graduate student resume example

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General master’s resumes, school of engineering & applied science student resumes, weitzman school of design student resumes.

Graduate Resume Example for 2024 [Plus 10 Skills for Savvy Job-hunters]

Time to get a job to support your plans and kick off your mission to leave a mark on the world?

We’re here to help. 

Whether you’re looking for your first part-time job to support your studies or internship or if you’re a fresh graduate looking for your first full-time job, you’ve come to the right place. 

Here’s how we’re going to help you write your first student or graduate resume.

In a few minutes, you’ll hear four resume skills and insights that’ll last your entire working life:

• The 6 sections to include in your resume
• What a resume summary is – and how to write yours
• The 10 student skills every employer needs
• How to stand out from the crowd

Let’s follow the Jane Doe’s Novorésumé-created example throughout this guide.

Student and Graduates Resume Writing

Graduate resume sample.

Like the look of this? Stand out from other graduates and students, by creating your resume in minutes with templates that make hiring managers and recruiters take notice.

Here's more related resume examples that you might be interested in:

• College Resume
• High School Resume
• No Experience Resume
• Internship Resume
• Research Assistant Resume
• Teacher Resume

Sections to Include in a Student or Graduate Resume

Here’s a quick overview of the sections that you should include in every resume you write, regardless of how you customize it for each job advertisement or speculative cover letter .  

• Contact and Professional Social Media details . List your professional email address – (not that ‘hilarious’ one you signed up for when you were 13!) – your phone number, and your professional social network profile).
• Professional Resume Summary: A summary for a resume needs to dash off your professional achievements and your skills that are relevant to the job ad.
• A Relevant Professional Title: A professional title for a resume will need to match the position/title that is advertised in the job ad, such as ‘media graduate, junior developer, or paralegal’.
• Education and certificates: Include your thesis, if it’s relevant, and add key courses related to the job. Include your grade point average, scholarships or university medals – if you have them.
• Relevant Experience: Don’t stress about this, we all started somewhere. Include any paid, unpaid or volunteer roles you held during your studies. No experience? No worries! Skip over to this dedicated guide with resume tips for students with no experience yet .
• Skills and expertise: Wizard at Word? Proficient in Photoshop? Google Ad Words guru? Make sure to include your key hard and soft skills (more on this soon).

What about those ‘nice-to-have’ but not mandatory sections? 

Here’s a few you can put in or leave out, based on the role and your own judgement. 

• Conferences, courses and certificates
• Student organizations, clubs, or networks
• Publications and awards
• Volunteer Experience
• Personal Projects

Think you already have enough information to create your student or graduate resume ? 

Check out our intuitive resume builder , job-hunting tips and resume examples to help you choose the best resume template to reach recruiters and hiring managers. 

How to Write a Resume Summary for a Student or Graduate Resume

Let’s get moving on the content of your resume, starting with your resume summary .

Hold up! Wondering what a resume summary is? 

It’s quite straightforward. 

Basically, a resume summary it’s a short paragraph at the start of your resume which sums up your experience and suitability for the role. 

It’s a bit like that elevator pitch you might hear people talk about in movies, start-ups or sales-driven business areas. 

Instead of pitching a company or idea, you pitch you – and the benefits and value you bring, but there is no need to mention everything - for example, your work for an  essay service  may raise some eyebrows.

Time for us to look at Jane’s resume to see this in action.

Her summary is clear and direct. 

Being in business means knowing about a lot of interconnected areas and Jane shows that she is versatile by highlighting her ‘proven and tested’ skills in procurement, marketing and sales – just some of the key areas that every solid business professional needs.

• “An independent and self-motivated business student with proven and tested business, procurement, sales, and marketing skills.”
• “An award-winning and confident communication graduate, able to establish rapport quickly and conduct training sessions with clarity and enthusiasm.”

Top Skills to Include in a Student or Graduate Resume

Let’s take a look at some of Jane’s skills now. 

She includes a nice mix of technical (hard) and soft skills on her resume. 

She talks about her proficiency with Google advertising technology, Typeform, and SendGrid, while highlighting four in-demand soft skills. 

Now you might be worried that you don’t have any of the skills Jane lists in her resume. 

Don’t worry, we bet you have plenty that you can include once you give it some thought. 

Your hard skills will differ drastically based on what you’ve studied too.

And here’s a little secret that will lift your confidence and readiness to complete your resume. 

There are some Soft Skills that almost every single employer will need. 

Here they are:

• Communication
• Adaptability
• Punctuality
• Organization
• Flexibility
• Problem Solving Abilities

How many of them would you add to your college resume template ? 

How to Stand Out From the Crowd as a Student or Fresh Graduate

You clever clogs out there are probably asking: “What if you share these skills with many other applicants?”

