Resume for College Student: A Guide

Resume writing often focuses on experience, highlighting transitions, promotions, and skills learned. 

However, a resume for a college student is a little different. As most college students have yet to start their career journey, professional experience is likely limited to part-time roles rather than large career steps. With this in mind, a resume for a college student emphasizes other areas—like extracurricular activities and academics—and how these experiences will benefit future career steps. 

Discover what a college student’s resume includes, as well as valuable tips on how to write your resume efficiently for a successful job search.

How does a college student’s resume differ from a professional resume?

Since most students at college haven’t yet had a career, their resumes are a bit different compared to someone with decades of professional experience. For this reason, a student’s resume is usually contained to a single page. 

For college students, the work experience section on their resume is generally short, and more emphasis is placed on educational attainment, extracurricular activities, awards, and skills. You can also include hobbies or other interests, which are usually left off the resume of someone more experienced. 

Consider a chronological college student resume format, which is favored, with the most recent experiences listed first. However, sections hold different amounts of weight compared to someone with a long career history, so the order of sections may vary. For example, resumes for current and recent college graduates often feature the education section first and the experience section further down the page. 

7 key components of a resume for college students

It’s important to lay out your student resume clearly and concisely. Keep your resume professional by avoiding slang terms, using basic fonts like Times New Roman or Arial, and keeping the format clean and easy to follow. As you build your resume, use these seven key resume components as a guide.

1. Contact details

Organize your contact details clearly at the top of your resume. Your contact information allows an employer to call you for job interviews or an admissions counselor to discuss the university programs you’ve applied for. 

Include your full name and preferred contact information, such as your telephone number, email address, or both. Ensure your email address is professional, using your name to identify you. Adding your physical address is optional. Include a link to your LinkedIn profile or a portfolio if you have one, making sure any links you include lead to professional and relevant content.

2. Objective

After your contact details, the first section of your college resume is your objective, where you can outline who you are, your strengths, and your career aspirations. In the objective, you're telling the reader what you can do for them and how the position you're applying for will support your career goals. 

Alternatively, you can include a resume summary, which outlines your skills and experiences but not your career goals. This allows you to tailor your opening statement to the job you're applying to without overarching statements about your career trajectory. 

3. Education

The education section is ideally located below your objective statement because it is usually the strongest demonstration of your abilities as a student or recent graduate. List your educational achievements, graduation dates or expected graduation dates, and which colleges you attended.

You can also include your accomplished majors, minors, and GPA of 3.0 or above, as well as any projects and coursework you've undertaken relevant to your future career or the job you're applying for. This is also a good place to reference any academic awards or scholarships. 

4. Skills

Highlight both workplace and technical skills on your resume. Skills don’t have to come from professional experience; you can show how you've gained relevant skills through part-time jobs, college courses, volunteer work, sports, or anything else you worked on during your education. 

Workplace skills are of particular relevance at this stage in your career. An employer wants to know that you've honed your communication skills, leadership abilities, and problem-solving skills. These are also transferable skills, as they are valued in almost any position.

It’s also important to highlight your technical skills. These can include writing and editing, understanding Adobe Creative Cloud, or being fluent in another language, for example. List your technical skills that are relevant to the job you are applying to. 

5. Experience

As a student, you can rank your professional experience above or below your skills, depending on the strength or extent of your professional experience. 

Experience doesn’t need to be paid work. It is perfectly acceptable to include volunteer work in this section, along with experience at internships or part-time work. Showing that you have the dedication to work part-time or take an internship while studying is a great quality. Personal projects and freelance work count as experience as well, as do any leadership positions through university clubs or societies. 

6. Activities, associations, and awards

In addition to the above sections, you may want to include an optional section highlighting extracurricular activities, associations, and awards. You can include these in your education and experience section if relevant, but if you have a lot to include here, your activities can stand out in their own section. 

7. Interests

Another optional section is for your interests. This is especially useful if you don’t have much professional or volunteer experience to list. Hobbies and interests can highlight what type of person you are, and you can use them to further demonstrate your relevant skills and qualities by listing activities that promote teamwork, leadership, dedication, and commitment. 

Tips for writing your college student resume

To give maximum impact and to highlight your strengths, consider these top tips when writing the content of your college student resume.

Share achievements over duties.

The person reading your resume wants to know what you can do and what you’ve achieved. When writing your experience section, it is more effective to focus on your achievements than to list your duties. The duties of a role can be quite uniform, so listing achievements will help highlight why you stand out above your peers. 

Be clear and concise.

Keep your information clear, concise, and easy to scan. Use a 10-point font or larger and plenty of white space. Make an impact in as few words as possible because a busy recruiter won’t have the time to read multiple pages. Use consistent formatting, such as headings all the same size and font, and remember that bullet points are easier to read than paragraphs.

Provide measurable examples.

Use measurable examples when citing your accomplishments. This allows you to quantify your achievements and highlight your impact. Think about using percentages, dollar amounts, and timespans. 

Proofread. 

Once you’ve finished writing your resume, it’s important to proofread it. To give a good first impression, ensure your document is free from mistakes. Proofreading to make sure your grammar, spelling, and formatting are correct also shows that you have strong attention to detail. 

College student resume template

Use the following template example to help you write your college student resume. You can adapt it to make it your own and add, remove, and move sections to align with your experience, education, and skills. 

Full Name

Address: Brooklyn, New York 

Email: youremail@email.com 

Telephone: 895-667-776

Objective statement:

Information technology college student with a major in cybersecurity and a 3.9 GPA average seeking a position in internet security for a government organization. 

Education:

New York University

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology: Cybersecurity

Expected graduation date: May 2025

• 3.9 GPA

• Dean's List 2023

• Achieved two merit-based scholarships

• Course highlights: Information technology, coding, and Python

Skills:

• Excellent customer service skills

• Ability to build a rapport and make people feel comfortable

• Skilled in working with others and collaborating on ideas

• Excellent problem solver

• Proficient in Python, UI, and MS Suite

Relevant experience:

IBM internship: December 2023

• Shadowed members of the Internet security team

• Acted as part of the troubleshooting team, taking 40 calls and signposting to leads

• Selected out of 150 students to take part in the internship

Gio’s Pizza—waiting staff: January 2021 to December 2022

• Took customer orders for kitchen staff

• Served food to customer tables

• Interacted with staff and customers

• Awarded Employee of the Month three times

Awards and accolades:

NY Junior Hackathon 2019

• Won the junior hackathon with over 500 participants

Hobbies and interests:

• Talented programmer—entering hackathons, building apps, and designing websites

• Highly active with a love for mountain biking and hiking

Next steps

When it comes to resume writing, it’s important that you choose your format, sections, and what information to include based on where you are in your career and what you’re looking to do next. As a student, you may have less work experience than a seasoned professional, so it’s important to highlight your education and skills.

If you're in college and need to compile a resume, you will find support and short courses on Coursera, such as How to Write a Resume, offered by New York State University. You can also browse Coursera to find Professional Certificates to expand your skills, so you have more to add to your resume, such as the Google IT Support Professional Certificate, which doesn't require any prior experience.