<p>My son's school tells the kids and parents to develop a resume of activities and interests, beginning in their freshman year, to help down the line with apps and letters of recommendation. The GCs showed a district example of one that "wasn't very good" but not one that was.</p>
<p>Anyone know of a website or book that has a good example? As I'm working on listing my son's stuff I'm confused about where to put stuff and how to convey the significance of activities. For instance, he's in a language club that does a lot of things, including community service. His club has won state club of the year. Obviously, not just because of him, but I think it would help to list that to convey the club is very active, not just resume filler. Do I list the community service stuff separately, or under a sub-catgeory of the club? Does he put that the club won statewide honors for its level of activity/commitment? </p>
<p>The examples I've seen don't seem to do the best job, I think, of conveying depth of an interest. For instance, one of my son's ECs also is related to awards and part-time employment, but the examples I've seen would put each of those in different categories. Seems choppy to me rather than talk about that activity as a whole, but I'll defer to those with more experience.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance if anyone has ideas or want to PM me examples of good ones!!</p>
<p>My d created her resume by "category", specifically to show the depth of an interest. In her case, she had Dance, Teaching and Theater. Under each category she put activities in reverse chronological order. Some activities could have fit under more than one category; she put it in a primary category. She listed activities only once. For example, she was in the dance corps for the high school musical (no, not High School Musical :)); she listed that under Theater, although it could have been in Dance as well. </p>
<p>A good template can be found in a book with an awful title "Rock Hard Apps" . Makes me cringe to type it. Yuck! </p>
<p>We got it at Barnes and Noble and she modified it to meet her needs. BTW, she had a copy most of the time while on campus visits. Never know when someone might ask for one. Believe it or not it actually happened more than once. When it didn't she didn't force it on them or even bring it up.</p>
<p>Same as Curm. Used the one in "Rock Hard Apps".</p>
<p>Keep it to one page. Not too small font but not huge either, leave some white space. And keep it up to date. My kiddos' brought it to interviews so it gave the interviewer a place to start, but they used their judgement if to provide or not.</p>
<p>It helped especially with research and internships to have their PI's listed and anything that was published. Like a baby CV.</p>
<p>Oh, my. I never would have picked up a book called "Rock Hard Apps" on my own. :) I'll take a look.</p>
<p>chedva, did your d apply as a dance/music/theater major? I absolutely could see using that format if that's the case, but neither of my son's greatest ECs (so far) are in the area he ultimately wants to study. Hmmm, maybe he should do something about that ...</p>
<p>When it comes to the actual work Ill be quick to hand it all over to him. I was just cleaning off my desk and ran across some of the prorgrams/awards/certificates that I've saved and thought I'd start putting some of this down in a Microsoft Word document, like the GCs said to do.</p>
<p>Youdon'tsay, not only did she not apply as a performing arts major, or an education major, but she chose a college that doesn't even have a strong dance program (she's primarily a dancer). It just so happened that these were where her primary EC's fell. She organized the resume that way so that the schools would see the depth of her commitment to the activities. As you said, just a chronological laundry list wouldn't show that as easily. A reader could have missed that she spent 3 summers in dance programs, or that she taught dance, drama and skiing. </p>
<p>Schools don't care if the "depth" is in something related to a major. They just want to see depth in something worthwhile.</p>
<p>At this point, since he is a freshman, I would not worry too much about the format. Keep track of all of his activities, awards, employment, volunteer work, etc. When the time comes, you will pick and choose from the master list those things that you want to emphasis or highlight. Not everything will be included on a resume that is sent in with college applications. Keeping track from the beginning of high school, however, makes the job much easier when students start doing their applications.</p>
<p>Even after the college admissions process is over, I would suggest maintaining the resume. It really helps with scholarship and job applications. Also, have your student save all the essays written for admissions...They can come in handy when applying for scholarships while IN college.</p>
<p>chedva, I'm so glad what you suggest follows my instincts. With honors, awards, employment from the same EC but all over the page, it just doesn't look cohesive. </p>
<p>I agree, karp, that this is something to be maintained for years. He worked yesterday on an application for a summer program and thankfully had a bunch of Scout stuff organized of which I was totally unaware. His application looks so much stronger than I thought it would when he could beef it up with his related work through Scouts. I never would have thought of that, as I stay out of all Scout-related activities (for a number of reasons, but we won't go there!).</p>
<p>My daughter also avoided the chronological laundry-list resume, and grouped her activities into areas of interest. She included a sentence or two in each area that explained what she enjoyed about the activity or what she had contributed or what she had learned from it.</p>
<p>Get an accordian style file folder and keep everything in it. Add items to the resume format as you go along. That way you don't have to try to remember what year was that? Good for you for starting now.</p>