I know there is not definite answer to this, but in general how long would a resume for graduate school, particularly in engineering be? I understand that it can be longer than 1 page unlike work resumes for someone who has little experience, but what would be the best length? I started off with my work resume and continued to add project and academic experiences that may pertain to graduate school. Right now I have about 2-1/4 pages. Should I make it 3 pages or take out material and make it 2 pages as people usually just skim through these things? My experiences take up two of the pages so far, not including skills, education background, etc.
basically the engineering departments who will be reviewing my application for the graduate school. in some of the schools, it looks like it may be the department’s head or admission committee, and in other cases may be different professors of the department who are looking to admit a graduate student to assist them in their research. Not entirely sure though so I emphasized my work experience and any projects I have worked on.
It will probably be both. Usually admissions committees (internal to the department) make the decision on whether or not to admit and individual professors can sort through the candidates then to see who they may want to try to hire (if they haven’t already been contacted by said candidates who are interested). Sometimes professors who want a specific student admitted may be able to sway the admissions committee if the student is borderline.
Regarding the resume, there is no set length. I feel like they (anecdotally) tend to fall in the 2 to 3 page range. You want to convey all of the important points about you and your qualifications without watering it down with fluff that doesn’t matter. In other words, take as many pages as you need, but use as few as you reasonably can to present your credentials. No one on the admissions committee wants to sit down and sift through a 7-page CV from someone who clearly doesn’t have 7 pages worth of important information to share.
Also, don’t squish all the information together with small font and small spacing just to save space. Information density and readability is important, too. You want it to be easy for readers to find what they need. CVs aren’t supposed to turn into a scavenger hunt.
For what it’s worth, even my CV when applying to faculty positions was only 3 pages long (4 if I included references) so it’s unlikely that you really have so much to say that you should go much longer than that.
But the admissions committee has the overall say on whether or not the student is admitted correct? Even if the individual professors decide that the student’s interests may not align with their research or for other reasons?
For the projects section of the resume, should I give a description of the project or simply list out the things I have done in the project such as “managed a team, designed the product, coded the software” etc.?
Thanks for all the help!
Ultimately admissions decisions are usually made by either the admissions committee or the head of graduate programs. There is likely some variation from one department/school to the next. Of course, professors are friends and talk to each other, and if there’s a student with whom some random professor wants to work who may be borderline, it is not uncommon for that professor to try to discuss that with whoever is handling admissions directly.
When describing projects, it’s usually fine to just put bullet points that sort of highlight the things you did/accomplished. Once you get farther along, even that may not be necessary, but for now, I’d say keep that stuff on there and just don’t go overboard.
I’m not sure if this piece of info is worth mentioning, but I do anyway: I just browsed through the CVs of the PhD students in my D’s group (CS at one of the top 5). The longest CV is 3 pages. Most are 1.5 - 2 pages.
The thing with CVs is that they tend to be longer, especially when someone has been in research for a while because they generally include a list of publications, which can be lengthy. However, they don’t often include the typical bullet point highlights of a person’s individual positions and projects because ultimately, in research, that is all best summed up in the publication list.
For someone who is just entering a research field and whose prior experience hasn’t netted any publications, a more traditional resume format with bulleted highlights is appropriate. That’s my opinion anyway. It still probably shouldn’t be more than, say, 2 pages. I’d be surprised if the average student just finishing his or her BS has enough legitimately important things to highlight that more than that is necessary.