How on earth do you stand out?

Simple: you highlight your individual achievements and how they relate to the job.

Jane does this by linking her past work and volunteer experience to results. She successfully overcame personal targets – suggesting she’s driven – for three months in a row. 

This kind of example is a really strong way to show a high-performance attitude, without bragging or claiming ‘I’m a high performer’. It’s showing, not telling. 

A lack of experience is one of the big worries that students and graduates have when first applying for jobs and working on new resumes.  

Look how Jane solves this problem by highlighting her leadership in event planning and social media while at University.

Feeling inspired? Ready to create a resume that helps you get that interview? 

Suggested Reading:

• How to Write a Professional Resume - Extensive Guide
• Cover Letter Writing - Extensive Guide + Examples
• 43+ Resume Tips and Tricks to Land Your Next Job

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Gre prep online guides and tips, 4 successful graduate school resume and cv examples.

Crafting the perfect resume or CV for graduate school can be difficult to accomplish if you don’t have a graduate school resume sample to refer to. To help you construct your own high-quality resume for graduate school, we’re offering you  four original resume and CV samples  to use as examples.

First, we’ll explore what features make a great graduate school resume. Then, we’ll provide you with our own graduate school resume examples, giving you tips on what to include on your resume and how to showcase your strengths. Finally, we’ll leave you with our picks for the best online resources for graduate school resume and CV samples.

What Characteristics Make a Great Graduate School Resume or CV?

One easy way to make your graduate school application stand out is to create a compelling, eye-catching resume . But in order to ensure your resume will be memorable, it must be:

Graduate school resumes should highlight all of your major academic and professional experiences and accomplishments —  particularly those most relevant to your field of study . This means you should tailor your resume to your field of study and avoid padding it with too many irrelevant experiences. (That said, some programs may ask you to include your entire professional history, irrelevant positions and all. In this case, don’t leave anything out!)

In addition, don’t go overboard with your descriptions . Each entry (even those that are highly relevant to your field) should only contain as much detail as is necessary without devolving into verbosity. Generally, anywhere from two to four bullet points per entry should suffice.

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Clear and Easy to Follow

Structure is also an important feature of a graduate school resume. All resumes should include a header with your name and contact info ; clearly defined sections with headings; descriptions (usually as bullet points); and page numbers if your resume exceeds one page.

I also recommend arranging your entries in reverse chronological order (most recent to earliest). This way admissions committees will know right away what you’re currently working on as well as what your most recent experiences and accomplishments are.

Professional

The resume is a professional document and isn’t an opportunity to get overly creative. It’s perfectly OK to customize your resume, just as long as you’re adhering to the basic rules of professionalism : use an easily readable font (such as Calibri, Tahoma, or Times New Roman), stick primarily to black and white, and avoid inserting clip art or any other extraneous shapes and images.

Free of Errors

Finally, a great graduate school resume is completely free of errors . This means there are no errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, or formatting. (You can eliminate the potential for formatting errors by saving your resume as a PDF. Most graduate schools prefer PDFs anyway!)

Moreover, your resume should  abide by all of your program’s rules , including page limits, header and footer requirements, etc.

Graduate School Resume and CV Samples

Now that we know what makes for an excellent graduate school resume and CV, let’s look at a few high-quality samples. Graduate school resume examples are helpful resources because they give us ideas as to how to organize our resumes and what to include on them.

Below, we give you four original graduate school resume and CV samples . Each sample is unique and offers a variety of features you may incorporate into your own resume, if desired.

We’re also giving you one annotated graduate school resume sample and one annotated sample CV for graduate school . These annotated samples each contain notes explaining what features make them strong contenders for graduate school.

Graduate School Resume Samples

• Graduate School Resume Sample PDF
• Graduate School Resume Sample Annotated PDF

Graduate School CV Samples

• Sample CV for Graduate School PDF
• Sample CV for Graduate School Annotated PDF

Additional Resources for Graduate School Resume and CV Samples

In addition to the four graduate school resume and CV samples above, there are a ton of resume samples you can access for free online. To find high-quality samples, we recommend going to  university websites, specifically university career center webpages , as these are most likely to offer you direct guidance on resume and CV writing.

Before we proceed to the resources, however, note that a majority of the following resume and CV samples are actually  job oriented . The major differences between job-oriented resumes and graduate school resumes are the focus and the use of references. Graduate school resumes and CVs typically emphasize education and do  not  contain any references (since you’re already supplying letters of recommendation).

In spite of these differences, though, you should still be able to use some of the samples below as inspiration for your own graduate school resume or CV.

The Best Resources for Additional Grad School Resume Samples

Here are our picks for the best online resources for graduate school resume examples.

