<p>I'm shocked. My D who leaves for the summer for Interlochen today actually presented me with a draft of a brag sheet when I got home from work yesterday for proofing. (I can't believe I got through???!!!!) It seems to me that all the info is there (she has a column for the activity, one for the grades she did it, one for the hours/week or year, and one for a brief description of the activity). But it seems disjointed going from one type of activity, EC to sport to award, etc. Any tips on how to organize this that I can give her when she gets home?</p>
<p>My daughter had categories - Extracurricular, Sports, Volunteer work. Under each activity she listed description of what she did and then all the awards won for that activity.</p>
<p>We're just rounding up our college tour of the Northeast. She had 6 interviews and was the only kid (that I saw) with any kind of a resume.
Every adcom kept it, some actually wrote notes on the resume and everyone used the document as a talking point for the interview. </p>
<p>Apparently, D got advice from this forum on how to compile the activity sheet.</p>
<p>Thanks again, cc parents!</p>
<p>My son did one on significant achievements, with categories. He didn't do the matrix of activity*hours. He left that for the application form.</p>
<p>IMO, you should list the most important categories first, and the most important achievements within each category first, accompanied by a brief description if needed.</p>
<p>Thus, for my son the major categories were Debate, Journalism/Writing, and Math (he did very little
"volunteering" and didn't list this activity). He didn't use this form to list all his club memberships and the like. But within the big three he mentioned his awards and prizes (most important first, e.g., 1st place in editorial writing in state), then positions held (e.g. Editoral Page Editor), and if appropriate overall level of activity.</p>
<p>One may want to categorize by what your top choices are looking for or emphasizing, e.g., leadership, individual academic achievement, public service, group achievement, athletic achievement, etc. I would recommend maintaining a consistent chronological order with in each category (it is important to show consistency). Make sure one really has listed all important achievements. I read where the director of admissions at UChicago said he would be more impressed if a student said he or she spent the summer under a tree reading 50 books, than if they travelled abroad for study.</p>
<p>Pick an organizational system that will put the most impressive stuff on top, in case someone only looks carefully at the first few items. That will differ depending on what you have. You can arrange by broad area, like the suggestions above. Or arrange chronologically by grade. Or arrange geographically - like Nat'l, State, then Local awards. I would also list the most impressive stuff first within each category rather than doing it chronologically. If there are so many items in a category that you feel like it needs internal organization, you might want to consider splitting it into two smaller categories.</p>
<p>Another suggestion. Brag sheets can also be useful to give to teachers and other letter-writers. They tell the letter-writer more about you than she may have directly observed, and can help her to frame her letter. My kids gave their brag sheet to their letter writers, along with another sheet that listed the schools with a sentence or two about why each school was attractive or a good fit.</p>
<p>I feel strongly that students should organize the ec's on the resume by following the common ap guideline:place them IN ORDER OF THEIR IMPORTANCE TO YOU. That would probably mean that the first items are those the student has devoted the most time to, and may very well have led to the most significant accomplishments. Because my kids did it this way, the grouping was a mixture of different types of activites, eg. debate, then tennis (varsity and USTA), the music, then a community service, and so on. This type of organization is most useful to colleges, because they want to know what your passions are, not what you think they want to hear. The only things that had a separate category were "Academic pursuits beyond the h.s. curriculum", which included research and college courses taken, and Academic awards, which came at the end.</p>
<p>To clarify the above, "Academic Awards" was a separate category at the end. Also, my kids did include hours/week and weeks/year for each activity.</p>
<p>here are 2 more threads on resumes:</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=66316%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=66316</a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=57203%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=57203</a></p>
<p>both worth perusing.</p>
<p>I don't have THAT many awards or activities, but I really feel that the common app (and other app's at that) just do not provide enough room to really give adcom's a good idea of my activities. I'm not applying to any selective schools, but is it worth sending a resume? Or should I just write more in depth info on my activities in the "additional info" section provided in the application? </p>
<p>If I should write a resume, can u guys post some good sources online that show people like me, who know nothing about resume writing, how to do that?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>You have to tweak them and make them describe who you are and what you have done. #3 is nice.</p>
<p>Our GC sends resumes, checks and whatever else with her packet . So it all goes together.</p>
<p>thank u overseas</p>
<p>how do u set up the categories? What did u add/chang?</p>
<p>I didn't do it Masha. My son set up his with something like #3. He used a font size, bold and underlining to fit everything on one page. If he put something down he explained it. He didn't put anything that didn't fit into who he was and where he wanted to go. He also had to do the same for music and that fit on 2 pages. But he was applying to schools and then to schools of music.</p>
<p>Name & address & phone at top</p>
<hr>
<p>Education: school and degree (like he was IB dip)
High School Highlights: major things that happened to him
Community Service, Leadership & Related Awards
Aspirations: What do you want out of college and life beyond</p>
<p>A minor irritation: In resume #3 of <a href="http://www.jobweb.com/resources/lib...sumes_68_01.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.jobweb.com/resources/lib...sumes_68_01.htm</a> it states "Researched and collected data..."</p>
<p>Being in a position to evaluate similar resumes, I am annoyed by such sentences. One performs research, or one investigates. Further, what was investigated? One can collect data on anything. I know it is a minor point in this discussion, but being right at the top of Related Experience, it may bias old-timers like me away from the applicant.</p>
<p>The School of Music at UMICH requires a resume and repertoire list:
<a href="http://www.music.umich.edu/prospective_students/admissions/ug/app_proc/resume_rep.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.music.umich.edu/prospective_students/admissions/ug/app_proc/resume_rep.htm</a>
my son followed this format and ended up with a two page resume (for college interviews and applications) to which he could attach the third page repertoire list for music schools and conservatories.</p>
<p>Good point, idad, the activities or awards or whatever should be of great "interest" to the applicant. A resume can be another way of saying this is who I am, this is what I love, this is what is important to me. The #3 is only a format where you need to look at it from way back and then make it yours. Don't look at the words just the form.</p>