You may not think you need a résumé until after you graduate college, but having one in high school can be a major advantage. A well-crafted student résumé can help you stand out to prospective colleges. This is vital considering how many applications colleges review with similar credentials. Your résumé serves as a snapshot of your accomplishments, skills, and potential, giving admission officers a clearer picture of what you'll bring to their campus.
To create a strong résumé, you’ll need to gather important documents, highlight your education and achievements, and showcase your leadership, extracurricular activities, and personal interests. Let's walk through each essential section of a high school résumé and go over some tips to help you make a lasting impression on admission officers.
Reference documents
Before you start crafting your résumé, make sure you have the proper resources at the ready. Gather all your significant personal documents, including your high school transcripts, SAT/ACT scores, and AP scores for reference. If you’re applying to a Theater or other performing arts program, you may also need an appropriate headshot of yourself to include with your résumé.
Related: How to Write a Résumé With No Job Experience
Contact info and professional statement
The top of your student résumé should include your full name, mailing address, email address, and phone number. Next, you should include a short summary giving some details characterizing yourself. This is your chance to build yourself up to admission officers and mention your future career goals and how attending their college will help you achieve them. Just remember to keep it short and sweet.
Education
Your high school résumé should include a section about your education and test scores. This section should contain the name and location of your school (just “city, state” format is acceptable), when you’re planning to graduate, and your current GPA as well as your SAT, ACT, and AP test scores. If you’ve taken any dual enrollment courses at colleges, be sure to include that information here as well.
Related: Three Easy Ways to Make Your Résumé Stand Out to Colleges
Honors and awards
This section should list all honors and awards you’ve received as well as when you received them. Admission officers want to see you’ve excelled and what you’ve excelled in. These honors and awards will help set you apart from the rest of the applicants you’re competing against for admission.
Leadership and extracurricular activities
This section should list all the extracurricular activities you’ve been a part of, from piano lessons to school clubs. Make sure to note when you participated in these activities and if you’re still involved in them. You should include activities from a variety of categories, such as sports, music, clubs, and volunteer work. Most importantly, don’t forget to mention if you held a leadership role in any of these activities, like captain, president, treasurer, etc.
Hobbies and interests
This is where you get to show off the subjects and pastimes you enjoy the most that didn’t fit into any other section. Maybe you love to code and you joined an online forum devoted to coding. Maybe you have an interest in poetry and you’re part of a writing group that attends poetry slams once a month. Show off what matters most to you!
Related: How to Give Your Résumé the Disney Effect
Take your student résumé as an opportunity to display the best version of yourself. Show college admission officers what you’ll bring to their school if they accept you, and illustrate all that hard work you’ve given to reach your goals and make a difference in the world in any capacity. Your high school résumé should speak highly of you and is the perfect way to help you stand out when it matters most.
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