Through its Career Services department, UPenn offers a wide array of resume samples  for both those who’ve completed undergrad and  those who’ve completed additional graduate education (master’s degrees, Ph.D.s, etc.). Each of the graduate-level resume samples contains detailed commentary on key features and areas that could be improved.

This PDF focuses on how to write resumes if you’re a current master’s student (but can certainly be used for those applying to graduate school, too). The four samples are on pages 5-8. Each resume contains helpful introductory information explaining the purpose of the resume and how it’s organized.

Elon University

This university offers several high-quality resume samples for various career paths, including the arts and humanities, the sciences, education, and business. It also offers a generic graduate school resume  sample, which you can use to get a feel for the kinds of sections or topics you might want to incorporate into your own resume.

The Best Resources for Additional Grad School CV Samples

Here, we give you two top-notch resources for CV samples.

UPenn’s Career Services department offers a large variety of CV samples in addition to the resume samples listed above. Although all of the CV samples are geared toward employment purposes (they were all submitted by Ph.D. holders), they’re still solid resources you can use as models while crafting your own graduate school CV — especially if you’re entering the science, engineering, or math sectors.

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University of Illinois

This PDF offers two full-length CV samples and instructions detailing how to write a CV and what to include on it. Note that both CV samples are employment oriented (they both contain references and Ph.D. work); however, you can still use the general layouts of the samples to help you come up with ideas for your own CV.

Summary: Graduate School Resume and CV Samples

Most graduate school applicants will need to submit either a resume or a CV along with their graduate school applications. This is the only opportunity you’ll have to summarize  all of your academic and professional achievements in a single document.

But how can you ensure your resume or CV will impress admissions committees? Generally speaking, a memorable graduate school resume will be one that’s:

• Focused without straying too far into irrelevant territory
• Clear and easy to follow, with a header, headings, and bullet points
• Professional, with easy-to-read fonts and a basic color scheme
• Free of errors in regard to grammar and formatting

Resume and CV samples can help you figure out how to structure your own resume or CV  and give you tips on what kinds of sections and topics to include . We’ve provided you with four original resume and CV samples you can use as references while drafting your own resume or CV for graduate school. For additional samples, try browsing university websites and career center webpages.

Remember, if you can produce a compelling graduate school resume, you’re bound to leave a positive impression on admissions committees! So don’t be tempted to slack off with the resume portion of your application — it could very well be what ultimately entices a school to accept you.

What’s Next?

In addition to samples, we’ve got a quality collection of graduate school resume and CV templates — and they’re entirely free for you to use!

Need tips on what to include on your resume or CV?  Read our expert guides on  how to write a graduate school CV and how to write a graduate school resume !

When should you apply to graduate school? What do you need to apply?  We answer all of these questions and more in our articles on graduate school requirements  and graduate school deadlines .

Ready to improve your GRE score by 7 points?

Author: Hannah Muniz

Hannah graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in English and East Asian languages and cultures. After graduation, she taught English in Japan for two years via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel. View all posts by Hannah Muniz

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• How to Write a Graduate School Resume | Template & Example

How to Write a Graduate School Resume | Template & Example

Published on February 7, 2020 by Shona McCombes . Revised on June 1, 2023.

When you apply for graduate school , you’ll usually be asked to submit a resume or CV along with your application. A graduate school resume should give a focused, concise overview of relevant experiences and achievements.

The exact sections you include depend on your experiences and on the focus of the program you’re applying to. Ensure your resume gives full details of:

• Your college education
• Relevant work experience
• Relevant voluntary and extracurricular experience
• Any awards, honors, publications, or other relevant achievements
• Any relevant skills, certifications, and memberships

The main difference from a regular resume is that you’ll put more emphasis on your education and academic interests to show that you’re a good candidate for graduate school.

Download the Word templates and adjust them to your own purposes.

Resume template 1 Resume Template 2

Table of contents

Step 1: plan the structure and layout, step 2: create a heading with your personal information, step 2: detail your education, step 3: outline your work experience, step 4: highlight other relevant skills and achievements, step 5: proofread and save as a pdf, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about graduate school resumes.

Before you start writing, you need to decide how you’ll organize the information. Which sections you include, and in which order, depends on your experience and the program you are applying to.

If you’re applying for a research-focused program in the sciences, social sciences or humanities, emphasize your academic skills and achievements. Awards, publications, grants, fellowships, and teaching experience should take center stage. If you don’t have many academic achievements yet, you can focus on your courses, grades, and research interests.

If you’re applying to a professionally-focused program, you’ll probably want to emphasize your work experience and practical skills. Internships, jobs, and voluntary work should all be included.

Keep the layout clean and simple. Make sure all headings are the same size and font, and use text boxes or dividing lines to separate the sections.

