A college student resume has a short list of parts, and the six university career offices quoted here agree on most of them. Their common ground: one page wherever an office states a length, education near the top while you are enrolled, and experience written as an action and its result. They split on smaller points, such as the GPA cutoff and how long high school stays on the page.
Key Takeaways
- Four of the six offices state a length. Penn, Michigan and Rice say one page for undergraduates; Maryland calls one page traditional and two pages the limit.
- Cincinnati’s career office lists a cumulative GPA only if it is higher than 3.0, and never rounded up; Rice’s checklist and Maryland’s 2021 guide draw the same line at 3.0.
- Michigan and Rice teach a near-identical formula for each line: an action verb, what you did, and the result or purpose.
- High school can stay on the page in your first year. After that the offices differ: Rice drops it in sophomore year, while Cincinnati accepts it through the second year.
What to Include on a Resume as a College Student
Michigan’s University Career Center names five common sections: contact information, an optional summary, education, experience and optional skills. It adds that experience is often split by theme, under headings such as Clubs/Student Organizations and Service/Community Involvement. The other offices’ pages and samples use the same building blocks, as the table shows.
| Section | What goes in it | Office that says so |
|---|---|---|
| Contact information | Name, phone and email; no picture | Penn; Harvard (template; no picture) |
| Education | Degree, expected graduation date, major and minor; GPA and relevant courses optional | Cincinnati; Penn |
| Experience | Paid jobs, internships, volunteering, research and team roles | Penn; Michigan |
| Projects | Class and technical projects | Penn; Maryland |
| Skills | Languages, computer programs, lab procedures, programming languages | Penn |
| Summary | Optional, more common for experienced professionals | Michigan |
Harvard’s Mignone Center for Career Success also lists what to leave off: a picture, your age or gender, and personal pronouns such as I or we. Rice’s freshman guide says the same of personal details such as religion and citizenship.
This is the resume for jobs and internships. Rice’s guide says a high school resume is useful for college applications, but “this is not what employers are expecting from a college student.” Law schools publish their own resume instructions, so a law school resume follows each school’s page rather than this advice.
Education Comes First While You Are Enrolled
Michigan’s and Cincinnati’s offices place education near the top, after your contact details. Penn Career Services moves it below experience “Once you’ve graduated from your current program.” Michigan, Cincinnati and Harvard all list entries in reverse chronological order within each section, most recent first.
Harvard’s office also sets the order of the sections themselves: “List headings (such as Experience) in order of importance.” So a relevant internship can sit above a list of clubs.
Experience Covers More Than Paid Jobs
Penn’s rule for experience is broad: “Include everything that’s relevant, whether you were an employee, intern, volunteer, researcher, or member of a team.” Maryland’s University Career Center lists “relevant coursework/projects, volunteering experiences, internships, and student club/organization involvement” as experience worth showing. A campus job, a club office or a class project all count.
Skills: List the Measurable Ones, Show the Rest
Penn limits the skills section to skills that can be measured: “Only include objective, measurable skills like languages, computer programs, laboratory procedures, programming languages, etc.” Softer skills, it says, “should be illustrated, rather than stated.” Cincinnati’s career office agrees and puts them in the Experience section.
Those soft skills matter to employers. NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, says its Job Outlook surveys show that “employers seek critical thinking/problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills in the candidates they recruit.” On a resume, a bullet shows them; a skills line only names them.
How Long Should a College Student Resume Be?
One page, in the four offices that state a length:
- Penn: “Undergraduates & recent graduates should use a one-page resume.”
- Michigan: keep it to one page “for most undergraduates.”
- Rice: “Keep your resume to 1 page!”
- Maryland (current page): “Traditionally, 1 page for entry-level & early career professionals – limit to 2 pages.” Its 2021 guide said one page for undergraduates.
Harvard’s and Cincinnati’s resume pages give no length target. Cincinnati’s checklist only covers page numbers on a resume that “exceeds one page.” Maryland’s second page is a limit, not a target.
GPA, Coursework and High School: Where the Offices Differ
When to List Your GPA
Cincinnati’s checklist asks whether the cumulative GPA is included “if higher than 3.0” and whether it is “accurate and not rounded up.” Rice’s checklist asks the same with the same number: “Is GPA (if over 3.0 or required) included?” Maryland’s 2021 resume guide sets the line at 3.0 itself and accepts a cumulative GPA, a major GPA or both. Penn’s page lists GPA among the things an education section can hold, with no cutoff, and Harvard’s resume template marks it optional.
Fewer employers filter on it than in 2019. NACE reported in February 2026: “In 2019, nearly three-quarters of employers (73%) screened candidates by GPA; this year, just 42% are doing so.” That describes employers as a group. It does not tell you whether the employer you apply to is one of the 42%.
Relevant Coursework
Penn puts relevant courses in the education section, and Cincinnati calls them optional. Rice’s freshman resume guide, a PDF created in 2016, gives them their own heading in its sample: Relevant Coursework, with four course titles. Pick the courses a posting would recognize, not your whole transcript.
High School Information
This is where the offices disagree most:
- Rice: “High School information can be included freshman year, but should drop off sophomore year.”
- Maryland (2021 guide): under “Generally omit,” it lists “High school name (after freshman year of college).”
- Cincinnati: “For first- and second-year students, high school information is acceptable, formatted consistently with higher education.”
- Harvard: its resume template, shown on the page, carries a high school entry with no year attached.
In your first year, all four allow it. In your second year, it depends on whose advice you follow. By junior year, all three cutoffs have passed.
How to Make a Resume as a College Student
- List everything first. Rice’s guide starts with a brainstorm of “experiences and skills that you might want to include,” sorted into sections afterward.
