In my last post I talked about an interesting LinkedIn discussion among college professionals as to whether or not students should have a resume or activity sheet. Now I want to tackle another question:

Should students attach a resume or activity sheet to their college application?

For that answer I turned to friend and colleague Betsy Bell, a college consultant whose company is Acorn Educational Consulting in Wilton, Connecticut. Here’s what Betsy says:

“I have my students create a resume so I can see what their activities are and their level of commitment in each activity. If their activities are easily covered on the application with all the necessary descriptions included, their resumes are not included in the application.

If there is not enough space on the application for good descriptions, and their resume has more in-depth descriptions of their leadership roles, then we will upload their resume.

If the student is applying to the very top schools they might be asked to restrict their resume to one page, or not include one at all. I read the fine print just to make sure we are following the rules.

On the common application there are 12 spaces for activities. Usually that is plenty for most students, but there is limited space for descriptions, and in these cases I would have the resume uploaded in the “additional information” space which is after the essay on the common application. Each school might have very specific requirements and I read them very carefully as we do not want to irritate the admissions people.”

To summarize:

DO include a resume/activity sheet:

• If there is not enough space on the application and the resume has more in-depth descriptions of a student’s leadership roles
• Upload to the “additional information” space on the common application

DON’T include a resume/activity sheet:

• If activities are easily covered on the application with all the necessary descriptions included
• In other words: Don’t Duplicate Information

READ the fine print and  follow the rules

• You don’t want to annoy the college admissions people

Thanks, Betsy!

Read  Resumes and Activity Sheets: Good Idea When Applying to College?