College Resume Template for High School Students (2023)

I didn’t get accepted by my first college pick. My college application resume simply missed the mark. If only I’d known then what I know now! I’d have got into Harvard, Princeton, or any school I wanted (maybe even Hogwarts). 

You don’t have to make the same mistakes. Read on, follow our simple instructions, and write a high school resume for college that paves the way for your future success.

This college resume guide will show you:

• A college application resume example better than 9 out of 10 others.
• How to write a resume for college to get admitted to the best schools.
• Tips and examples of how to put skills and achievements on college resumes so they shine.

Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. It’s fast and easy to use. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and create your resume here.

Use this resume template

Sample College Application Resume—See more resume examples here.

Trying to get into a specific school? 

• Resume for Graduate School
• Resume for Medical School
• Medical Student CV
• Resume for Law School
• Resume for MBA

Looking for a job? Switch to one of our other guides: 

• Resume Examples for Teens
• Internship Resume for College Students
• First Resume with No Work Experience
• Entry-Level Resume Example & Writing Guide
• High School Student Resume
• High School Graduate Resume
• How to Put Athletics on a Resume
• College Freshman Resume
• College Student Resume
• Computer Science Resume
• Nursing Student Resume
• Law Student Resume & Legal Resume
• College Graduate Resume
• Student Resume Templates
• High School Resume Template
• Student Resume
• Engineering Student Resume
• Internship Resume for College Students

Academia: 

• Undergraduate Resume
• Academic CV
• Graduate CV
• Scholarship Resume

Still need more examples? Check Sample Resumes to Land Any Job.

Now, time to learn how to write a high school resume for college application. Before we dig deeper, here's the bird's eye view.

How to Write a College Resume In a Nutshell

Here's the order of sections for a good college resume:

1. Contact information
2. Personal profile
3. Education history with information on your grades and scores
4. Awards and honors list
5. Additional activities including work experience

1

Choose the Best Format for a College Resume

Who cares about format?

Well, you do.

You can have the best college admissions resume in the world. If the formatting is bad, it comes off like Steve Buscemi saying, “How do you do, fellow kids?”

Here’s how to light it up:

Start with the reverse-chronological resume format.

Why is that the best college resume format?

Because colleges get a lot of applications.

Yikes:

• UCLA: 97,121 applications
• NYU: 60,691 applications
• BU: 57,441 applications

You need to show off your best stuff fast. The reverse-chronological layout does that.

It puts your achievements in a pair of Jordan 10s. It makes you stand out like a bowl of Oreos amid a sea of Brussels sprouts.

Use plenty of white space, big headings, and the best resume fonts. That’ll show your strengths fast.

Finally, save your high school resume for college as a PDF. (Your parents don’t know this, but they’re machine-readable.)

Looking for a college application resume template in Microsoft Word? Don’t. MS Word doc resumes can turn as thick as the Wall Street Journal in transit. But you can check Google Docs resume template.

How long should a college resume be? In general, a one-page resume is best for a high school resume for college applications.

Pro Tip: PDFs are great, but make sure the admissions department doesn’t disqualify them. A few colleges won’t take college resume PDFs.

Next, you’ll learn how to make a college resume ready for the big leagues!

Want other professional college resume formats? See our guide: Best Resume Format: How to Format Your Resume Right

How does an admissions department read 30,000+ applications?

Guess what? They don’t. They skim your resume in less than 10 seconds, according to our HR statistics report.

If your resume objective is great, they read the rest.

The good news? It’s not hard to write a great objective.

Check out these two college admission resume objective examples.

College Application Resume Examples [Resume Objectives]

What’s wrong with the first of our college resume examples for high school seniors?

That’s not TMZ bad, but it won’t get you in to see the dean.

Instead, follow this resume for college example:

Who’s that, a young Jim Gaffigan?

Plus, it shows passion. Not by saying it. By showing it.

I can hear the admissions officer saying, “This kid will make us proud.”

But what if you don’t have achievements like that? What if you’re just mediocre?

Oh, you’ve got them. Trust me—please trust me—you’ve got mind-blowing achievements. The secret? They’re invisible to you.

We’ll fix that next.

Pro Tip: Can you attach a resume in The Common Application? Yes, Common App resumes can be attached in the “additional information” section.

What goes on a resume objective for college? See the next section or read our guide: +20 Resume Objective Examples - Use Them on Your Resume

College Resume Template for Application

You can use our online resume maker as your very own college application resume builder.

Just pick one of our templates (perfect for college applicants) and follow advice from this guide.

That’s three. But there’s more where that came from! The Zety resume builder features 20 templates that make great college resumes. Simply pick a resume template and build a college resume here.

