Academic Resumes -- is your kid using one?

NotMamaRose · 10-23-2012, 01:41 PM

Hey, gang, a question (and I apologize in advance if this is so basic that I should already know it ... my older kid went to college for theater, so she did not go through the normal college application process):

Are any of your kids who are applying to college using an academic resume in the application process? My D's AP English Lit and Composition 12 teacher is spending a lot of class time having the students work on these academic resumes. My D was in a college admissions interview yesterday and handed the resume to the adcom, who politely took it but said that they don't really use them much, and, in fact, many colleges won't take them.

Aren't most things on the resume covered in a kid's transcript? I get the idea behind an acting or performance resume (if you are a performer), but is this academic resume thing really useful?

intparent · 10-23-2012, 01:50 PM

My D (probable science major) has a resume of her academic and extra-curriculur (in and out of school accomplishments). She does take a copy to college interviews, but the interviewers don't seem to have needed it much. It certainly does not have the transcript information on it, though (except a comment on taking the most rigorous class schedule, and something about the number of APs offered at her high school).

The resume could come in handy when your kid is filling out the Common App or scholarship applications, or thinking about essay topics as a memory jogger. So even if he does not ever hand it to someone, it is good to have a list of all his accomplishments. However... if it is a strictly "academic" focused resume, then I don't really see the point of that.

stradmom · 10-23-2012, 01:51 PM

I've never heard of an academic resume, although my kids certainly included some academic achievements on their regular resume in high school. D3, who is a musician, did develop a performance resume. Seems like it might be a useful thing to keep on file so that you have all that data in one place, but I'm trying to imagine a situation where it would be useful.

NotMamaRose · 10-23-2012, 01:54 PM

This is an academic resume that lists things like all AP, Honors, GT courses, etc. It also includes (at the end) extra curricular activities and leadership positions, and references. My D mentioned it to a girl she knows who just graduated from college and that student said they learned to make academic resumes in college for the purposes of applying to grad school only.

vlines · 10-23-2012, 01:55 PM

Very helpful for scholarship applications also.

SteveMA · 10-23-2012, 02:19 PM

One school that the kids looked at used an academic resume, several wanted an activity resume though. They did not apply to the school that wanted the academic resume. The activity resume was mostly just a list of the activities they were in from 9th grade on along with any leadership positions and awards. We kept a spreadsheet of those after visiting a school that required that information and just saved it to a PDF and uploaded it when they applied to the schools that wanted it. Two of the schools did not use it for admissions but did want it for merit awards.

momofthreeboys · 10-23-2012, 06:47 PM

No academic resume. The seniors in our school fill out a one sheeter that has information NOT found in a transcript - extra curricular, jobs, interests, their personal statement (which can then be used on the college apps). They upload that for the guidance office and it's available for whomever fills out the college required information from the office and any teachers writing reqs but "resume" no, none of mine have ever put together anything in a very formal manner that someone would call a 'resume.' It's handy for the kids, too, because they can just use it as a cheat sheet when hey do their apps.

OHMomof2 · 10-23-2012, 07:12 PM

Handy to have so it can be consulted when the common app is being filled out and asks for all that stuff.

psych_ · 10-23-2012, 09:09 PM

Quote:

This is an academic resume that lists things like all AP, Honors, GT courses, etc. It also includes (at the end) extra curricular activities and leadership positions, and references. My D mentioned it to a girl she knows who just graduated from college and that student said they learned to make academic resumes in college for the purposes of applying to grad school only.

As a current grad student, the idea of seeing a listing of courses on a CV/resume strikes me as really strange. Grad schools get your transcripts, after all. What CVs list are largely "extra curricular" things--research experience, teaching experience, clinical experience (if applicable), technical skills, publications, conference presentations, etc. A few people do list "relevant coursework," but in my experience, this is fairly rare and usually unnecessary (especially at the level of applying to undergrad or grad school).

TwoTravelin · 10-23-2012, 09:44 PM

An academic resume that includes ECs is a great tool to give to those teachers who are writing your letter of recommendations.

Kelowna · 10-23-2012, 09:47 PM

Agree with the above poster. Also our GC requested one. But as far as application itself - no, we are not going to use it.

Modadunn · 10-23-2012, 11:00 PM

It's been standard in our house. But we just called it a resume. The common app even refers to the practice on the application (fill out extra-curriculars even if you have are attaching a resume). It's not to list all the classes, the transcript does that. Mostly it's helpful to the lack of characters allowed on the common app for both athletics and extracurriculars, community service, etc. None of the three kids listed "interests or hobbies." And the truth is, this was something we started for our two youngest in 9th grade and just added to as they went along so come sr year it was already "done" with some tweaking. (Truth: It was very labor intensive to gather together on short notice for the first kid who graduated in 2003 and so we basically used a template going forward).

IMO, I think it's crazy not to keep something like this even if you don't decide to send along; it makes it so less overwhelming for kids to only have to think about college essays especially at a time when they're going blank about what their lives mean! Who can even remember what they did as a freshman!

Plus! it was fun to look back and see all they'd accomplished (and yes, it was severely edited for content vs fluff before it was .pdf - although I'd also be lying if I didn't admit to keeping the fluffiest for their "secret file" I'll one day give them a long time from now).

S also had an athletic resume which was a truncated version of the rest and an expanded version of his three sports that was sent to coaches in conjunction with recruitment.

I will also add a caveat: The general resume seemed most helpful to my S's applications in that he was applying to highly competitive schools where everyone was going to have scores and grades like him. It was the opinion of his GC that nuance would become slightly more relevant as would his essays. Younger D's also became relevant not for the breadth but for the depth. It then offered her the opportunity to write about something completely unexpected in her short answer because of that depth.

On the other hand.. if you don't have it, it's not easily done, or it will in any way further stress out the kid or your parental relationship with said kid, I don't know if it'd be worth the effort amid the aggravation of everything else.

Kelowna · 10-23-2012, 11:42 PM

I believe one should have it to refer to, but to send it to colleges seems overdoing ...who wants to read it?

Modadunn · 10-23-2012, 11:56 PM

^ You never know! Although I think it depends on how interesting a life you've been leading. At the end of the day, no one says they HAVE to read any of it.

sbjdorlo · 10-24-2012, 03:23 AM

My son had an activities resume which also included academic info. It was useful in some situations.

Here's a model activities resume:
http://admissionpossible.com/pdfs/modelactesume.pdf