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I am curious if anyone has an idea of what is important to include in the awards section. My resume is already 2 pages with relevant work experience, the 5 unis I've attended, awards, internships, and teaching positions so I need to be selective.

I've seen people listing stuff like Dean's List and it seems to me that is already apparent from your GPA, if you have a high GPA right? Is that really an "award" or "honor" or is it just likely to detract from more substantial stuff they don't already know from my GPA?

Or I've seen people list having an honor's thesis as an accomplishment. At my uni, that was required to graduate from the honor's college alongside a certain number of honors credit (which I could probably just have a recommender point out). Should I mention I graduated summa cum laude from the honor's college? How do I stick that up with my GPA? Does it just look like GPA: 4.0, summa cum laude, honor's college - will that be enough to mean something or should I denote it in another way or leave out entirely because its already evident from my GPA?

Then there are all the academic scholarships and what not - Right now I have it listed like this:

2006 XXXXXXXX Scholar – British Government
Outstanding Scholar for the Class of 2004 – XXXXX University
Overseas Research Scholarship – XXXXXX British Government
2002 XXXXXXXXX Scholar – United States Government
2002 Allen Taylor Memorial Prize for Excellence in Middle Eastern Affairs Research
NCAA Division 1 Academic All-American, 2nd Team Volleyball and Numerous All-Region and All-Conference Awards

Insert prestigious, named scholarships were I have the XXXXXs. That's really all the space I have. Well then I was looking up my old resume from post-undergrad work and I guess I have a handful of probably 6 other scholarships. They are named endowments and what not for different things, service to the university through volunteer work, academic excellence, my athletic scholarship, the university's Presidential Scholarship etc. None of them are self-explanatory, they are just in the names of those who created the trusts, though I could add something after them for the ones I remember to clarify. Are these really worth noting or just distractions?

Finally I have a section of "activities and internships," which is just stuff I did while an undergrad. Since graduating I have been working full-time through graduate school, so no more internships or what not. I'm 6 years out of undergrad though (hence taking up so much space).

Is there some way that I identify these as being specific to my undergrad? Just add like the dates maybe to the headline? Activities and Internships (2000-2004)? Or Activities and Internships (During Undergraduate). I just don't like how it looks like I have been doing this stuff recently without the identification.

ACTIVITIES and INTERNSHIPS

XXXXXX NCAA Division 1 Volleyball Co-Captain – 3 Conference Championships
Co-Coordinator and Organizer, “XXXXXXXX" (Panel), Turkish Broadcast
USAID Digital Video Conferencing – Selected to represent American students post 9/11
Center for Policy Analysis on XXXXXXX, Washington, DC - Intern
XXXXXXXX Marketing, Chevy Chase, MD - Intern and Executive Assistant
Senator XXXXXXX Office, Washington, DC – Intern
4Paws Rescue Agency, Fairfax, VA – Rescue and Fostering of Feral Cats

Thanks for any advice. This is so far removed from my professional resume, that I am a little uncertain how far I can push the envelope.

My $.03:

1) The schools you are applying to probably don't know what your UG's cut-offs for honors/dean's list were or that you needed a thesis to graduate from the honor's college. Because every UG is different, I would definitely recommend adding that information. I would do an "Honor's College, 4.0, summa cum laude" and then on the space below list your thesis info.

2) I won a shiaton of schollys for UG and the only ones I list are the substantial ones that were difficult to get. I just do a little "Scholarships:" then list them with ;'s separating and a hanging indent. Saves space.

3) I would call it "Undergraduate Activities and Internships".

MumofCad wrote:I've seen people listing stuff like Dean's List and it seems to me that is already apparent from your GPA, if you have a high GPA right? Is that really an "award" or "honor" or is it just likely to detract from more substantial stuff they don't already know from my GPA?

At my uni, Dean's List is top 10% so there's no real GPA cut off (it helps to let the LS AdComm know about grade inflation at your school imo). I interviewed an assistant applicant who put Dean's List for 2 years on her resume with a cumulative 3.2 GPA so I asked her to clarify and apparently USC undergrad gives Dean's List to anyone with above a 3.5 in a single semester and adding Dean's List in a situation like that, I would agree with you, is redundant. It definitely was not the case for my UG. If your UG gives Dean's List with a relatively lenient cut-off and you're trying to save space on your resume, you can probably leave it off.

MumofCad wrote:Should I mention I graduated summa cum laude from the honor's college? How do I stick that up with my GPA? Does it just look like GPA: 4.0, summa cum laude, honor's college - will that be enough to mean something or should I denote it in another way or leave out entirely because its already evident from my GPA?

Definitely note that but not after your GPA. Do it after your degree. "B.S. MumofCad's amazing major, summa cum laude" would be the correct format.

MumofCad wrote: Then there are all the academic scholarships and what not - Right now I have it listed like this:

2006 XXXXXXXX Scholar – British Government
Outstanding Scholar for the Class of 2004 – XXXXX University
Overseas Research Scholarship – XXXXXX British Government
2002 XXXXXXXXX Scholar – United States Government
2002 Allen Taylor Memorial Prize for Excellence in Middle Eastern Affairs Research
NCAA Division 1 Academic All-American, 2nd Team Volleyball and Numerous All-Region and All-Conference Awards

Insert prestigious, named scholarships were I have the XXXXXs. That's really all the space I have. Well then I was looking up my old resume from post-undergrad work and I guess I have a handful of probably 6 other scholarships. They are named endowments and what not for different things, service to the university through volunteer work, academic excellence, my athletic scholarship, the university's Presidential Scholarship etc. None of them are self-explanatory, they are just in the names of those who created the trusts, though I could add something after them for the ones I remember to clarify. Are these really worth noting or just distractions?

I would list all of the scholarships. If you're already at 2 pages, perhaps do the scholarships in a paragraph form to get more space (e.g. XXXXXXXX Scholar - British Gov. (2006), Outstanding Scholar for the Class of 2004, etc).

I prefer the date method to identifying the fact that you haven't been actively involved in the internships/activities you've listed.

You can save space on your resume if your law school application has a separate section for listing awards (I recall several which did). Similarly, I remember one application which wanted one resume for work experience and another for school related activities (which could include Dean's List, etc.).

Yes, a lot of schools have spaces for awards and activities right on the application. I felt the activities space was pretty small though. I applied five years after I graduated, and I did not put much from college on the resume - I put the school and my thesis (I would have put the GPA if it was higher) and two activities I did for all four years. I just had a volunteer activities section where I put everything I have done. I did not do a separate section for school. I figured they could tell from the dates and names of the club. I did not put Dean's List. I only put my summer jobs in college for schools that specifically asked for it. For someone with several years of full-time professional work experience and current volunteer activities, I did not feel what I did in college was as important.