How to list education on your resume

Writing education on your resume

Writing about education on a resume is key to crafting a complete story for a recruiter or hiring manager. In today’s world, it’s more common than ever to have diverse educational experiences that could include things like high school, college, graduate school, online certificates, bootcamps, licenses, and beyond.

This guide will teach you:

• The basics of writing about education on your resume
• Special circumstances such as incomplete or in-progress programs, certifications, courses, and more
• Tips for talking about education on your resume

Let’s start with basics of writing the education section on your resume

For the layout, the resume education section includes:

1. Name of the institution
2. Degree
3. School location
4. Date of graduation
5. GPA when (only when over 3.0)

When listing education on your resume:

• Start with your highest degree and work your way back in reverse chronological order
• Only include high school if you did not attend college, attended a prestigious private academy or recently graduated
• The placement of the education section of your resume depends on your graduation date, if you’re a recent graduate education on your resume is more important and should be listed closer to the top of your resume.

What about unique education situations?

Unfinished programs - if you started a degree or some other type of program but didn’t finish, only list it if the experience gained is relevant to the position. For example, if you’re applying for a sales position and you have 40 credits toward a Geology degree, it’s probably not worth mentioning unless it was at a prestigious institution. If you are applying to work in a museum, even an unfinished art history program would be relevant to list. Keep in mind anything you list, including education on your resume, is fair game during an interview. If you list an unfinished program be ready to answer questions about it and give the interviewer more context.

High school - when your highest education is high school, it’s usually a good idea to list your diploma if you graduated in the last 5 - 10 years or are currently enrolled. If you’re currently enrolled in high school, the education section on your resume is a great place to add information about your extracurriculars, relevant coursework, and academic accomplishments. If you’re in high school and you’re creating a resume for a part-time job, first good for you - great job, and second you’re likely not getting this job because of your work experience so use this section to highlight the type of student you are, your work ethic, and passions.

Certifications - recent and relevant certifications are usually a good to list in your resume unless they are expired or otherwise assumed by your experiences. Careful not to use too many abbreviations or jargons to describe your certifications, keep it professional and stick with full names of certifications and institutions.

Bootcamps & Workshops - recent participation in education outside an academic institution like a code camp, yoga workshop, healthcare certification, or trade school should be listed under education on a resume too. Try to keep any descriptions short and to the point, or skip elaborating all together. Adding a hyperlink to the program or organization can help give context if a program is uncommon.

Internships - if you were an intern, even while in school, instead of adding the internship under education on your resume consider adding these details under work experience or even a dedicated Internships section. The education section is usually glanced over on a quick skim to cover the requirements. The bullet descriptions outlining your internship experience are a lot more likely to be read in the work history or a custom section closer to the top of your resume.

Tips for talking about education on a resume

Even though content will differ across people, industries, experience levels, there are a few general rules of thumb when listing education on your resume:

Always be honest. No matter what, never stretch the truth about education on your resume. It’s a small world, and it’s extremely easy for someone to verify your education when necessary.

If formal education isn’t the focus of your achievements, there are better ways than lying to demonstrate prove how education (and more importantly learning!) is woven into your professional life. If you have no education to list, beef up the special skills section to focus on soft and hard skills learned outside of the classroom. Don’t lose confidence about skipping education on your resume all together. If you are qualified for the job, it should come across in your experience, skills, and the overall presentation of your resume.

Keep it clean and consistent. We’ll jump into this a bit more below. Overall, keep education on your resume short and sweet and pay close attention to the format and consistency. The right resume template can guide toward a clean design or you can use the examples below for inspiration.

Tailor your info. Always customize your resume for each job application — from the hobbies section to work description to the education on your resume. Though college degrees always make the cut, you don’t want to list that you’re trained as a chef if you’re applying for an office job.

Note honors and awards. Education on a resume rarely includes long bullet points or descriptions like work experience, but you can include important honors societies, high GPAs, notable mentors, scholarships, or awards in this section.

Relevant professional development. Certain industries, such as education and the arts, put a lot of weight on who you’ve studied with and on gaining specific training. If you have a large number of classes and workshops, pick out those that could catch the hiring manager’s eye for that specific job. If you have a high level of academic experiences such as publications, lectures, and studies it’s best to dedicate each of these their own category or section rather than trying to fit everything inside the section for education on your resume.

Listing education where it counts. You’ve just graduated from college and are hitting the intern/job scene for the very first time. In this case, your education is the highlight of your resume. We recommend to list your resume education section above the work experience section. Don’t stress — hiring managers are thrilled to get people fresh out of college. In this scenario, list education right at the top below your personal statement.

In all other cases, write the education section at the bottom of your resume, often below work experience and special skills.

Examples of education on your resume

Example #1: Standard

Example #2: including a partial degree

Example #3: moving the date

Example #4: mid-progress degree

Example #5: professional development

Recap writing about education on your resume

As tempting as it can be to write more about education on your resume, save the relevant details about your education for an interview. Resumes aim to say a lot with very little, especially the education section. Usually the name of the school and the program are enough to help hiring managers understand the significance of your education.

In just a few words education on your resume sums up the value your learnings and background will bring to job.