Building a calculated, diverse academic resume is hard, but achievable.
“[Colleges] want to see a person who cares about something; they are not looking for a laundry list of activities,” Math and Science Academy (MSA) adviser Allison Graves said.
A student’s involvement in extracurricular activities can make or break how impressive a resume looks. Instead of joining every club or participating in every sports team, students should get highly involved in a few specific areas of interest. It is important to create a unique and particular network to benefit from in the future.
For instance, if a student is on the cross country team, participating in similar activities like Dolphin Dash Student Crew or the Shamrock Final Mile would show colleges and universities that they are dedicated to their interest of running.
“There certainly are clubs that carry more weight than others,” guidance counselor Christopher Murray said.
As explained by Murray, academic-driven or community service clubs stand out more than anything. If a student holds a leadership position in that sort of club, it is especially remarkable.
Immersing oneself in clubs and sports brings much more fulfillment to the high school experience as well. Living in the moment and building relationships with peers should be a priority, according to Graves.
She also mentioned GPA is important, although it depends on the rigor of the classes a student takes. Taking AP, dual enrollment or honors classes stands out as is, but colleges also want to see a student that can handle challenging classes by getting good grades in them.
Demanding classes and up-to-par grades are a big factor, but so is engagement.
“Colleges and universities want to see students involved in some way, whether that’s in the school, [or] out in the community,” guidance counselor Sara White said. “They just want to see students invested.”
Colleges want to see someone with civic engagement, which could mean in a faith community, neighborhood or school community. When colleges see that they have a sense of responsibility in a community they care about, it can catch their eye.
A guidance counselor would be the first place to go to talk about an academic resume. They can help build it specifically for a student’s school career. Murray raised the idea that researching online is also useful in finding different ways to create a resume.
“Keep your resume updated,” Murray said.
Having an up-to-date resume can be very helpful not only in academics like high school or college but also in a career setting.
