College Resume Example

Whether you’re entering the workforce or preparing a grad school resume to continue your academic career, writing a convincing student resume without work experience is challenging.

Luckily, you can still submit an offer-worthy application without professional work experience (even if you’re writing a college freshman resume.

Here are four writing tips to help you make a professional resume that’s sure to convince hiring managers you’re the right candidate for the job or internship:

1. Emphasize your education

Getting a degree is a full-time job. Employers understand this – but it’s up to you to explain how your education qualifies you for the position you want.

Writing a detailed education section is key to creating a successful college resume.

Here are seven education-related details you’ll need to include on your college resume:

1. University or school name
2. Major and level of degree (i.e., Bachelor’s or Master’s)
3. Location (city and state)
4. Graduation date (month and year)
5. Your GPA (3.5 or above)
6. Awards or honors
7. Dean’s list (if received twice or more)

Additionally, include any relevant coursework you completed for your degree that shows employers you have the background knowledge and qualifications required for the job or internship you’re applying to.

Here’s an example of a detailed, complete education section on a college student’s resume:

Bachelor of Arts in Political Science
New York University, New York City,
Graduated May 2023
GPA: 3.8/4.0

Relevant Coursework: International Politics, Economics, Public Polling, Data Analysis, Electoral Process

Honors: cum laude

2. Swap out “Work History” for “Relevant Experience”

While you may not have years of work experience, that doesn’t mean you don’t have relevant experience that employers will also find valuable.

Whether through volunteer activities, internship experience, or extracurriculars, you likely have some experience you can use to replace formal work experience.

When writing a relevant experience section, choose experiences you can use to demonstrate job-specific skills. For example, if you’re applying for an office administration role, demonstrate your organizational skills by including any experience coordinating or planning events.

To clarify to the hiring manager that you’re not listing professional work experience, change the title of your experience section from “Professional Experience” to “Relevant Experience.” This allows you to make the most out of your qualifications by providing a more accurate summary of your achievements and skills.

In your college student resume’s relevant experience section, make sure you highlight the experience you’ve gained while at school. This could include any of the following:

• Internships
• Relevant college coursework
• Volunteer work
• Study abroad programs
• Extracurricular activities
• Hobbies and interests
• Clubs
• Sports
• Choirs, orchestras, and other musical ensembles
• Fraternities or sororities

Additionally, because you’re supplementing “professional experience” with “relevant experience,” you’ll need to treat it the same as any work experience section by adding hard numbers to your bullet points.

Adding hard numbers helps highlight your accomplishments by showing exactly how you contributed to a team or project through percentages, statistics, or monetary values.

Here’s an example of how to include study abroad experience on your college student resume (with hard numbers added):

• Improved freshman-level writing scores by 40% through group lessons as well as supplementary one-on-one tutoring
• Arranged and conducted interviews with 10+ individuals, ranging in profession from librarians to actors to historians

Including hard numbers in your work experience is a great way to showcase what you’re capable of to a hiring manager. And they’ll be impressed that an undergraduate student can quantify their achievements.

3. Include a diverse mix of skills

Even as a current college student, it’s possible to develop a wealth of relevant hard and soft skills through your coursework and extracurriculars.

When writing your college student resume, you’ll need to include a strong resume skills section that includes relevant skills like:

Hard Skills

• Writing and editing
• Microsoft Office (Word / PowerPoint)
• Google Drive Suite
• Research
• Photoshop

Soft Skills

• Time management
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Communication
• Work ethic
• Flexibility and adaptability

Consider also listing any specific technical skills you’ve picked up through a class, like:

• Photoshop (from a design course)
• Microsoft Excel (in a math class)
• Skills developed from extracurricular activities

Additionally, emphasizing your soft skills is a great way to improve your resume if you have minimal work experience. Soft skills are always valuable for any job because they’re not teachable and help you excel in almost any workplace.

4. Choose a college resume format that highlights your strengths

When you’re writing a college resume, you want to choose a resume format that highlights your most relevant experience and skills. The format of your resume determines where you place each section, and what is most prominently displayed.

Most college student resume formats emphasize the candidate’s education section by making it longer and placing it below the resume objective, followed by a relevant experience section. This is a good option if you lack professional experience because it showcases the qualifications you do have.

However, if you’ve gained some professional experience, place this before your education section. Try to keep your resume focused and as relevant as possible, particularly at the top.

How you should lay out your resume depends on what experience is most relevant to the specific job you’re applying for, and can change from job to job. When in doubt, check the job ad to see what they’re looking for, and include your most applicable experience near the top of your resume.

College student resume template

Here’s a college student resume template you can copy and paste into Microsoft Word or Google Docs and fill out. It includes an outline for each resume section and a description of what type of information you should include:

1. Resume Heading

FIRST AND LAST NAME

Email: youremail@gmail.com | Phone: 895 555 555 | Address: 123 Street, City, State, 12345 | Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/yourprofile

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2. Resume Summary

College student majoring in [major name]. Seeking to leverage my competence in [job-specific hard skills] to fill the [position name] position at [company name]. A [positive personality trait] worker aiming to contribute to [company name]’s goals and take on more responsibility as quickly as possible.

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Education

Degree level and major / GPA (if above 3.5)
College Name – City, State
Expected graduation: month and year
Honors and awards: [optional]
Relevant coursework: [optional]

Class of […] / GPA (if above 3.5)
High School Name
City, State
Graduation: month and year
Honors and awards: [optional]
Relevant subjects / coursework: [optional]

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Relevant experience

Most Recent Volunteer/ Internship/ Extracurricular Experience Title

Employer Name/ Location/ Start Date – End Date [you can just write ‘present’ rather than an end date if you are still carrying out this role]

• Include a bullet-point list of your main duties and achievements
• Make sure you add numbers to these bullet points
• Use powerful action verbs to describe how you performed your work
• Use present tense if this is a current role

Earlier Volunteer/ Internship/ Extracurricular Experience Title

Employer Name/ Location/ Start Date – End

• Include a bullet-point list of your main duties and achievements.
• If you’re no longer carrying out this role, make sure you use past tense verbs in your bullet points (e.g. ‘Chaired a student committee on diversity’ / ‘Performed in venues around the world’ / ‘Created and executed lesson plans’, etc.).

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Skills

• List any relevant skills
• Include a range of hard skills and soft skills

Be as specific as possible. Mention the actual names of software or tools you’re able to use.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to fill out a template, use a resume builder with options to add non-traditional work experience. Using a builder can significantly speed up the job application process by helping you make your resume quickly and easily.

Finally, here are some related resume and cover letter examples to help inspire you:

• College freshman resume sample
• Entry level cover letter example
• Recent college graduate resume sample
• Resume examples for teens