Somewhere between your first semester and graduation, you will need a resume for a campus job, a summer internship, a research program or a scholarship. Every one of those readers knows you are still in school. They look for your major, the month you finish, the hours you can give, and signs that you follow through when other people depend on you. A TA section, a residence hall floor or an orientation group you led is real experience, and it reads that way once it carries the numbers a job would.
How to Write an Undergraduate Resume - Key Takeaways
- Keep it to 1 page in reverse-chronological order, with Education above Work Experience while you are enrolled.
- Write your expected graduation month and year, such as 05/2027, instead of freshman, junior or senior.
- Give TA, RA, orientation and work-study jobs their own Work Experience entries, with the students, residents or hours you were responsible for.
- Open with a 2- to 3-line objective that names the role from the posting and 1 result with a number.
- Put a minor, Dean's List semesters, a GPA of 3.5 or higher and 1 line of coursework under your degree, not in extra sections.
- Before you send it to a campus portal or an employer, run it through an ATS resume checker.
What employers look for in an undergraduate resume
An undergraduate resume has more kinds of reader than most: a campus hiring office, an internship recruiter, a professor choosing a research assistant, a scholarship committee. Each one checks 3 things first: what you study, when you graduate, and whether you have held responsibility someone else counted on. Holding or seeking a job in college is common, too. The BLS found that 49.2% of college students aged 16 to 24 were in the labor force in October 2024, so a campus or part-time job puts you in good company, not at a disadvantage.
While you are enrolled, Education goes first. Use these sections, under headings an applicant tracking system recognizes:
- Name, a headline with your major (for example, Biology Major or Accounting Student) and contact details
- Objective: 2 to 3 lines under your name, with no heading of its own
- Education, with your expected graduation month and year
- Work Experience: campus jobs, internships and part-time work, newest first
- Skills, including the software you have used
- Certificates, if you hold any
- Either Volunteer Experience or Key Achievements, not both, plus Languages or Interests if they fit
Best format for an undergraduate resume
Use the reverse-chronological resume format, with one change while you are in school: Education sits above Work Experience. Inside each section the newest entry comes first, with your title, the employer or campus office, the city and MM/YYYY dates. A skills-first layout hides the dates that campus and internship recruiters plan around, so keep the timeline visible even when your jobs were short.
- Best for most undergraduatesReverse-chronologicalYour jobs, newest first, with your results under each one.Best for: A steady work history in your field
- FunctionalSkills grouped up top, with a short work history below.Best for: Gaps or very little experience
- CombinationA skills section first, then your full work history.Best for: A career change with strong skills
Keep it to 1 page until you graduate. By your second year, college entries should replace most high school ones; keep a high school job or award only while it is still your best proof of a skill the posting asks for. Research programs that request a CV are the one exception, covered further down.
| Setting | What to use |
|---|---|
| Length | 1 page while you are enrolled |
| Section order | Education first, then Work Experience, then Skills |
| Graduation date | Month and year with Expected, such as Expected 05/2027 |
| Job dates | MM/YYYY; a summer job reads 06/2026 – 08/2026 |
| Contact line | Your school email or a plain personal one, a phone number, city and state |
| Photo and personal details | Usually no photo in the US and Canada; leave off your birth date and student ID number |
| File type | A PDF named with your first and last name, unless the portal asks for Word |
Most US and Canadian resumes carry no photo. Your street address can go too: a city and state are enough for any employer, on campus or off.
Undergraduate resume objective vs. summary
Use one test: if your strongest evidence is a job in the field you are applying to, write a summary; if it is coursework, a campus role or a project, write an objective that names the role you want. Most undergraduates use an objective until their first related internship, and these resume objective examples show the difference in practice. Put the posting's role in the first line, then 1 piece of proof with a number.
Undergraduate resume objective formula
Major student at school, graduating MM/YYYY, seeking role from the posting. 1 result from a campus job, internship or class project, with a number. A certificate or tool the posting names.
Example
Supply chain management student at Iowa State University, graduating 05/2027, seeking a summer logistics internship. Rebuilt the reorder sheet for a 3-person bike shop and cut stockouts on its 40 fastest-selling parts from 9 a month to 2. Google Data Analytics Certificate, 2026.
Don't
Motivated college student seeking an internship where I can learn and grow.
Do
Biology major graduating 05/2028, seeking a research assistant spot in a plant genetics lab. Ran 24 PCR reactions and 6 gel runs in a course-based research lab and presented the results at the department poster session.