3

Showcase Your Activities on a College Resume

Remember I said I didn’t get into my first-choice school?

I wish I had a do-over.

If only!

My resume for applying to college was:

• My GPA
• My SAT scores
• I was on the swim team
• I like reading

If I had a time machine, I’d use it to slap myself.

Here’s how my college resume would read if I re-wrote it now:

• Founded and ran model rocketry club at age 9 with 5 members for 5 years. Built and launched 50 rockets 300+ times.
• Avid sailor
• Co-captain, varsity swim team
• Read 468 books from all genres since age 9
• Avid cross-country skier, skiing 50 days a year since age 14. Maintained own skis in old Nordic style, heat-applying tar base and adding temperature-matched waxes.
• Pursued passion for ancient castles during trip to Ireland. Visited and mapped 15 specimens.
• Traveled to Hungary. Learned base of useful words and phrases by interacting with locals. Formed love of cold soups.
• Avid D&D player. Led troupe with 7+ members for 4 years, creating and producing several multi-month campaigns.
• Built video comedy group of four core writer/actors, making two 1-hour sketch-comedy specials. Disseminated them on video to audience of 100+ students with rave reviews.
• Pursued passion for history and physics, maintaining A+ scores in both.

None of that was on my college application resume!

Why not!!??

I didn’t even know I did that stuff. I never thought about it. I thought, “I’m mediocre. I‘ve got a 3.2 GPA and 1350 on my SATs.”

I never did the head-scratching.

I never thought about achievements.

I don’t have a time machine.

But I can save you from the same dumb move.

Stop and think. I guarantee you’ve got achievements that make mine look like Carl Grimes.

The college resume examples below show what to do.

College Resume Examples [Activities]

The first of our resume examples for students is on fleek.

That’s lit. The admissions officer who’d pass that up must get his news from Yahoo!

Notice the details that measure all those wins.

Massive Bonus Tip

Don’t just list every achievement at random. Focus on the ones that match the school.

For instance, are you applying to a top computer science school? Show CS achievements first on your high school resume for college.

Trying to get into Harvard Business School? Your college resume should highlight leadership accomplishments.

Or you could do it like most applicants. That’s what the next of our resume examples for students does:

Basic. That sample resume for college application will barely make it through the door.

So, take the time to look into your past. What have you achieved?

Pro Tip: Take an hour and a sheet of paper and really do this brainstorming work. Don’t make a college interview resume like the rest. Make one that stands out like Hazel Grace Lancaster in a mortarboard.

Need a little inspiration for what to put on a college resume? See our guide: +20 Best Examples of Hobbies & Interests To Put on a Resume

What do you put on a college resume?

When I was a kid, and admissions officer from a big college spoke to my class.

He said, “People from your state don’t know how to brag about themselves.”

I thought he meant that I should say how great I am.

He literally meant I didn’t know how.

You don’t do it by using strong adjectives like enthusiastic, hard-working, or, driven.

You need to pick the right details.

Here are some suggestions of what to put on a resume for college:

• Awards. List competitions (essay, speaking, spelling, storytelling, art) or even perfect attendance.
• Jobs. Did you wait tables? Wash dishes? Use part time or summer jobs to show your work ethic.
• Volunteer Work. Bake sales, GoFundMe projects, hours logged at Goodwill or the local hospital, or other work you did for free.
• Social Media Followings. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Have you built up an impressive following? Show it!
• Projects. Websites built, art portfolios or shows, or public service projects. Anything you put your heart into can look good on a high school resume for college.
• Sports. List varsity teams or captainships. Show track, football, LaCrosse, powerlifting, swimming, soccer, baseball or any other sport.
• Passions. Have you read a lot of books? Do you make models? Are you a teen guitar hero who played at two school dances? Passions look great on college resumes.
• Hobbies. Do you collect anything? Make anything? Hobbies prove you use your time productively.
• Leadership Positions. Are you an Eagle Scout? 4-H member? Active in your church? Official or unofficial clubs or groups can bolster college resumes.
• Languages. If you’re fluent in French, Spanish, or German, or even if you know a little, show it.

Pro Tip: Use details. Don’t just say, Eagle Scout. Say, Eagle Scout with 200+ hours of community service. For Eagle Project, raised $3,000 for the homeless.

What else should you put on a college resume? See our guide: What to Put on a Resume to Make it Perfect

Does education matter on a college resume?

You bet it does.

But not the way you think.

Of course include:

• High school name and location
• GPA
• Graduation date (past or future)

But don’t stop there.

Add relevant achievements.

Let me show you what I mean with two college application resume examples.