Example of a resume outline

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At the very top of your resume, you need to include:

• Your name (usually in a larger font size)
• Your address
• Your email address
• Your phone number

You can also include a sentence summarizing your background and stating your objective.

• Don’t write “resume” in the heading – just your name is fine.
• Do include links to relevant professional or academic profiles, such as LinkedIn, Academia.edu, or ResearchGate.

A graduate school resume should always start with your educational history. For each program you’ve completed (or are soon to complete), always list:

• The degree (e.g. Bachelor of Arts in English Literature)
• The college and location
• The month and year of graduation

If you’re applying for a research-focused program, you can also give the title of your thesis and go into slightly more detail about your studies – for example, by listing 2–3 advanced courses that demonstrate relevant academic skills.

• Don’t include your high school education.
• Do include other applicable information such as your minor(s), study abroad programs, and other relevant educational experiences.
• Awards and honors

If you’ve received any awards, honors, scholarships, or grants, make sure to include these too. If you have several such academic achievements, it’s worth including a separate section on your resume to make sure they stand out.

Next, your resume should give an overview of your professional and voluntary experience. If you have varied experience, you might want to split it up into separate sections:

In a resume for an academic program, you could include headings for teaching experience and research experience.

A professionally-focused resume could be divided into sections for employment, internships, and voluntary work, or headings for managerial and administrative roles.

Each section should be organized in reverse chronological order. For each role, list:

• Your job title
• The dates of employment
• The organization’s name and location
• A bullet-point list of your main responsibilities

Be concise and specific when describing your work.

• Don’t attempt to list everything you did in every job.
• Do pick out some key achievements that show what you learned and how you succeeded.

For example, instead of:

• Made lesson plans
• Taught students
• Graded papers
• Attended departmental meetings

You could write:

• Designed lessons in academic writing skills
• Taught classes of 20–30 undergraduate students
• Graded practical assignments and coordinated peer feedback sessions
• Contributed to the evaluation and redevelopment of the curriculum

The other sections of your resume depend on what you want to emphasize. You can include some of the section headings listed below, or combine them into larger sections.

Publications and presentations

Publishing in academic journals or presenting at conferences is a big selling point on a graduate school resume. List any publications (including co-author credits) or papers you have presented.

You can also include pending publications – that is, articles that have been accepted by a journal but not yet published. Make sure to note what stage the publication is at (e.g. under review, in press).

Certifications and memberships

If you have participated in professional development or other relevant training courses, list your certifications.

Are you a member of any professional bodies or organizations? You can list these too to demonstrate your involvement in an academic or professional community.

Languages and technical skills

If you speak more than one language, list your level of fluency (with certification if applicable).

There’s usually no need to include standard computer skills like Microsoft Word, but do highlight your proficiency in specialist softwares or tools relevant to the program (such as statistical programs and design software).

Extracurricular activities

Don’t include irrelevant hobbies or try to show off how busy you were in college, but do list any community or voluntary activities that demonstrate your skills in things like leadership and communication, or that are directly related to the subject you want to study.

Examples of the kinds of things that are worth including might be:

• Organizing events
• Editing a college paper, magazine, or journal
• Being president of a club
• Being involved in a community project

Make sure to carefully proofread your resume (and the rest of your application) before you submit. Also, check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services to see what we can do for you.

To ensure your formatting stays consistent, it’s generally best to save your resume as a PDF file (unless the university specifies another format).

If you want to know more about college essays , academic writing , and AI tools , make sure to check out some of our other language articles with explanations, examples, and quizzes.

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A resume for a graduate school application is typically no more than 1–2 pages long.

Note, however, that if you are asked to submit a CV (curriculum vitae), you should give comprehensive details of all your academic experience. An academic CV can be much longer than a normal resume.

Always carefully check the instructions and adhere to any length requirements for each application.

The sections in your graduate school resume depend on two things: your experience, and the focus of the program you’re applying to.

Always start with your education. If you have more than one degree, list the most recent one first.

The title and order of the other sections depend on what you want to emphasize. You might include things like:

• Professional experience
• Voluntary and extracurricular activities
• Publications
• Skills and certifications

The resume should aim for a balance between two things: giving a snapshot of what you’ve done with your life so far, and showing that you’re a good candidate for graduate study.

No, don’t include your high school courses and grades. The education section should only detail your college education.

If you want to discuss aspects of high school in your graduate school application, you can include this in your personal statement .

A resume is typically shorter than a CV, giving only the most relevant professional and educational highlights.

An academic CV should give full details of your education and career, including lists of publications and presentations, certifications, memberships, grants, and research projects. Because it is more comprehensive, it’s acceptable for an academic CV to be many pages long.

Note that, outside of the US, resume and CV are often used interchangeably.

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