<p>I've heard that it's best to have a succint 1 page resume to send in with your app. However, our son will be applying for a film production major at some selective programs. He has done a lot of stuff. One of his films has won several awards, and he served as a intern on a feature film. Hopefully he will have another 1 or 2 films with some awards by the time he starts sending in apps (this fall). He is teaching a video production class.</p>
<p>Additionally, he's very active in Civil Air Patrol and has attended lots of schools and programs through CAP. In a longer resume, he could say that only 1% of cadets are selected to attend this program...stuff like that.</p>
<p>I just don't know how he can get all that onto one page and still bring out the things that I think will help him be accepted. What do you think? Cut what has to be cut in order to get it all on one page or send in a 3 page resume that has descriptions of what he's done?</p>
<p>If my husband can get a 25 year career--including founding three companies--on one page, your son can get his career onto one page. Be succinct.</p>
<p>Be short and sweet and think about centering the page. I heard that some employers like the resume to be centered, because of how that is really easy to read.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
If my husband can get a 25 year career--including founding three companies--on one page, your son can get his career onto one page. Be succinct.
[/QUOTE]
I say something similar in information sessions. </p>
<p>Some fields, education being one of them, allow for longer resumes, but a 17 year old should not be submitting something along the lines of a CV.</p>
<p>Your son is not applying for a job. When my kids apply for jobs, they have a one page resume. </p>
<p>However, for applying to college, their activity/award resume was annotated and three pages. They had very successful admissions outcomes. I am a college counselor and my clients also create annotated resumes. By the way, one of my kids is also in the arts. Is your son applying to Tisch? Mine did and attends. </p>
<p>Again, my kids have had one pagers for paid jobs and internships and one has a professional one page theater resume which is the standard to not go over one page. But for an annotated activity resume for a college application, it was longer and highlighted the activities and achievements and described them in context. The document really shows who they are, not just what they did. The students I work with also have such documents with their applications. Many have gotten into selective colleges, including in the arts. My kids also presented such resumes in their admissions interviews.</p>
<p>For the very first time since right out of Ga. Tech (many, many, many years ago), I redid my resume to a single page. I thought it would be impossible to do, but it really worked out so much better than the long one. People might actually read this one all the way through. Eliminating some of the details actually made it better. I wish I had done this earlier in my career.</p>
<p>My kiddos also submitted a 1 page resume, centered with lots of white space. Easy to read, easy to understand and easy to see "passion/theme". Son last year had done research (3 seperate/3 summers), 3 varsity sports, academic/athletic/community awards and honors, club/athletic leadership, special projects, work experience and fit it all on one page in a very reasonable font size/lots of white space. Worked great, used it for undergrad apps, outside scholarships, undergrad research apps... Did the same thing for DD#2 for athletic (D1) scholarships.</p>
<p>as they told us in the Stanford info session:
It's an application, not a deposition.</p>
<p>Three pages for a 17 year old kid sounds like a serious inability to synthesize, edit and prioritize. Who wants a college kid who can't edit?</p>
<p>All due respect to the paid college counselors out there.... I'm sure that's one way the adcom's detect who is getting paid hand-holding and packaging vs. going it alone.</p>
<p>If the activity/award resume were not annotated, it likely could fit on one page. The annotations explain what the awards mean and what the organizations do, as well as explain the activities and contributions in ways that make the candidate come alive and show who she/he is. Even the OP's son would like to put in context what being selected as only 1% of cadets means. A longer resume doesn't mean listing everything one has done and should be kept to the most important endeavors. It can be organized by categories of interests and themes in their activities. The annotations are a place where they can show who they are, what they did, why it was meaningful, in a context. These annotated resumes ARE edited and prioritized. It is not an attempt to list more things but to make the student come alive and show who they are and describe their endeavors and in context. It is not merely a list but a document that demonstrates their interests, activities, achievements, contributions. The application already allows for a "list". </p>
<p>Blossom, perhaps adcoms detect as you say, I don't know. But I do know that the students who have submitted annotated activity resumes have had successful outcomes, so it hasn't hurt them to present themselves well on paper to SHOW who they are, not just list things. Between the essays and the annotated resume, they should be able to demonstrate who they are as a person. These resumes ARE edited and synthesized. But they do give a clear picture of the applicant beyond a mere "list". The resumes only include their most meaningful activities. Having viewed many activity resumes that are not annotated and ones that are, I can say that I have learned far more and gotten a more accurate picture of the applicant when I have read the annotated ones. Just my view.</p>
<p>By the way, I am very against packaging where a counselor molds what the student does in high school. I am not talking about that whatsoever. I am talking of documenting on paper what one has done and showing sides of themselves, not packaging who they are. Creating an annotated resume is like creating effective essays, to show aspects about oneself that a mere list or chart doesn't do in the same way. Annotations are not packaging. Rather, they are a way of SHOWING what a student has done and to quantify the achievement and be specific about their activity...what they did, contributed, and cared about. An annotated resume provides a clear "picture" where leadership, contributions, accomplishments can come alive.</p>
<p>Too Short:
- 5th Place Film - Apple Computer's Insomnia Film Festival</p>