Resume Examples for Students [Education]

Both these high school student resume examples for college target the same business school.

That’s not some basic applicant. It’s Moziah Bridges or Millie Bobbie Brown.

It shows leadership, communication skills, and a strong work ethic.

Don’t do like the next of our college admission resume examples:

Bland. The admissions officer will dodge a college resume sample like that.

Pro Tip: Should you put junior high on a college app resume? Only to show impressive achievements or an improvement in your grades.

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.

Create my resume now

When you’re done, our online resume builder will score your resume and our resume checker will tell you exactly how to make it better.

Use the education section on your resume for college as a hook to grab the dean. See our guide: How to Put Your Education on a Resume

You should be proud.

You made it this far. You’ve got a good start on your college resume objective, activities, and education.

But, as a college applicant, do you need work experience on resumes for college applications?

No.

But it helps.

Look at these two sample resume for college application experience sections.

College Application Resume Examples [Experience]

The next of our college resume examples for high school seniors does it right:

Perfect.

It doesn’t only show you had a job. It shows qualities that matter to admissions officers, like work ethic and interpersonal skills.

Don’t do it like this:

Well, hello, Jesse Pinkman. That works if you’re applying to another waiter job instead of college.

A good college resume for high school students needs relevant achievements.

Pro Tip: Add only 3–5 bullet points to a college admission resume education section. Got more? List them as activities or interests.

Make your resume for college applications fun to read with action words. See our guide: 240 Resume Action Words & Power Words

You are important.

You have exactly what it takes to succeed in college.

You just need to show it so the admissions officer says, “Wow.”

Here’s how:

First, know what skills admissions officers value.

Next, don’t just list them. Prove them on your college resume.

These two teenage resume examples show the way:

College Admission Resume Examples [Skills]

Let’s say you’re applying to a business school that values leadership and literacy.

You could just list your skills, like the next of our college applicant resume examples:

But put yourself in the admissions officer’s shoes. She’ll think, “This applicant is telling me what I want to hear.”

So, prove it in your bullet points.

Do that, and you’ll be your first pick’s first pick.

But hold on.

Couldn’t you still be lying?

You could. If you are, they’ll catch you in the interview.

List of Skills to Put on a College Resume

Need some college resume skills to start with?

This list makes great resume keywords too.

It’s not comprehensive, so look for others in your past and online.

Follow the plan above and your high school resume for college will look like Selena Gomez wrote it.

Pro Tip: Don’t just use skills from our list. Think what skills fit the school best. A customized college resume will beat a generic option any day.

Make your college activity resume skill section as real as Emma Watson. See our guide: Skills & Abilities to List on a Resume

Oh no!

Do you need to send a cover letter with your college resume?

Yep. Even if the admission office says cover letter optional.

But don’t worry. It’s painless and powerful.

First, make it personal by using the dean’s name.

Next, say why this school is so important to you.

Then, show what you have to offer.

This short sample cover letter for a high school student applying to college does it right:

End with an offer like:

Pro Tip: Always follow up on a college application resume and cover letter. An email or letter in a week or two works best.

Make your college cover letter the best they ever had. See our guide: How To Write A Cover Letter in 8 Simple Steps

Need a specific cover letter example for a high school student? See our guide: High School Cover Letter Guide

9

Put This Contact Info in Your College Resume

Don’t make this mistake!

Of course your resume contact info should have:

• Full Name and Address
• Updated Phone Number
• Professional Email Address

Like so:

Note: “professional” means no ColdPlayFan38498@yahoo.com. Use john.doe@gmail.com instead.

But—

Don't forget to add a LinkedIn profile or a personal website if you’ve got one.

Either can show the dean you’re more than just an application.

Pro Tip: If you’re reading this and don’t have a LinkedIn profile it’s not too late. Just use our guide to LinkedIn magic here.

Need more tips to make a standout college resume? Want to get into the school of your dreams? See our guide: How to Make a Resume: A Professional Resume Writing Guide

Looking to apply to a sorority in addition to your college application? See our guide: Sorority Resume Sample

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

Create my cover letter now

See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Here’s a recap of how to write a resume for college admissions:

• Put on your thinking cap. You have tons of flashy achievements for a resume for college applications. You just need to do the thinking time.
• Customize your college application resume. Your experience and education bullet points should prove you’ve got the skills to make it through.
• Write your college resume objective last. Stuff it with your best achievements to make the admissions officer stop resting his eyes.
• Make a cover letter. College admission resumes with cover letters have a higher chance of moving up the food chain.

Do you have questions on how to make a great resume for college? Not sure how to describe your skills or achievements? Give us a shout in the comments! Let's get you in your dream school!

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