, etc.).
**Include BRIEF descriptions of your participation in an activity or of an award received. Were you elected to a leadership position? Did you co-found the club? What is the goal of the organization?