<p>Annotated (but still short):
- 5th Place Film - Apple Computer's Insomnia Film Festival, a nationwide 24-hour shootout competition for university-level film students. There were 500 registered teams and 156 completed films.</p>
<p>Annotated (too long):
- 5th Place Film - Apple Computer's Insomnia Film Festival. This was a nationwide competition for university-level film students in which the students were given elements to be incorporated into a film and were required to submit the completed project 24 hours later. There were 500 registered teams; only 156 were able to finish the competition in the 24 hours. There were two aspects of voting: public favorites, where viewers were able to register votes, and expert evaluators, who chose an overall festival winner.</p>
<p>(of course that was a university-level item, but you get the idea)</p>
<ul>
<li>5th Place - Apple Inc.'s Insomnia Film Festival, National college competition of 156 films.</li>
</ul>
<p>It's a single line and captures pretty much all the important information.</p>
<p>I have an odd exception for you. I sent my son off to write a "short resume" for Olin College, and he came back with two pages of stuff. It was so idiosyncratic and so obviously supported (IMO) his application that it went out virtually unchaged (I can't help it -- I suggested some grammatical fixes). I'm in the "no 17 year-old needs more than a page" camp, but it would have lost his unique personality if it was edited down. </p>
<p>I've done lots of interviewing in my career, and the only reason I can see for a long resume is documenting specific technical skills in detail. Even then, I fit my 24-year tech career onto two pages.</p>
<p>The second annotation is too long on the facts. However, what is missing is showing anything about the student. Maybe this is not so much for an award, but if it were an activity, the annotation can reveal things about the student, not just facts. Annotations on an activity resume for college admissions can make the student and the activity come alive, not just explain required information.</p>
<p>
[quote]
if it were an activity, the annotation can reveal things about the student, not just facts.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Great point. My favorite part of WashDadJr's "resume" was a paragraph on how he designed and built a squirrel deterrence system for our house. This paragraph has been the centerpiece for two college interviews he has had, including a question about whether he had applied for a patent (really).</p>
<p>Note: I'm starting to sound like an egomaniac. That wasn't the point. The point was that longer documents that say something interesting about the individual are a lot more meaningful, I would think, than another long laundry list of ribbons won at events, by month, for four years. A paragraph on "How I composed my first short piece for string quartet and how it was performed by the Bellevue String Quartet at the fall concert" would be fascinating. To me, anyway.</p>
<p>I tell students to explain something if it is unique to them or their school/region (certain acronyms). I don't need them to explain what FIRST is or go on for a paragraph about the resolution they wrote at their last Model UN conference.</p>
<p>Our application has an open text box for activities. If students use the format we suggest, we can process the information easily and quickly. When you get too elaborate, it adds to the time it takes to review the file. I hate to say it, but it's tedious to flip through pages, searching text for information. We all know how annoying it is to sift through any document that's longer than it needs to be...</p>
<p>By the way, I think the record for longest resume in our office this year is currently at 13 pages. I hope no one tries to meet or beat that number. One page is great, two is fine, three is okay. A student really shouldn't need any more than that.</p>
<p>Uh, guys, making the student come alive and all... isn't that what the essays are for? For all the $%^&ing and moaning the kids do about the essays and why they have to be 500 words and what about those darn short essays about my most meaningful activity, etc...... isn't that where the kid comes alive? How much additional stuff are you going to make an adcom wade through in order to explain what the Harvard book award is and why you're the only junior in your HS's history to have won it despite your B in Latin last year?????</p>
<p>
[quote]
Uh, guys, making the student come alive and all... isn't that what the essays are for?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>A lot of the essay prompts are completely useless. Ask anyone who had a kid who had to make up something for the notorious "explain how you've been discriminated against or tell us about discrimination you've seen" prompt from the University of Washington. Son: "Dad, I've never been discriminated against, and I don't think I've ever noticed this happen to someone else." So, we spent hours talking about how to stretch something in his background to make him sound like a victim. I am morally certain that no one who read it learned anything important about my son.</p>
<p>Essays don't have to just be about one's activities. The activities can be covered on an annotated resume and the essays can show many other things. Or if they have to write about an activity for an essay, that is one activity. There are those who are engaged in several interest areas that can't all be discussed in an essay. But I agree that the essays make the student come alive. However, an annotated resume is another place where a student can show attributes about themselves. A well written one can show a lot more than the little chart on the application. There are those who have spent considerable hours engaged in endeavors and achievements that aren't as easily shown on a little chart, or at least not the specifics. The personality of the applicant can shine through in the essays AND the activity resume. Together, they can give a good picture of who the applicant is, if done well. Of course that is on top of stats and all but at selective schools, most who apply have the stats in the ballpark anyway.</p>
<p>By the way, there are activities that my own kids have done, as well as students with whom I work, that aren't as easily understood by a one line in a one inch space. (I'm not talking Harvard Book Award which can be explained in a few words).</p>
<p>By the way, the annotated resume serves two other purposes besides the application itself. One is to give rec writers to help them write effective recs. And two, to present to an interviewer.</p>