Resume Questions Forum

[Pennywisdom]

Hello guys. First time poster in this amazing forum.

I have questions regarding the resume for law schools. I have a 1-page resume but when I looked at it, it looked pretty darn crowded (bullet points with 10 size Times New Roman font). So I'm trying to stretch it to a 2-page resume.

1. Do you think it is redundant to list key courses that I took during my undergraduate and graduate courses?

2. How extensive is your extracurricular activities section? I don't have a whole lot of ECs, but I have done extensive work and research. Should I simply list my ECs.

3. Honors/Awards section. Did you keep it separate from your education section?

4. So far I have:

- Basic Info
- Education Section
- Work Section
- Extracurricular Section
- Research Section
- Awards/Honors Section
- Skills/Personal Section

What do you think of this format?


This is my first time applying and I would greatly appreciate if any of you experts could answer my questions.

Thanks!!!

[2014]

Relevant coursework is good for applying for a job in many cases, but I imagine to a law school it is not worth the space.

I personally would consider putting Honors/Awards with your education and research with work. If you are years out of school with FT WE then leave it as is, but if your WE at this point consists of part time and summer jobs, I would think that research fits there or under ECs just fine.

I personally don't have many ECs either but I just listed them with a line or so explaining what they entailed if it wasn't clear.

I would try and keep it to 1 page if at all possible though. Go through and think about if everything on there is something that would be worthwhile for them to hear about. In many cases I believe the applications have places to list work experience for example, so if you are listing a job that isn't that meaningful, perhaps consider removing it from your resume and just listing it on the application if there is room.

[beachbum]

Relevant coursework is good for applying for a job in many cases, but I imagine to a law school it is not worth the space.

I personally would consider putting Honors/Awards with your education and research with work. If you are years out of school with FT WE then leave it as is, but if your WE at this point consists of part time and summer jobs, I would think that research fits there or under ECs just fine.

I personally don't have many ECs either but I just listed them with a line or so explaining what they entailed if it wasn't clear.

I would try and keep it to 1 page if at all possible though. Go through and think about if everything on there is something that would be worthwhile for them to hear about. In many cases I believe the applications have places to list work experience for example, so if you are listing a job that isn't that meaningful, perhaps consider removing it from your resume and just listing it on the application if there is room.

+1. If you're coming straight from undergrad (and it sounds like you are), you should do your best to keep it to one page. Relevant coursework is unnecessary. The skills/personal section might also be unnecessary, unless there's something really noteworthy about you (i.e. fluent in a second language). Your basic contact info can be condensed to two lines if you haven't done so already.

[archie&veronica]

Some may not like this format, but you can save space if you put your basic info in the "header" at the top of the page. You should be able to fit in 3 lines this way (Name, address, phone #/email address or whatever info you're including)

[Pennywisdom]

Thank you for all your feedback.

FYI, I have obtained a MA degree. But I will try to limit my resume to 1 page as you said.

As of now I have divided my resume into following sections:

- Basic Info
- Education Section
- Work Section
- EC Section

Where should I talk about my fluency in 4 languages? Should I include this under the EC section? Or should I just leave the personal/skills section and have this as my only bullet point.

Also how important are masters and senior theses in LS resume?

Thanks for being patient with me.

[JJDancer]

Thank you for all your feedback.

FYI, I have obtained a MA degree. But I will try to limit my resume to 1 page as you said.

As of now I have divided my resume into following sections:

- Basic Info
- Education Section
- Work Section
- EC Section

Where should I talk about my fluency in 4 languages? Should I include this under the EC section? Or should I just leave the personal/skills section and have this as my only bullet point.

Also how important are masters and senior theses in LS resume?

Thanks for being patient with me.

Just put your fluency in one bulllet under skills (last part of resume)
edit: unless you picked up a language via study abroad or something (you could put that as a bullet when you mention study abroad) but since you wrote 4 I assumed a lot of that was native speaker?
Also I would say theses are good to have on there (right at the end of your edu info)

[2014]

Thank you for all your feedback.

FYI, I have obtained a MA degree. But I will try to limit my resume to 1 page as you said.

As of now I have divided my resume into following sections:

- Basic Info
- Education Section
- Work Section
- EC Section

Where should I talk about my fluency in 4 languages? Should I include this under the EC section? Or should I just leave the personal/skills section and have this as my only bullet point.

Also how important are masters and senior theses in LS resume?

Thanks for being patient with me.

Just put your fluency in one bulllet under skills (last part of resume)
Also I would say theses are good to have on there (right at the end of your edu info)

I agree

[kalvano]

It's a resume. It's like the least-important part of your application.

[beachbum]

FWIW, I have an education section, a work section, and an honors/activities section that I just kinda throw everything else into. It gets the job done.

[2ofspades]

It's a resume. It's like the least-important part of your application.

A lightweight resume won't turn an admit into a denial, but an outstanding one can do just the opposite. Of course, OP hasn't indicated anything to indicate that OP's resume would have any effect.

[kalvano]

Your resume will not turn a denial into an admit if your numbers aren't in line, save for maybe .002% of the population.

[2ofspades]

Your resume will not turn a denial into an admit if your numbers aren't in line, save for maybe .002% of the population.

I agree that softs having any bearing on admissions is very rare. However, so long as you meet one of two medians, there are people who do get into schools where their numbers twins are denied.

[kalvano]

In that case, I'd lay money on a very good personal statement over a resume. A resume should take about 10 minutes to do.