How To Build a Good Resume for Graduate School

Earning your master’s degree can increase your lifetime earning potential, open up a wider variety of career opportunities, and check an item off of your bucket list. But first, you have to get in. Learn how to craft a resume that increases your chances of getting an acceptance letter with this graduate program resume writing guide.

Why a Good Resume Is Essential for Graduate School Applications

Helps you stand out in a competitive field

Graduate school is competitive. While your resume is just one part of your total application package, it could be the element that sways the admissions panel one way or the other. A well-crafted resume showcases your qualifications and academic potential and helps distinguish your application from those of other candidates.

Demonstrates academic and professional preparedness

A comprehensive graduate school resume includes both your academic and professional accomplishments to show the admissions committee that you are likely to succeed in your program. Your resume should include your undergraduate degree and GPA as well as all relevant work experience, as both are factors of consideration for your application.

Supports your application narrative

A standard graduate school application includes the application form itself, a resume or CV, a statement of purpose, and letters of recommendation from employers or professors. All of these documents need to work together to present a narrative of who you are as a graduate school candidate.

The resume plays a critical role by combining all of your experience and education into one concise document that summarizes your achievements. A resume that highlights your outstanding professional experience or volunteer work can even make up for applying to a lesser-known school or having a lower GPA.

Building a Resume for Grad School

Contact information

Best practices for a grad school resume include providing your full contact information on your resume. This should include your name, including a middle initial, phone number, and email address. If relevant, add a link to your LinkedIn profile. While you don’t need to include an address on a grad school resume, it’s not a bad idea if you have room in the header.

Resume summary

The resume summary is the first section at the top of the document. It should provide an overview of your academic and career accomplishments and indicate your interest in this particular program. Ensure that it includes keywords or qualifications that apply to your field of study.

Education section

The education section should list your undergraduate academic experience. Unless it is extremely relevant, omit information from your high school. List your degree, major, GPA, and any awards or accolades, such as graduating summa cum laude. 

An academic resume for graduate school can also include relevant coursework. If you’re applying for an MBA, for example, a class that covered entrepreneurship or business ethics is worth highlighting. 

Relevant experience

A graduate school resume should also include your professional experience. This includes research projects, internships, and a traditional work history. For each position, provide the role title, employer, and dates of employment. Include a bulleted list of responsibilities and achievements, starting each item with a strong action verb. Highlighting research on a grad school resume can be especially helpful, as many of these programs require ongoing research work in your field.

Skills section

The skills section is a short bulleted list of your top five to seven relevant skills. For example, if you’re applying to an IT program, listing programming languages is a good idea. This section goes well in a sidebar list where it complements but doesn’t overshadow your experience. 

Publications and presentations

If you’re presenting a CV with your application, it will contain a list of publications and presentations. These can be harder to fit into a standard resume, but you can narrow it down to the most relevant or prestigious or separate it into a different document to include with your application.

Volunteer work and extracurricular activities

Including volunteer experience and extracurricular activities on your resume shows the admissions committee that you’re a well-rounded student and can demonstrate dedication to the field and sought-after leadership skills.

Here’s a section that aligns with the advice for Volunteer Work and Extracurricular Activities:

Example:

Volunteer Work and Extracurricular Activities

Volunteer Art Tutor, Radford School District After School Program, Radford, VA
January 2018 – July 2021

• Developed and led art projects for K-12 students, fostering creativity and engagement in a structured, educational setting
• Mentored students in exploring various art techniques, contributing to a 15% improvement in student participation rates

President, Gamma Phi Beta Sorority, University of Southern California
September 2020 – May 2022

• Led a chapter of 60 members, organized fundraising events, and coordinated volunteer initiatives, raising $10,000 for local arts programs
• Promoted leadership development through workshops, increasing member participation in leadership roles by 25%

How To Write a Resume for Grad School

Tailor your resume for each program

While it can save time to have a graduate resume template to use as you apply for different programs, it’s important to tailor the resume to each one before you send it out. Adjust the content, formatting, and language as needed to meet the specific requirements of each program and show you’re the type of student they are looking for.

