CV Writing Tips for Studying Abroad

When you apply for admission into foreign universities, one of the crucial documents required by the university is a resume or a CV (curriculum vitae). A CV for students is a synopsis of their academic and professional background, achievements, contributions, extracurricular activities, and technical skills. Your resume for studies abroad can help you create your first impression on the admission committee and thus, must be designed very carefully and subsequently, critiqued meticulously.

While drafting a student CV, it is important to add the right content, use proper format and give adequate length to it. However, mentioning the objective at the start of the resume is not a good idea at all. The statement of purpose is the document where your objective should be reflected and justified.

Academic CV/Resume Writing Tips for Studying Abroad

You must keep in mind that you are one of the few thousand applicants who will apply to that university, and thus, your resume is also one of the few thousand resumes the admission committee will go through. Naturally, the admission committee may have just a few seconds/minutes to go through your resume. So, you must ensure that the resume captures the attention of the committee member in the first few seconds. Also, what is most important is how you endeavour to make your resume look more impressive and comprehensive than the rest. For more information, read Common Errors in a Resume.

One must include the following details in their academic resume:

• Academic Performance and Background: Though briefly but importantly about the institutions attended and the GPA scored in each grade or degree.
• Work or Internship Experience: This acts as an added advantage if mentioned in a CV for students, and also if the applicant holds some experience.
• International Exposure: If you have studied or worked abroad, these details are a must for a resume for studies abroad.
• Projects Worked on: Research projects or projects that are relevant in context to academics can leave a good impression on the assessor about the applicant.
• Skills: Those who have the technical know-how can definitely mention their skills in their academic CV for study abroad.
• Certifications: Any additional courses or certifications completed to update knowledge or upskilling oneself can be used to gain an edge over other applicants.
• Extracurricular Activities: Sports or social service is definitely an added advantage for students with these experiences and applying abroad for higher education.

Before you start preparing this document, you must remember that a resume or cv for students is not an autobiography and should not be approached in that way. You must treat your resume as a comprehensive and focused reference to your academic history, delivered responsibilities, achievements, and academic and professional skills. Finally, the font, font size, spacing, alignment, and the like, should be appropriate. More importantly, there is a standard format that an academic resume follows, which you should keep in mind.

How to Make an Impressive Academic Resume

The most important part of developing an effective and impressive resume is to realize and understand the purpose of creating this document. An academic resume helps in showing your profile in a concise and effective manner. An impressive academic resume for studies abroad must cater to the following elements:

• Formatting: You need to understand that a proper format needs to be followed so that a presentable resume for studies abroad can be prepared. A consistency in fonts and alignment formatting is also very important.
• Using Bullet Points: Using bullet points helps in improving the readability of the resume and the document looks more appealing.
• Going Beyond Academics: An academic resume or CV for students must include more than academics. It must cover other areas such as achievements, technical skills, co-curricular activities, extracurricular activities, and community service.
• Including a Timeline: An impressive academic resume provides a proper time line for each activity.
• Providing complete details: Including just the name of the event would not suffice. It is important to include relevant details like what the event was about, who organized it, where and when it was held, and your role in it.

How to Make an Impressive Academic Resume? holds more details as to what all should ideally go into a CV for students to make it impressive and readable.

Common Mistakes in a Resume and How to Avoid These

A resume for studies abroad is essentially the first look into your candidature. While it is important to keep in mind what you should include in your resume, it is essential to keep in mind the below mentioned common mistakes people make while preparing their CV.

• Most often, students (especially the ones with work experience) upload the same resume they use for applying for a job. They need to remember that an academic resume differs from a professional resume/CV.
• Mentioning something for which you do not have any proof or supporting certificate is another mistake. You do not need to boast or add superficial details just to make it more impressive. Being honest is the key.
• Use of flashy tables and formats cuts into space which could be used for mentioning important details. Keeping it simple and formal always works the best when it comes to a CV for students.
• Trying to include too many details can also take away the essence of a CV or resume. It is best to include only relevant details to showcase your academic and research experiences, achievements, work experience, and extracurricular activities.
• A long CV for students is one of the most common mistakes. Unless specified by a university, restrict yourself to a maximum of two pages for MS and/or PhD courses and just one page for an MBA program.

When it comes to CV or Resume for studies abroad, students must be very careful and not make these common mistakes while preparing their academic resumes.

What to Avoid Writing in a Student Resume?

When writing a resume, students should usually highlight their academic achievements, important coursework, and extracurricular activities. However, there are a few things which should be included in a student CV to keep the content crisp and attractive.

Some of the points are:

• Irrelevant Personal Details: Personal information such as your marital status, father’s name, or social security number, should not be included in your resume. It is not relevant to your academic or professional achievements.
• Unrelated Work: Although, one needs to display a strong work ethic and experience, mentioning work experience which is not related can occupy valuable space on your resume and make it look cluttered.
• Grammatical or Spelling Errors: Make sure that your resume has no spelling errors or grammatical mistakes as the employer may consider it unprofessional or careless.

Shiksha Guidelines for CV for Students

Along with the right format, the correct formatting, hygiene of the document, US/UK English, action words, and grammar, are the most important aspects of the CV/ resume that you will be submitting to the university. Even an incorrect alignment of bullets or extra line spacing can affect the whole appearance of the document. This, in turn, affects the readability of your draft. The more verbose/confusing your draft is, the less interesting it is for the ADCOM. Hence, it is important to convey all your information in a detailed yet crisp manner, which does not miss any of your essentials.

To help you with this, with years of research and study abroad experience, the Shiksha Guidelines for CV have been carefully tailored, keeping in mind all these trivialities, as well as university requirements.