1 page resume vs crowded resume vs cutting out important things

College Essays
1

For schools that have my resume I am doing my best to present a character that is not present in the common app.

However, after printing out my resume I realized it is crowded and difficult to read. And not because my formatting is bad, I just have too much squeezed into one page.

My font is 9.5 pt.

I have it broken into sections:

  1. Name, and brief statement.
  2. Education (School, GPA, List of self-study topics that aren’t on my transcript)
  3. Programming and Experience (Projects I have made and a short description about them, game-jam awards, internship)
  4. Music (How many years, some awards, ensembles I participate in or create with a short blurb (each one is very different))
  5. Work history (A list of 4 things I did for work recently, no long term jobs just a couple week long ones)
  6. Activities and community involvement (How many hours, volunteer co-teacher, leadership conference, CTE stuff, peer website, clubs)

To me the ones most important to present are (in order of importance) 1,2,3,4,6,2. I only include 5 because I want to show that I have done jobs.

I have gone through and tried to cut it down but a lot of things have descriptions that can’t be shortened, and a lot of the objects need to be there to show multi-dimensionality.

My question is, would it be better to keep it crowded, cut out content, or put it on two pages?

An idea is I could remove descriptions of the projects from the first page and instead dedicate the 2nd page to my projects. I could show screenshots and include shortened (easy to type) links to videos of them in action (although I doubt admissions people would go to them.

I am currently working out a revised version with better spacing, and less items on it. It would be great to have some people who would look at both versions when I am done, and tell me who they would admit between the two.

2

Cut them. Are they really that important? An adcom is NOT going to have time to read more than one page. The fact that you have a 9.5 font (dear Lord, that’s minuscule. They might have old eyes! Think of the admissions officers here!) tells me probably about half of it needs to go. Bigger font, one page.

3

If you need anyone to look over it, I’d be happy to help.

4

Ok feuf! I am honestly quite happy to see that section go. I have to remember that I put that in there more for scholarship committees since they look for that.

5

9.5!! So small…
See if you can make the margins smaller instead of making the font smaller.

Also yes, you’ll have to cut activities. I would strongly advise against making a two page resume.