Student Resume for MS Application

It is very common for students to already know the importance of writing a Statement of Purpose (SOP) and receiving a Letter of Recommendation (LOR) while applying for admission to a Master of Science course (MS) abroad. However, the not-so-commonly known element of a good application among students is the importance of a good student resume for MS application abroad. A student resume is a great opportunity to define your experiences, your interests, your extra-curricular activities and your achievements both precisely and concisely. 

The acceptance of a prospective student depends entirely upon their SOP and their resume along with the LOR. If the SOP or the student’s resume are not written properly, chances are that they might get a rejection from the university. Therefore, to make sure that a student’s resume stands out from the other resumes sent to the university, here we have come up with some tips to adhere to while writing a student resume for an MS application abroad. 

Ideal Format for Student Resume for MS Application

A student’s resume includes all the academic and professional competencies of the student applying for MS abroad. Ideally, a student’s resume should mention all of the essential details in a concise and precise manner. The student should not miss even a single detail to define his/her competency to the university. While writing a student resume for MS application abroad, the universities may expect you to write about your bachelor’s degree, the subjects that you have studied, any extra-curricular activities you have participated in, and the work experience you have earned (if any). All these details must be written in a well-structured format and the content you include must be tailored to include only the most specific details. The best student resume format to be followed is given hereunder.

Also Read: How To Ace Your Self Introduction in Interview!

Include Name, Contact and Address on the Top

On the top of your resume, write your name (the one that is in your passport), your one point of contact, i.e. email ID and permanent address. A permanent address, however, is not mandatory to be included but it gives a sense of trust to the recipient university and it may also be used to send any official documents. 

Best Self-Introduction for Resume

Give a Short Summary of Your Resume

After the name and address line, next is to write a brief summary of what you have done in your journey till you apply for admission to MS abroad. If you have not worked on a job, then you can mention your skills here or any software you have learned, even internships and training – just to give a hint to your interests and competencies. You can write this either in the form of a paragraph or you can keep it crisp by writing in bulleted points. 

Professional Qualifications

Just after the summary, comes your professional qualifications. This can also be mentioned as “Experience” in your student resume. The universities abroad give preference to the students who have earned some professional experience before applying to the MS courses for admission. So if you have worked on a job, then mention that job here in the most concise and precise manner. Mention all professional certifications and/or training that you have received at this job. You can also write about the impact that your work made on this job/business. For example, if you have worked in sales, then mention if you have exceeded in achieving the targeted sales in a month. 

Note:- Write about your jobs in a chronological manner, begin writing your most recent experiences first and then write the past experiences in the same sequence.

How to Write Work Experience in a Resume?

Educational Details

If you do not have any prior working experience, then, worry not. There are many students like you who apply for an MS abroad without having any work experience. In that case, write about your bachelor’s degree, your schooling and your grades in detail. You can also write about your participation in any extra-curricular or co-curricular activities or any online training course that you have taken to boost your application. Follow chronological order in writing about your education too.

Awards and Certificates

Whether you have work experience or not, which is very important in itself, a separate section listing your awards and achievements leaves a great impression on your resume. Write about all the academic and extracurricular awards and achievements here. Write about events in which you have volunteered and any rank that you have won like the school’s head boy or head girl or outstanding performer in college.  

Other Skills/Interests

Use this section to mention any skills that you could not mention in any of the above sections of your student resume for MS application. Here you can write genuinely about your interests and skills under each heading. For example, if you have a knack for playing guitar or singing, then you can mention it here. Or, if you are a techie and have learnt some sort of computer programming language, developed a website of your own, or have excelled in MS Excel, then you can mention all of that here.

By knowing about your skills, the reader might have an idea whether your interests are in sync with the degree that you are applying to or gain an understanding that you can take up these tasks in future if required. Many student councils in the university may employ you on the basis of these tasks during the course of your study. 

Must Read: Top Technical Skills to Enhance Your Resume

Known Languages

This is a bonus section that no one will tell you about. While education and work experience can make your application stronger, a section mentioning your expertise in more than 1 or 2 languages will make your application unique. Universities abroad are always on the lookout for students with extraordinary skills. Therefore, you must write all the languages you know and mention how good you are at them whether it is at the beginner’s level, proficient level or advanced level. You can also mention if you have recently started learning a new language. Mention your native language separately, for example, If Hindi is your mother tongue, then mention the same or mention it as a “first language”. 

Resume Format for Freshers

The Do’s for Writing A Student Resume for MS A

We often know what to write in a resume, but what we don’t know is how to write it. Here is a list of the practices to include in a student resume for MS application.

1. Create short and crisp headings. Keep the content short and precise.
2. Write about your education and work experiences in chronological order. 
3. Give the reader a point of contact. Don’t forget to write your email address, contact number with country code and address for future communications.
4. Write about the relevant coursework from your bachelor’s degree. The coursework must be relevant to the MS degree you are applying to.
5. Mention all the volunteering, internships, and jobs you have worked for (if any).

The Don’ts for Writing the Best Resume 

Here is a list of the things to not do in a student’s resume for MS application abroad.

1. Do not write in too much detail.
2. Do not create fake experiences to stand out among other applicants. Make sure you enter only true details.
3. Do not be redundant about your skills and experiences. Details mentioned once in a Resume must not be repeated anywhere. 
4. Do not, at all, try to convince the reader here for any personal reason. Do not write statements like – “Please give an admission as I am a bright student” in a Resume. You can however write a Cover Letter where you can mention all your reasons why you deserve admission to the university. 
5. Do not exceed the number of pages. Try to keep all the details within one page.

Resume for Freshers Looking for the First Job

10 Resume Best Practices 2024

Now, the following are the additional best practices for a student resume for MS application that you might have not heard from anyone yet. These points have been received from the feedback of some top universities on the candidates’ applications. 

1. Give an “Academic Projects” entry under your professional qualifications if you have worked on any student projects, research projects or events. Mention all the skills that you utilised to do that task. 
2. Always write your skills separately to give a clear understanding to the reader.
3. Do not write everything that you have studied during your undergraduate course. Write only the most relevant coursework. 
4. Do not include headings like “Additional Experience” as they may confuse the reader.
5. If you have done more than one internship, then, provide a clear explanation of the type and nature of each internship. This is because the reader may not be familiar with that kind of internship. 
6. Do not use too bold format or too much-styled format; as this may distract the reader from the actual detail.
7. Write all the dates to the right of the document. This will segregate the dates and the reader will easily analyse the details in your resume. 
8. Check for typos and inconsistent formatting and clear all the errors. 
9. Make each degree and job title obvious by keeping them bold if writing them as a bulleted point. 
10. Write your most relevant skills first. For example, if you are applying for a master’s degree with a specialisation in Chemistry, then mention your first skill as – “hands-on practice at experimenting” or “good analytical skills”. If you want, you can also mention the use of terms like X-ray and UV if you have experience using any of these. 

Student Resume With No Work Experience

If you do not have prior experience, then, do not worry. Universities understand that the student may not have wanted to do a job before pursuing his/her postgraduate studies. So, in such a case, start writing about your education,  just skip the professional summary, and then everything else will remain the same. 

FAQs

This was all about the student resume for MS applications abroad. For more information, write to Leverage Edu at [email protected] or call 1800 572 000 and book a 30-minute free counselling session with our experts.