The rewrite names the role, the date and something the applicant has already done in a lab.
How to write campus jobs and internships with numbers
A paid campus role is a job on your resume: give a TA position, an RA floor or a front-desk shift its own entry, with your title, the office or department, the city and dates. List work experience on your resume the way a full-time employee would, with the people, hours and results you were responsible for. Write 3 to 4 verb-first bullets under your newest role and 2 to 4 under older ones, cutting first the lines the posting does not ask about.
| Role | What to count | Example bullet |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching assistant or grader | Students, sections, assignments graded, office hours | Graded weekly problem sets for 85 students in 2 sections of Calculus I and held 3 office hours a week. |
| Resident assistant | Residents, programs, attendance, incidents handled | Ran 9 floor programs a semester for 42 first-year residents, averaging 18 attendees. |
| Orientation leader | Sessions, group size, families, new leaders trained | Led 6 orientation sessions of 2 days each for groups of 12 incoming students. |
| Work-study or campus office | Visitors, requests, hours a week | Answered about 30 front-desk questions a shift at the campus recreation center, 12 hours a week. |
| Internship | Deliverables, who used them, decisions they fed | Wrote 4 vendor comparison memos that the operations manager used to choose a new packaging supplier. |
| Student organization | Members, budget, events | Managed a $6,400 club budget for 70 members and kept a receipt for every expense. |
Here is one undergraduate's entry with those numbers in place: the summer internship first, then the part-time job behind it with fewer lines.
Work Experience
- Counted 1,150 pallet locations in a 60,000 sq ft warehouse during the summer cycle count and flagged 38 mislabeled bins.
- Built an Excel tracker for 14 inbound carriers that marked late arrivals; 2 shift leads used it daily by August.
- Wrote the receiving checklist for new interns after working 3 receiving shifts a week.
- Rebuilt the parts reorder sheet in Google Sheets, cutting stockouts on the 40 fastest-selling parts from 9 a month to 2.
- Fitted helmets and locks for about 25 customers on a Saturday shift.
Don't
Responsible for residents on my floor.
Do
Supported 38 residents on a first-year floor, ran 2 programs a month and handled 11 roommate mediations in the 2025-26 academic year without a room change.
The rewrite gives the floor size, the routine work and the hardest part of the job with an outcome.
Don't
Helped students with homework as a tutor.
Do
Tutored 14 students a week in introductory statistics at the campus learning center; 11 of them finished the course with a C or higher.
Skills and software for an undergraduate resume
Pick 6 to 8 hard skills for your resume that a class, job or project has already proved, and drop any you could not use on your first day. Soft skills earn a place when a bullet shows them at work, such as training new orientation leaders or settling a roommate dispute.
Hard skills for undergraduates
- Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP)
- Google Sheets
- Data entry and cleanup
- Research and citation (APA, MLA)
- Presentation design (PowerPoint, Canva)
- Basic statistics
- Event planning and logistics
- Front-desk and customer service systems
- Social media content
- Lab safety and lab notebooks
Soft skills campus and internship employers value
- Reliability over a full semester
- Clear written email
- Conflict resolution
- Time management around classes
- Public speaking
- Working on mixed teams
List the software with your skills and name it again inside a bullet, written exactly as the posting writes it. Campus roles often run on systems you can name: a TA may grade in Canvas or Gradescope, and an internship may use Excel, Tableau or a project tool such as Asana or Trello. A programming language or a second language belongs on the list only when the posting asks for it or a bullet shows you using it.
Certificates worth adding as an undergraduate
List certifications on your resume when they fit the job you want, each with its issuer and month. For most undergraduates 1 or 2 short credentials are enough, and one tied to the role, such as CPR for an RA job or human subjects training for a lab, does more than a row of online badges.
| Certificate | Issued by | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| First Aid/CPR/AED | American Red Cross | A classroom or blended course. The Red Cross says online-only classes do not meet OSHA workplace rules; either route earns a 2-year digital certificate with an ID employers can check. |
| Human Subjects Research (HSR) | CITI Program | Online modules on research ethics, updated for the 2018 Common Rule, taken through a school or organization that subscribes. |
| Microsoft Office Specialist: Excel Associate | Microsoft, delivered by Certiport | Pass the Excel Associate exam through Certiport; Word and the other Office apps have Associate exams of their own. |
| Google Data Analytics Certificate | Google, on Coursera | 8 self-paced courses, about 240 hours in total: 3 months at about 20 hours a week, or 6 months at 10, according to Google. |
How to list a certificate you are still working on
Write the full certificate name and issuer, then in progress and the month you expect to finish. Keep it under Certificates, out of your headline, and take it off if you stop the course, since an unfinished credential raises a question in the interview.
