I’m Only In High School. Do I Really Need A Resume?

It depends. Some colleges require resumes; others forbid them. But with a crazy pandemic school year of partial grades, limited extracurriculars, and no standardized test scores, a resume may be “more valuable than ever” for this year’s college applicants according to independent educational consultant Nancy Greisemer. In fact, more than 300 colleges permit applicants to submit resumes, including some of the most selective colleges such as Brown, Colgate, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Penn, Vanderbilt and Wash U.

Wait, I Have To Do Even More Work For My Application?

Not really. Creating a resume is not really extra work; many of my students find that the resume not only provides a useful framework completing other aspects of the college application process, but it is also valuable in and of itself because a resume…..

1. helps you organize 3 other important areas of the Common App: the Honors & Awards section, the Activities List, and/or the Additional Info section.

2. enables you to elaborate on important aspects of your academic and extra-curricular experiences and achievements that won’t fit into the Common App’s limited character counts.

3. provides a great framework for organizing your thoughts and talking points for college interviews.

4. may be a required for scholarships, honors college eligibility, and internship opportunities.

5. sets up information for eventually creating a LinkedIn profile, which you’ll want to have in college.

To help get you started, here’s Nancy Greisemer’s article “How To Write A High School Resume.” Once you have assembled all the elements you need, search online to find a free template. (Canva has some excellent ones.) Remember to try and keep it to one page and to use strong action verbs to describe your activities and accomplishments. And last, make sure to save your file as a pdf so the formatting is preserved when you upload or email your resume.

Still not sure how/what to do? If you’d like individual help for on your resume, just get in touch I’ve worked with many students on both general and music-specific resumes (required for by some colleges.