Admission counselors are on the lookout for well-rounded candidates. Show them your diverse accomplishments and extracurriculars in a jaw-dropping grad school resume.
Your academic journey has been a series of milestones, from late-night study sessions to breakthrough research projects. Now, as you prepare to apply to graduate school, your resume is the next step in telling your story.
Let’s create a graduate school resume that makes your application shine.
In this guide, you’ll find:
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Looking for different academic-related resumes? See our guides:
Emily J. Carter
Psychology Graduate
emily.carter@mail.com
(123) 456-7890
linkedin.com/in/emilyjcarter
Resume Objective
Motivated and compassionate psychology graduate with 1 year of experience as a school psychologist. Seeking to build on my theoretical knowledge and practical experience by pursuing an MA in Clinical Psychology at Northwestern University. Successfully contributed to the development of 10+ Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Committed to advancing my understanding of clinical practices to better serve individuals in need of psychological support.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
Graduated: May 2024
School Psychologist Intern
Lincoln High School, Urbana, IL
August 2022–May 2023
Key Responsibilities:
Key Achievements:
Grants, Fellowships & Scholarships
Skills
Certifications
Research & Teaching Experience
Research Assistant
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
January 2021–May 2022
Key Responsibilities:
Memberships
A graduate school resume is submitted with an application to highlight academic achievements, work experience, and relevant skills. It provides admissions committees with insight into your qualifications, career goals, and reasons for pursuing the degree, improving their chances of acceptance.
Now, I’ll show you how to write a graduate school resume that suits your circumstances.
Most graduate programs I’ve come across don’t require a resume. Some do, but the majority of the time, they are optional. Truth be told, I didn’t have to write one. But that doesn’t mean you won’t have to (or want to) write a grad school resume.
Even if it’s optional, it’s best to include a resume or a CV for graduate school, regardless of whether you’re applying to an MA program or Ph.D. program.
Academic counselors are flooded with applications. Grad school resumes are a quick and easy way for them to see your profile in one document. And they all start with a clean and effective resume format.
Format it like this:
Also, include the following resume sections:
Expert Hint: MBA acceptance rates are going up, so if you’re certain about pursuing academia further, now might be a good time to do so.
You’ve likely written quite a lot of essays and research papers in your life. And these tend to be long, spanning dozens of pages. But on the first page, you write something simpler: an abstract. Short and sweet to help everyone understand what they are about to read.
Well, grad school resumes are kind of similar. They need an abstract—not because they’re too long, but because the admission counselor will have to read hundreds of them in a short amount of time.
The way to do so is with a resume profile section and, more specifically, a resume objective.
Use the following:
I’ll show you some examples of resume introductions for graduate resumes.
Motivated and compassionate psychology graduate with 3 years of experience as a human services professional. Seeking to build on my theoretical knowledge and practical experience by pursuing an MA in Clinical Psychology at Northwestern University. Successfully contributed to the development of 10+ Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Committed to advancing my understanding of clinical practices to better serve individuals in need of psychological support.
Human services professional with 3 years of experience whose primary research interest is in Clinical Psychology. Seeking to use my expertise in the classroom. Have earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology.
As you can tell, the first example gives a better overview of our candidate while highlighting their motivation. Meanwhile, the second sample is generic and tells us nothing unique.
This is the most important section of your grad school resume. And unlike in traditional resumes, it really needs to pack a punch.
To make an impressive resume education section, first include the basics:
Next, add more information to make your graduate education section more compelling:
But remember, it’s always quality over quantity. You’re tailoring your resume’s education section to boost your profile, so don’t add irrelevant information. Putting cum laude on your grad school resume makes more sense than saying you aced your Art History class.
You can see what difference a well-developed education makes with these two examples:
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
Graduated: May 2024
Education
BA in Psychology
UC, Chicago
2020-2024
3.2 GPA
With just 4 bullet points, the candidate manages to make a compelling statement, showcasing their drive toward academic success. The admission officer will definitely prefer a candidate like that over someone who doesn’t give them any additional information.
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If you’re fresh out of college or more geared towards academic work, you might not have a long list of work experience to show. But that’s fine. Your previous work experience won’t define you in the same way it would if applying for jobs outside of academia.
But—if you had working experience, especially if they were relevant to the field you’re studying, this section on your grad school resume will signal to the admissions office that you’re more than just a student.
Your work experience section is the place in your graduate school resume to showcase how diverse you are as a candidate and what path you took to arrive at this decision to apply for this particular graduate program. In simpler terms, it allows you to show you already had a chance to apply praxis to the theory you learned during the Bachelor’s program.
See these samples:
Work Experience
School Psychologist Intern
Lincoln High School, Urbana, IL
August 2022–May 2023
Key Responsibilities:
Key Achievements:
Work Experience
Psych School Intern
Latino Youth High School
2018–2019
The first example uses bullet points to a great extent, showcasing powerful accomplishments. If the selection committee sees the first example, they’ll know you understand the basics of psychology because you were actively applying its fundamentals.
Expert Hint: Focus on targeting resume keywords that are important to the Master’s program you’re applying for. Also, start each bullet point with an action verb to add as much power to your achievements.
The skills section is another section that helps target resume keywords. But they can’t be just any old list of random skills picked out from a Reddit thread. They need to be important to the grad school program you’re applying for.
They also need to be true, as you don’t want to be caught lying on your resume.
I can’t give you a definitive list, but here are some common skills for a grad school resume:
But these are just soft skills, and although they are essential, they’re not the only type of skills you should include. For a healthy graduate school resume, you’ll have to provide some hard skills, too. They are the competencies you learned during your studies or jobs.
Expert Hint: Hard skills used to be by far the most crucial skill type, but this trend has been changing recently. In the past decade, Soft skills have been more frequently required on job resumes than hard skills.
Now, you have a graduate school resume that might be enough to scrape by, but are you willing to bet on that chance? Especially if you’re trying to get into a well-renowned college with a course with thousands of applicants?
How you spent your time outside the classroom is extremely important for the selection committee—you’ll be a school ambassador for the rest of your career as a student and hopeful graduate of their institution.
Add relevant extra sections to your grad school CV to show them your worth. Here are some suggestions:
I’ll show you two examples:
Certifications
Research & Teaching Experience
Research Assistant
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, ILJanuary 2021–May 2022
Key Responsibilities:
Memberships
Research Assistant
Department of Psychology, UC
2020-2021
Languages
The first sample brings a lot of relevance and experience to the table, making this candidate a great prospect, even if other sections of their resume underdelivered.
But there is one more thing I want to discuss: references for your resume.
Usually, you’d omit them from a job resume altogether and only send them if asked. However, in the case of graduate school resumes, you may choose to add them at the end. Consider 2–3 academic references who know more about your studies in this section. Include the following when adding references to your grad school resume:
Just make sure you’re writing down the names of people who did write you letters of recommendation.
Expert Hint: Think about how your grad school resume complements your letter of motivation. You don’t want to have much overlap, as your motivation letter will focus on your reasoning for choosing that particular program and institute.
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Let’s recap what a grad school resume should include:
Do you have questions about writing an excellent graduate school resume? I’m here to help! Leave a comment. I’ll be happy to reply.
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Roger is a career expert at ResumeLab. His goal is to promote the best job search strategies across online communities and publications. As a career advice writer, his goal is to help job candidates maximize their chances of landing the best jobs through expert knowledge driven by data. He also specializes in the psychological aspects of the workplace.
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