Examples of how to tailor a resume for grad school include adding specific coursework to show that you took electives in line with the program’s focus or moving your relevant work experience higher up on the document.

Use action verbs and quantifiable achievements

Being a strong communicator is required for success in any graduate program, and your resume is your first chance to show these skills to the admissions committee. Choose strong action verbs, such as “published,” “collaborated,” and “spearheaded,” for your professional experience, and be specific about why you’re applying to this program in your summary.  Where possible, include numbers and stats to quantify your professional achievements.

Keep your resume concise and relevant

Four years of undergraduate work plus your professional experience is a lot to cover in one resume. Focus on the aspects of your academic and professional career that are most relevant to the program. Remember, you will have room to expound on these items or include anything that didn’t fit in your statement of purpose.

Generally, a traditional graduate school application resume should be one to two pages maximum. If the program requires a CV, these are often longer to accommodate lengthy publication and research project lists.

Organize your resume for readability

Use headings, bullets, and other formatting tools to separate text, making your resume easy to skim and visually engaging. A healthy amount of white space is also necessary to avoid the resume feeling cramped or having text that’s too small to read.

Recent College Graduate Resume Template and Example

Aliya Jackson
(123) 456-7890
[email protected]
New York, NY 12345
LinkedIn | Portfolio

Profile

Ambitious, recent multi-disciplinary college graduate with degrees in business administration and computer science. Proven performer with experience as a junior software developer at Microsoft, with success in significantly lowering software bugs by 25%, and as a business administration intern at Johnson & Johnson, focused on lowering operational costs by 10%. Dedicated to continuous learning, networking, and professional development.

Education

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Business Administration, June 2022
Columbia University, New York, NY

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Computer Science, May 2020
University of Syracuse, Syracuse, NY

Certifications

• Certified Governance of Enterprise Information Technology (CGEIT), Information Systems Audit and Control Association, 2021
• Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute, 2023

Key Skills

• Complex problem-solving
• Information systems
• Operational strategy
• Project management
• Software development, maintenance, and troubleshooting
• Technology auditing

Professional Experience

Junior Software Developer, Amazon, New York, NY
June 2021 – present

• Contributes to software development, maintenance, and troubleshooting tasks on client software applications
• Collaborates with multidisciplinary team to design user-friendly interfaces by applying the latest web development strategies
• Reduced bugs in software by 25% within the first few months of joining the team, resulting in a more seamless UX and improving customer satisfaction ratings by 32%

Business Administration Intern, Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ
June 2019 – May 2020

• Assisted team leads in preparing quarterly business performance reviews and updating company databases, improving operational efficiency by 15%
• Actively participated in the corporate decision-making process, suggesting cost reduction strategies that helped save the company 10% in operational costs during nine months
• Managed scheduling for team meetings and events, improving interdepartmental communications

Additional Resources

• College Resume Examples and Templates for 2024
• Recent College Graduate Resume Examples and Templates for 2024
• Student Resume Examples and Templates for 2024

Frequently Asked Questions About Crafting a Professional Personal Statement

What is the best resume format for grad school?

A standard resume format works well for graduate school, but it may require some formatting adjustments to prioritize your education. You could start a good grad school resume with the education section directly after the summary and then lead into your professional experience, skills, and other projects.

How does a graduate school resume differ from a traditional job resume?

A graduate school resume differs from a traditional job resume in that the focus is evenly split between your academic and professional accomplishments. More space is allotted to special projects, academic coursework, and publications.

How can a resume support your other application documents?

Your graduate school resume should coordinate with the rest of your application, such as the statement of purpose or letters of recommendation. If you mention a research project on your resume, you can provide more details on what you learned and how it contributed to the field in your statement of purpose. Adding a letter of recommendation from the project supervisor provides additional information.

Andrew Stoner

Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach

Andrew Stoner is an executive career coach and resume writer with 17 years of experience as a hiring manager and operations leader at two Fortune 500 Financial Services companies, and as the career services director at two major university business schools.