Riverside Community Center
4498 NW High Drive
Riverside, Missouri 64150
Phone: (816) 741-4172
Fax: (816) 372-9170
Hart's Helpful Hint - Top Ten "Don't Do's" on the College Application Resume
The City of Riverside has partnered with Steph Hart of Essential Elements: Comprehensive College Planning to present a FREE college prep series for high school students and their parents. Our second session was on Sunday, August 28 and provided an overview on preparing your college application resume. After each session, Steph will provide a "Hart's Helpful Hint" with additional details about preparing for college!
Hart's Helpful Hint #2
In no particular order... Top Ten "Don't Do's" on the College Application Resume
10. "Who's Who Among American High School Students" and other similar "awards" are not considered by colleges/universities to be legitimate.
9. Th does not belong. Simply use (9,10,11,12) to indicate the grade level during which a particular activity was performed instead of (9th,10th,11th,12th). Those th notations can become difficult to read when the admission representative has reviewed 50+ other files that same day.
8. There is no need to double up on your academic record. Your official transcript is where the admission office will refer for course selection, test scores, and grades earned...not your student resume.
7. Eighth grade does not count. Your resume should be based upon your accomplishments in high school, not what you did in grade school or junior high. Exceptions might be (as an example) a particular activity that you started in seventh grade and continue to do consistently now.
6. Don't include your school's contact information on your resume. That information is included in other places within your application for admission. Save the space to highlight your own personal achievements.
5. Skip the abbreviations. Opt to spell out National Honor Society (NHS), Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), and similarly named student organizations.
4. Don't turn your resume into a novel. Remember, this is your resume, not your essay.
3. Inconsistency can make your resume difficult to read. Don't bold one heading and not the next. Don't put a period at the end of one description and not at the end of others. Don’t use multiple fonts. Etc.
2. Don't let information get away! Keep a block of text for a particular activity on the same page. This may require moving margins, deleting extra words, etc. You don't want the reader to forget what the activity was when they have to flip the page to continue reading.
1. Do not submit a first draft of your resume. Take time to edit and revise, just as you will do for your essay. Get your resume to a perfect state now, so that you have it ready to submit with each application for admission and scholarship. Just make updates as they occur senior year.
