<p>Hi, everyone. I think my resume will top off (*I'm a junior right now, and I would hope that my resume would grow slightly over this year...summer programs, competitions, etc.) at 3 full pages, 11pt, Times New Roman font, .5inch margins. I briefly explained my special duties, titles, awards, etc., but I have basically formatted it using bullets, which makes it slightly longer (maybe by half a page?) but makes it much easier imho to read.</p>
<p>I know most people normally suggest 1 page, or 2 pages tops, but I promise there is no filler - everything listed on there is meaningful to me. Hypothetically, if some admission board were grilling me about my resume, I would have so much to say about each line.</p>
<p>So getting to the question: would it be better to actually cut out whole years worth of "work" (for the lack of a better term) or can I leave everything on there, as long as it is clear that it is 100% filler-free? Or something else in between?</p>
<p>(an admissions counselor from Yale came to my school recently, and she was telling us that one applicant had listed "Donated blood" on the 6th page of his 10 page "tome," which is what sparked this question)</p>
<p>
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I know most people normally suggest 1 page, or 2 pages tops, but I promise there is no filler - everything listed on there is meaningful to me.
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Nonsense. Unless you have been working for 20 years or so in a professional field and have lots of publications, you do not have 3 pages worth of information, with information that's not repeated in the rest of the application, that is necessary or relevant to a college application. </p>
<p>First, remove everything that appears somewhere else on the application. No academic information, no GPA, no rank, no test scores, no schedule, no nothing.</p>
<p>Second, any "jobs", "work", awards received, extracurriculars, etc., prior to 9th grade, should be removed unless they are national in scope. If you won the Van Cliburn piano competition in 7th grade, that's fine. Anything less, forget it. (If they're continuous, you can mention it: "Piano, 3-12.")</p>
<p>Most extracurriculars or awards are known to admissions counselors and do not need explanation - a simple line will do. For example, "Statewide Orchestra (bassoon), 9-11" is sufficient and needs no further elaboration.</p>
<p>This is really a call you need to make for yourself, because we can't actually see the resume. My sense just off the bat is if it's three pages long, it's longer than it needs to be no matter what. For example if you have some culminating achievements in math, those would be great, but all the lesser achievements that led to them are no longer necessary because they're implicit in the big achievements.</p>
<p>I would think 2 pages tops.</p>
<p>One application my daughter is filling out now won't take resumes at all. They give you the oppotunity (on a one page form) to discuss three significant activities. If you have more than that, they directly ask that you pick your top 3 and just discuss those in the space provided. One thing this accomplishes is the make the <em>student</em> identify which activities are the most meaningful to him or her, not throwing everything at the committee so the committee decides what's meaningful. I think it's an effective way of approaching the whole EC thing.</p>
<p>That said, my son submitted a 1 1/2 page resume when he applied.</p>
<p>You need to make this decision. I doubt a three page resume will sink your chances anywhere, but if you can make it shorter, focusing on the most high-impact elements, I think it would actually be a stronger presentation.</p>
<p>I sat on a scholarship committee for many years and I will tell you that folks that have to read hundreds of applications <em>hate</em> excessively long ones. I often had to literally throw away pages of an applicant's package because we felt we couldn't burden the committee with that much. It broke my heart, but it was still better for the applicant than someone saying, "Good grief. I'm not going to read all that and not bothering with their package at all."</p>
<p>It's best to put the very most important stuff on the resume, limit it to two pages, and let them ask additional questions in the interview or scholarship weekend. I know that's tough - I had a child with a packed resume, but we condensed and combined and organized until we got it to two readable pages... more than that is too much.</p>