Graduate school applications require several different components, such as letters of recommendation, personal statements and transcripts. A résumé is often also required, and while you may be familiar with writing résumés for job applications, a graduate school résumé has its own set of characteristics that make it a unique document. 

Include professional experience
While the focus of the résumé may be on academics, some graduate schools require professional experience, and including jobs on the résumé can help give a well-rounded view of your skills and accomplishments. This experience doesn’t only have to be paid positions – it can also be volunteer work or internships. You should include only the most relevant roles that show your commitment to and knowledge about the area of study to which you are applying.

As an article from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill noted, you want your résumé to tell a dynamic story about who you are and what you bring to the table, so curate your résumé to include the experiences that help tell this story. 

Keep your résumé concise 
While you want to tell a story about your accomplishments and capabilities through your résumé, you also want to make it easy and quick for admissions officials to read – they’ll be receiving hundreds if not thousands of application materials that they have to comb through. Use bullet points instead of large paragraphs to convey details about your skills and experiences, and format the résumé with clear headers. Don’t make the margins tiny or crowd the page with lots of small text – instead, make sure there’s enough white space to make it easy to read. 

When it comes to length, while you’re typically advised to keep job résumés to one page, graduate school résumés can generally be one or two pages. However, make sure that you’re only including the most important information – don’t stretch it to two pages to just fill space.

Customize your résumé for each application
Customizing your résumé to suit each program you’re applying to can make your application stronger. Some of your professional and academic experiences, skills and past courses may be more relevant for some programs than others. To make preparing customized résumés easier, McGill University’s Career Planning Service recommended making a “master” résumé that includes all of your achievements and then picking and choosing what to include as you create your unique résumé for each program.