<p>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):</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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! </p>
<p>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). </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>^ 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.</p>
<p>NMR, both of my own kids, as well as anyone I have advised on college admissions, had an activity resume (my theater kid also had an activity resume for her applications to admissions in addition to her theater performance resume for the auditions). </p>
<p>The typical college app doesn’t tend to really do justice to some kids’ extracurricular involvement. The activity resume did not include academic courses, but did include academic awards/achievements. It included all activities (as well as community service and summer activities) both in and out of school, positions in those activities and achievements related to activities and it was typically organized in some fashion or grouped in categories. All entries were annotated to bring out more about the student…what he/she had done, achievements, roles played, and why the activity was meaningful in some way and so on. </p>
<p>This resume went in with every application, was given to guidance counselor and teachers who wrote the recs, and shared at interviews. It provides a nice picture of the student. It doesn’t regurgitate what is on the transcript, however.</p>
<p>We were told by a friend, who was also a high school principal at the time that having a resume shows that the student is serious and polished(we are from an inner city school district). Especially when the student is going on interviews for volunteer opp’s, job interviews, when applying for summer programs etc. So DD14 did one in her freshman year, and we update it as needed. I am glad that we have it becuase there are things that we have forgotten to add and it shows what the she has been doing since 9th grade. Teachers also appreciate it when filling out LOR’s. Its gives a better picture of who she is beyond the classroom.</p>
<p>We found the resume was very helpful with LORs, especially for non-teacher scholarship LORs. DS created one the summer before senior year and must have been printing that up until May for people who needed his accomplishments for one thing or another.</p>
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