A resume for a scholarship is a document focusing on your education and academic achievements. It includes your career objective and presents your skills and professional experience (if you have any). As selection committees review lots of scholarship applications, yours have to stand out from the crowd.
Certified Professional Resume Writer, Career Expert0.3% of students in the US get enough scholarships to cover the full cost of college education. Wanna join the club?
Start with making a scholarship resume that no one dares to ignore.
This guide will show you:
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A is a document stating your interests and goals while highlighting relevant education, projects, work experiences, academic achievements, awards , honors, and skills. It should be tailored to fit the targeted scholarship.
John Crawford
Cognitive Scientist
Phone: +1-123-456-7890
Email: john.crawford@gmail.com
Address: 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Academic affiliation: UCLA
Date of Birth: 3 Jan 1994
Objective
Fresh graduate with a BA in Cognitive Science from UCLA (GPA 3.95). Awarded Dean’s List three times. Member of UCLA Golden Key and Phi Theta Kappa. Seeks funds to pursue a Master’s Degree in Linguistics at UCLA. Plans to conduct cross-disciplinary research on language as a cognition tool, as well as the role of natural language acquisition patterns in the development of AI.
Education
2017
UCLA
Bachelor of Science, Cognitive Science
GPA 3.95
Thesis title: Scientific Hypotheses as the Most Accurate Forms of Precognition
Favorite areas of study:
Extracurricular activities: Freelance contributor to 5 independent online music magazines.
2014
Myers Park High, Charlotte, NC
High School Diploma
GPA 3.95
Combined SAT score: 1550 (Math: 750, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing: 800)
Activities: Member, Athletics team Grade 9-12
Leadership
Awards and Honors
Societies
Work Experience
June 2015–September 2015
FYI.com
Website Intern
Skills
Languages
First things first. Writing a scholarship resume is relatively easy. It boils down to listing your academic and personal achievements on a resume. At the same time—It’s something more than a random list of good memories.
The scholarship resume template in the example above follows this order:
Depending on your experience, you may consider adding other resume sections, such as:
Regardless of what scholarship resume template you choose, these tips will help you format it just right:
Expert Hint: To make sure the formatting of your scholarship resume stays intact, save your resume as a PDF file.
Your scholarship resume objective must be succinct. This surefire formula will help you put your best foot forward right away:
1. Introduce yourself.
2. Present your academic background.
3. Mention your honors, awards, and societies.
4. Say what kind of funding you’re after.
5. Explain what research you’d like to conduct.
Here’s what it looks like in practice:
Nail it all with a splash of color, choose a clean font, and highlight your skills in just a few clicks. You’re the perfect candidate, and we’ll prove it. Use our resume builder now.
You’re looking for funds that will let you continue your education. But you’re up against hundreds of other applicants, all of whom are equally dedicated to their academic pursuits.
So, the academic experience section on your scholarship resume must deliver.
2017
UCLA
Bachelor of Science, Cognitive Science
GPA 3.95
Thesis title: Scientific Hypotheses as the Most Accurate Forms of Precognition
Favorite areas of study:
Extracurricular activities: Freelance contributor to 5 independent online music magazines.
2014
Myers Park High, Charlotte, NC
High School Diploma
GPA 3.95
Combined SAT score: 1550 (Math: 750, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing: 800)
Activities: Member, Athletics team Grade 9-12
This is what to put in your scholarship resume education section:
1. Graduation date or expected graduation date
5. Favorite areas of study
6. Extracurricular activities
Including points 1 through 3 is a must. Without such basic information, you could just as well skip writing your scholarship resume entirely.
On the other hand, points 4 and 5 add an extra dimension to your academic interests, and make you come across as a well-rounded scholarship candidate. Plus this is something you might not be able to provide elsewhere in your application documents, or at least not in such a prominent way.
How far back should your scholarship resume education section go?
One more thing. Your scholarship resume should give prominence to your leadership experience. This is something that all scholarship committee members value.
So don’t mix the leadership positions you held into your extracurricular activities. Instead, make a separate leadership section on your scholarship resume.
Yes, your work experience does matter. It’s obvious you’re not going to show bags of professional experience on your scholarship resume, but it’s not the point. The point is to show the scholarship committee members you’ve got grit.
Well, it’s not easy to combine professional and academic work. Plus, if you’ve developed transferable skills that come in handy in academic contexts, your value as a scholarship candidate will skyrocket.
June 2015–September 2015
FYI.com
Website Intern
Make sure your professional experience resume section doesn’t go unnoticed. Use strong resume verbs to clearly communicate your accomplishments and skills. Go for such words as supported, cooperated, conducted, formulated, or analyzed. Don’t use the cliched responsible for formula as it doesn’t communicate much.
No work experience? Fret not. It’s a scholarship resume. Work experience isn’t obligatory. But to up your chances, consider adding sections on:
Resist the temptation of making a laundry list of all your responsibilities, though. Fish out the things that are relevant to your academic success, and put them on your scholarship resume.
The same applies to your key skills. Pick out the skills relevant to your academic success, and show them off in a separate section.
The list should include both soft and hard (technical) skills.
Expert Hint: Put up to 10 strong skills on your resume. Choose only the ones you have a good grasp of, don’t mention the skills you don’t feel very confident about. This way you’ll avoid the so-called presenter’s paradox.
The strength of your scholarship resume depends on your academic and personal achievements. Don’t fail to mention any. Add resume sections listing your awards and honors, membership in student societies, and knowledge of foreign languages.
Expert Hint: Double the impact of your scholarship resume with a cover letter for scholarship. A well-written cover letter can tell a story that neither your scholarship application nor resume can. And we have just the article to teach you how to write a good cover letter.
Double your impact with a matching resume and cover letter combo. Use our cover letter generator and make your application documents pop out.
Want to try a different look? There’s 18 more. A single click will give your document a total makeover. Pick a cover letter template here.
This is how to write a scholarship resume:
Questions on how to write the best scholarship resume? Want to share advice on how to write a resume for a scholarship? We’d love to hear from you. Leave your comment below.
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Written by Maciej Duszynski, CPRWExperienced in the education management industry, Maciej shares his knowledge for every step of your job hunt, from landing an internship to moving to an executive position. Maciej has helped job candidates at all stages of their career paths, from interns to directors to C-suite members, to thrive in their job. His mission is to help you find the right opportunity and create a job application that gets you the career you deserve.
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