Perhaps the most overlooked piece of the Common Application is the resume. It’s tucked away and easy to miss, it’s marked as optional, and many students write it off as unnecessary to even do. This is a horrible oversight, and one of the reasons why it’s so important to approach the college application process with a team.
This is all especially true if you’re looking to pursue a STEM major. When you’re applying to study science, technology, engineering, or math at a collegiate level, you’re up against some serious competition. Interest in STEM has skyrocketed, and getting into a top school to study STEM has never been harder. There are a lot of students applying for not that many spots, so you need every advantage you can find. The resume is one of those advantages, and this is how to write it.
First, two simple rules.
Stay Focused: When you’re applying to study STEM, you need to keep your resume focused on your academic intentions, experiences, and relevant work. You have other places in your application to show you’re more than a math-brain, but here you need to add a double underline and exclamation point to the idea that you have the chops to succeed as a STEM student.
One-Page Rule: This rule is the one our students struggle with the most, but it’s truly vital. Your resume must be no more than one side of one page in 12 pt. font with normal or narrow margins. We can debate back and forth with a teenager about this for hours (believe us when we say we’ve done it), but in the end we always wine. One-page or bust.
SECTION I: OBJECTIVE
At the top of your resume (under your name and contact info, as set up by your preferred template), you need to write a 1-4 sentence-long “Objective.” This is a statement that lays out your intentions for anyone reading your resume. For example:
Driven student seeking to earn a degree in biology with a minor in computer engineering with the ultimate goal of pursuing a career in medical research with a focus in using data to inform treatment protocols.
SECTION II: EDUCATION
Next comes the Education section. This is the most straightforward section, and needs to include the name and location of your high school, the name and location of any college or community college you have taken classes at during the school year (summer programs come later), and your current GPA. You can also include any academic awards that are relevant to your intended major or minor. It should look something like this:
Lake Forest Country Day
Providence, RI
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted)
Awards and Honors:
Providence Community College
Providence, RI
Two courses per semester as part of high school experience. Opportunity to pursue higher-level math and sciences courses than are offered at Lake Forest Country Day.
SECTION III: ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES
After the Education section comes the “Academic Experiences” section. In this area, you are going to go into greater detail (but still succinct) about 4-6 academic experiences. These are probably not individual classes, but clubs, summer programs, societies, or other opportunities that connect directly to the objective you wrote at the top of your resume. If you were part of a highly-selective elective class, especially something project-focused, you could include it here. Each entry should have a description that is no more than two lines. Remember, all of this needs to fit on a page, so you need to be clipped. For example:
Team Member, Competitive Robotics League — Fall 2020-Current
Lead engineer for independent robotics league, competing across Rhode Island against high school and independent teams. Recognized with Leadership Award for teamwork.
SECTION IV: WORK EXPERIENCES
After your academic experiences comes your work experiences. This can include jobs, internships, or entrepreneurial endeavors that — again — relate in some way to your “Objective.” You’ll be able to write about the quirky random things you do in your activities section or supplements, but your resume really is the cheat sheet to you as a prospective major in your chosen STEM field. If you are thinking “but I haven’t done any work!” or “but I’m not qualified to be an engineer yet, that’s why I need to go to school,” that’s ok and you’re right.
However, you are qualified to get an internship or work in a parallel field. For example, you may get a weekend job at a hardware store where you’ll be helping contractors and structural engineers. Or maybe you contact your local building department about whether they’ve considered taking on an intern. The point here isn’t that you’re getting your dream job at 17, much the opposite. Showing that you’re trying to be around people who already do what you want to study is a great way of communicating that you’re serious about this. You’re not simply saying what you think the admissions officials (or your parents) want to hear — you’re in this for the long haul.
Ideally, you will have 1-3 Work Experiences to include in this section.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Before you start your resume, consider asking your parents, an older sibling, or even your college counselor to see theirs. Using a well-formatted professional resume as a model is the best way to make sure that yours stands out.
If you’re worried about how you’ll present your best self to your dream school, send us an email. We help students like you get into the most prestigious colleges and universities in the United States.