Graduate school resume is an important aspect of your application that will be read usually together with your statement of purpose, letters of recommendation and academic transcript. With a well-designed resume you are able to highlight your achievements, leadership and academic preparedness in an open and forceful way.
Graduate school resume must show your abilities and experiences in a manner that should meet academic standards-not job related achievements.
What is a graduate school resume?
The resume for graduate school refers to the document that brings to the fore your academic resume, researches and activities, and your extracurricular activities, internship experiences, and any other work in the field pursued. It does not resemble a professional or a corporate resume.
Graduate school resume is usually longer, than one-page job resume and contains more information on academic activities, honors and intellectual contributions.
The importance of graduating school resume
Graduate school resume provides the admission committees with an overview of your academic experience, leadership and readiness to pursue graduate-level education.
Graduate school resume can make you shine among other candidates like you who are having the same GPA or achievement scores as you do by showing your individual experiences and goals.
Wholesome difference between graduate school Resume and Job Resume
Graduate school resume focuses more on the academic record, research and intellectual growth unlike a job resume which is dedicated to working experience and performance.
Graduate school resume does not resort to sales terminology, known also as sharkspeak, while focusing on academic attainments, intellectual strength, and future potential.
The Important Sections in Graduate School Resume
Graduate school resume must contain the core sections such as Contact Information, Education, Research Experience, Work Experience (if possible), Extracurricular Activities, Honors & Awards, and Skills.
Graduate school resume can contain yet optional fields such as Publications, Conferences, Languages, and Volunteer Work or, rather, when the field is pertinent to the program.
Graduate School Resume: The Education related Section
Graduate school resume should start with comprehensive Education section. Put your degree(s) and institution(s), GPA, major/minor, honors or thesis title, if you have.
Undergraduate coursework earlier done in particular similar to the specialization of the graduate school in which the person wants to secure a place is also to be mentioned in resume in graduate school.
Graduate School Resume: Research Experience
Graduate school resume must indicate research experiences through internships, assistantship positions, lab works or independent researches. These testify of your ability to work at the academic level.
Graduate school resume should be able to state the title of research, the name of the person who supervised the research, the methodologies followed and the most important results or conclusions.
Graduate School: Work and Internship Resume
Graduate school resume will have part time jobs, internship or volunteer experiences, where possible, in relation to your planned discipline.
Graduate school resume ought to characterize them in an academic perspective: how they fed or influenced your areas of interest, research questions, or professional aspirations.
Graduate School Resume: Leadership and Extra Curricular
The graduate school resume should reflect any participation in the academic clubs, student main positions, in the community, or university groups.
Graduate school resume must indicate how such participation reflects soft skills such as communication ability, leadership and teamwork, which are important to graduate success.
Graduate School Resume Honors and Awards
Graduate school resume should contain scholarships, dean list honors, scholastic contests, or national awards.
Graduate school resume must include them with specific titles, issuing institutions, and dates so that your achievements could get credibility and context.
Graduate School resume: Technical and language skills
Graduate school resume ought to consist of such technical skills as software (SPSS, MATLAB, R, AutoCAD), research tools, lab methods, and programming language.
Foreign languages may also be listed in resume to graduate school especially in international relations, linguistics or area studies degree programs.
Resume Formatting Tips to Graduate School
Graduate school resume should be tidy, proper, and devoid of glitzy graphics and colors. Include use of clear headings, bullet point and font of 11-12 pt.
Graduate school resume should take 1-2 page depending upon your academic background. Concentrate on brevity and focus on structuring and presenting the information in a sensible manner.
Graduate School Resume: Making it Program Specific
Graduate school resumes are to be program specific. Highlight experiences and accomplishments that are consistent with departmental research area, faculty research area or interest.
Graduate school resume can even have a short objective/profile statement at the top in case it will put your application into a better perspective- which is optional.
Graduate School Resume vs. CV
In the U.S., resume for graduate school is interchangeably referred to as an academic CV but different universities might distinguish.
Graduate school resume usually signifies a shorter and more specific document, whereas a CV can have several pages containing all academic activities, publication, and presentations.
What not to do in a Graduate School Resume
A graduate school resume must not follow the job-type objective such as stating that they want a job where they can develop (avoid these job-style objectives) rather, on your resume you must concentrate on your academic efforts.
Any unrelated employment (working at a fast food restaurant or selling in a store) should not be included on resume to graduate school unless it reflects critical skills or a missing gap in your academic progression.
Graduate School Resume: Your Key result – Verbs: Action Verbs and Results
Graduate school resume is to be composed with the help of action verbs such as researched, analyzed, presented, designed, and co-authored.
Graduate school resume is made stronger through sharing of results: “Submitted a literature review on the issue of social justice in education and presented the results on the XYZ Conference.”
STEM Programs STEM Grad School Resume
Graduate School in STEM candidate should focus on highlighting research, lab experience, technical skills, and publications in the resume in contrast to soft skills.
Graduate school in technical majors resume should demonstrate that you are prepared to work in a highly research-intensive place with data analysis, programming, and problem-solving demonstrated.
Graduate School Humanities, Social Sciences Resume
Activities that should be mentioned in resumes to graduate schools in such disciplines are reading, writing, critical thinking, teaching, and any self development at an essay based project.
Survey experience, field work and skills in qualitative or quantitative analyses also should be mentioned in graduate school in social sciences resume.
Graduate School Application Set and Recommendation Letters
Graduate school resume is the same document that you like to copy to your recommenders so that they could use it to write a better, more personal letter.
Graduate school resume will help the mentors remember the achievements and talk about your academic personality and advantages.
Graduate School Resume and LinkedIn
When you are providing the LinkedIn link to be considered during the application, your resume to graduate school should be aligned with the profile.
Graduate school resume does not have to be the same as your LinkedIn profile word to word, but it must have coordination in your studies, research and accomplishments.
Where do I get help with my resume to go to graduate school?
Graduate school resume can be a difficult writing task but there is an assistance such as writing center, mentor or professional resume writing firms.
Your resume to graduate school can be more solid when checked by a person who knows more about academic applications and in your subject sphere.