Certificates
- Google Data Analytics Certificate, Google, 03/2026
- First Aid/CPR/AED, American Red Cross, 09/2025
- Microsoft Office Specialist: Excel Associate, Microsoft, in progress, expected 12/2026
How to list your major, GPA and honors on an undergraduate resume
Write the degree as your school names it, then the school, its city and your expected graduation month. When listing education on a resume as a student, add your GPA if it is 3.5 or higher, or whenever the posting asks for it, since some internship applications set a minimum. Keep 1 line of coursework only where the classes match the job.
A double major goes on 1 degree line when your school awards a single degree, or on 2 lines when it awards 2. A minor, Dean's List semesters or an honors program go on a short line under the degree, not in sections of their own. Transfer students list the school they will graduate from first, with the community college below it and its associate degree if they finished one.
Education
Expected graduation. GPA 3.6. Coursework: logistics, procurement and operations analytics.
Undergraduate resumes with no experience, for research programs or as a returning student
With no job or campus role yet, lead with Education and fill Work Experience with anything that had a schedule and people relying on you; the college student resume examples show that layout. These count, each with a number:
- Federal Work-Study jobs: listed by job title and campus office like any other job. Under federal regulations the program funds part-time work for students who need the earnings for college costs; it is how you were paid, not what you did.
- Student organizations: an officer role gets its own entry, with members, budget or events.
- Class projects with a real deliverable: 1 line under Education with the team size and what you handed over.
- Summer and family-business work: hours a week and 1 result, whether it was a lifeguard stand or a register.
- Volunteering: under Volunteer Experience, with hours and anything you organized.
Don't
First-year student looking for any on-campus job.
Do
Psychology major graduating 05/2029, applying for a front-desk job at the campus library. Logged 120 volunteer hours at a food pantry intake desk; types 55 words a minute.
Naming the job and 2 checkable facts turns a request into a match.
Research programs sometimes ask for a CV. NSF's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) sites each run their own application, and NSF limits participants to US citizens, US nationals and permanent residents. The difference between a CV and a resume is mostly length and academic detail, so keep this layout and add the methods you used, any poster and the faculty member you worked with inside your Education and Work Experience entries.
If you are returning to finish a degree after years of work, keep your jobs in reverse-chronological order and put the degree in progress first under Education with its expected date. Choose bullets from those jobs that fit the role you want now, and explain the return in your cover letter; these college student cover letter examples show how to open one.
Undergraduate resume FAQ
Should I write junior or senior on my undergraduate resume?
No. Write the month and year you expect to graduate, such as Expected 05/2027. Schools count class standing differently and it changes every year, while a date tells an employer when you can start full time.
How do I list Federal Work-Study on a resume?
List the job, not the program: your title, the campus office, the city and the dates under Work Experience. Federal Work-Study is how the job was funded. If a posting asks whether you qualify for work-study, say so in your cover letter or on the school's job portal.
Can a teaching assistant job go under Work Experience?
Yes. A paid undergraduate TA, grader or tutor role is a job, so give it an entry with the course name, the number of students and what you did for them. An unpaid peer mentor role can go under Volunteer Experience instead.
How do I list a double major or a minor on a resume?
Put both majors on 1 degree line when your school awards a single degree, such as Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science, and add the minor on a short line below. If you are earning 2 separate degrees, give each its own line with the same graduation date.
Should I put Dean's List on my resume?
Yes, as 1 line under your degree with the number of semesters, such as Dean's List, 4 semesters. That takes less space than naming each term.
Do I need a CV instead of a resume for undergraduate research?
Only if the lab or program asks for one. Most undergraduate research applications accept a 1-page resume. When a CV is requested, keep the same layout and add your lab methods, posters and the faculty member who supervised you to your Education and Work Experience entries.
Can international students list on-campus jobs on a resume?
Yes. F-1 students may hold on-campus jobs such as bookstore or cafeteria work, and DHS's Study in the States caps them at 20 hours a week while school is in session. List the job like any other entry and leave your visa status for the application form.
Next steps
Pick the example closest to the role you want, keep its order, and swap in your own students, residents, hours and results. Build it in our resume builder or start from one of the resume templates, then send it with a short cover letter that names the role and your graduation month.