A CV for graduate school admissions is not a job resume with a new heading. Its audience is a faculty admissions committee deciding whether you are ready to do research under their supervision. Everything on the page should point at that question: your academic record, your exposure to research, and your capacity to see hard work through.
Lead with academic evidence
Open with Education, including your degree program, institution, expected or completed dates, and your grade point average if it is strong. Follow it with the sections that prove intellectual readiness rather than employment history. A relevant research project, a senior thesis, or a lab you assisted in carries far more weight with this reader than a retail job, so give research and academic work the prime real estate.
Sections that matter to a committee
Prioritize the parts of your record that predict success in a program.
- Research experience: projects, labs, and your specific contribution.
- Publications or presentations: even a poster or an undergraduate journal.
- Academic awards: scholarships, honors, and competitive prizes.
- Relevant skills: languages, lab techniques, statistics, or software.
- Coursework: advanced classes that map to the program’s focus.
Part-time jobs still belong on the page if they show responsibility or funded your studies, but keep them brief and place them below the academic sections.
Format and length
Two pages is a reasonable ceiling for most applicants, and a strong one page is fine if your record is early. Use one column, standard headings, and reverse chronological order within each section. Save as a PDF so the formatting survives an upload portal, and proofread relentlessly, because a committee reads carelessness as a warning sign.
Build an admissions-ready version in the CV maker and follow the structure in our CV guide. If you are a current student, the students page has templates suited to this stage.