- Write each line as action plus result. Michigan’s formula is “Action Verb + What + How/Why/Impact.” Rice’s is “Action Verb + Core Content + Result, Purpose, or Impact.” Cincinnati asks whether each bullet is “quantified whenever possible.”
- Match the tense to the job. Cincinnati’s checklist asks: “Are verb tenses correct for current and past experiences?” Use the present tense for a role you hold and the past tense for one that ended.
- Tailor it. Michigan says to “Tailor your resume to the experience for which you are applying.” Harvard says the same of the type of position.
- Keep it current. Rice suggests you “Update your resume at least once per semester,” and have it reviewed before you send it.
Resume Examples for College Students
Both layouts below are ours, written for this article as illustrations. They are not real students’ resumes, and no career office published them. Each follows the advice above, and the notes after each say which rule shaped which line.
Example 1: A First-Year Student With Little Experience
FIRST AND LAST NAME, City, State, email address, phone number
EDUCATION
– State University, City, State. B.S. in Biology, expected May 2030. – Relevant coursework: General Chemistry I, Principles of Biology, Calculus I – Lincoln High School, City, State. Diploma, May 2026. National Honor Society.
EXPERIENCE
– Residence Life, State University. Desk Assistant, September 2026 to present, 8 hours a week. Answer resident questions and log about 40 package deliveries a shift. – Main Street Grocery, City, State. Cashier, June 2024 to August 2026, 12 hours a week. Handled cash and card payments and trained three new cashiers on opening and closing routines.
ACTIVITIES
– Biology Club, State University. Member, September 2026 to present. Help plan a monthly speaker night for about 30 students. – City Food Bank, City, State. Volunteer, September 2023 to May 2026. Sorted and packed donations on monthly Saturday shifts.
SKILLS
– Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets; Spanish (conversational)
Our notes on Example 1:
- There is no GPA line because a first semester in progress has no college GPA yet. Once grades post, the cutoffs above apply.
- High school stays, as Rice and Cincinnati allow in the first year; test scores are left off, as Maryland’s 2021 guide generally omits AP and college entrance test scores. Penn makes an exception for financial services and consulting applications, and Harvard’s template allows SAT/ACT scores under the high school entry.
- The desk job is in the present tense because it continues. The grocery job ended, so its line is in the past tense.
Example 2: A Junior Applying for Internships
FIRST AND LAST NAME, City, State, email address, phone number
EDUCATION
– State University, City, State. B.A. in Economics, minor in Statistics, expected May 2028. GPA: 3.5/4.0. – Relevant coursework: Intermediate Microeconomics, Econometrics, Data Analysis in R
EXPERIENCE
– City Parks Department, City, State. Summer Intern, June to August 2026. Built a spreadsheet to track 120 maintenance requests and cut the weekly report from two hours to 30 minutes. – Economics Department, State University. Peer Tutor, January 2025 to present, 6 hours a week. Tutor about 10 students a week in introductory economics.
PROJECTS
– Housing Costs Analysis, Econometrics course, January to May 2026. Analyzed 10 years of county rent data in R and presented the findings to a class of 30.
LEADERSHIP AND ACTIVITIES
– Investment Club, State University. Treasurer, August 2025 to present. Manage a $2,000 annual budget and report to 25 members each month.
SKILLS
– R, Microsoft Excel, basic Python; Spanish (conversational)
Our notes on Example 2:
- High school is gone. By junior year, every cutoff the offices here set has passed.
- The 3.5 GPA clears the Cincinnati, Rice and Maryland line, and it is shown on its scale, as in Rice’s samples.
- Experience sits above projects and activities because it matters most for an internship, following Harvard’s order-of-importance rule.
If the posting also asks for a cover letter, the same evidence carries over. Our IT internship cover letter example is built from coursework, a personal project and a campus job.
Where ExceptionalGrad Fits
ExceptionalGrad’s Internship and Job Resume and CV Editing service works on the choices covered here. Its page names them as “the format and presentation, ordering of elements, length of descriptions, what components and experiences to highlight at the forefront.” It is an editing service, so the resume and its content stay yours: an edit can change how your experience reads but cannot add experience you do not have. That is the limit our guide to resume review services describes.
Before You Apply
A resume for a first internship rests on a few decisions: one page, education first, and every line written as action and result. If you want an advisor to check those decisions before this cycle’s internship deadlines, get a free consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a college student resume be?
One page. Penn and Rice say so for undergraduates, and Michigan for most of them. To fit everything without crowding, Rice’s guide sets floors: type of at least 10 points for bullet points and margins no narrower than half an inch. Maryland’s 2021 guide puts margins between 0.5 and 1.0 inch.
Should I put my GPA on my resume as a college student?
Yes, if it clears the cutoff. Cincinnati lists a cumulative GPA above 3.0, accurate and never rounded up; Rice’s checklist asks whether the GPA is included “if over 3.0 or required”; Maryland’s 2021 guide includes 3.0 or higher, cumulative or major. Harvard’s template marks GPA optional, with no cutoff.
What should you put on a resume as a freshman in college?
Your college, degree and expected graduation date, your high school, then the jobs, clubs, volunteer roles and awards that fit the posting. Rice’s guide says first-year students need a resume early: a faculty supervisor will ask for one for undergraduate research, and a fellowship, grant or scholarship will likely require one.
Should I include my high school on my resume as a college student?
In your first year, yes; after that the offices split. Experience from high school is a separate question: Rice’s sample freshman resume lists a high school newspaper editor role under Experience. Maryland’s 2021 guide generally omits middle school and most high school awards.