Scholarship Resume: Template, Examples and How to List

.3% of students in the US get enough scholarships to cover the full cost of college education.

No.

The dot at the beginning of the first sentence is not a mistake.

Wanna join the club?

Start with making a scholarship resume that no one dares to ignore.

This guide will show you:

• Scholarship resume examples that get funds.
• How to ace your scholarship resume objective.
• How to write a scholarship resume to make your application stand out.
• Expert hints and scholarship resume samples.

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Looking for a different resume? Check out the following guides: 

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Scholarship Resume—Example

1. Choose the Best Scholarship Resume Format

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:

• Contact information
• Resume objective/career goal
• Education/academic experience
• Leadership
• Awards and honors
• Societies
• Work/internship experience
• Skills on a resume
• Languages

Depending on your experience, you may consider adding other resume sections, such as:

• Community involvement
• Volunteering on a resume
• Athletic achievements
• Visual/performing arts

Regardless of what scholarship resume template you choose, these tips will help you format it just right:

• Pick the right resume format: the reverse-chronological resume draws attention to your latest achievements. This applies to all sections of your scholarship resume.
• Use simple resume fonts. Aim for the range between 10–14pt. Write simple headings. Embrace white space to avoid clutter.
• Keep it short and sweet. Your scholarship application consists of numerous documents. So, think of your resume as a concise summary. Ideally, fit it on a single page.
• Put a scholarship resume objective at the top.
• Make separate sections for awards and honors, leadership positions, membership in associations, work experience, skills, and languages.

Expert Hint: To make sure the formatting of your scholarship resume stays intact, save your resume as a PDF file.

2. Start with a Scholarship Resume Objective That Turns Heads

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:

Scholarship Resume—Objective

The good example makes it clear that you’re a serious candidate with a strong academic background, impressive educational achievements, and a clear vision of your future.

This kind of introduction on a scholarship resume will make the committee members think of you in terms of an investment.

The other candidate may have a lot to offer as well. Who knows?

The thing is, their scholarship resume objective doesn’t sound very convincing in comparison to the good example.

And remember—

They will always compare you to the other candidates.

Expert Hint: Write your scholarship resume objective at the very end. The idea is to summarize your entire resume. But how to summarize something that hasn't yet been created in the first place?

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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.

3. Write the Perfect Academic Experience Section on Your Scholarship Resume

You’re looking for funds that will let you continue your education.

This is great.

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.

Sample Scholarship Resume—Education Section

Scholarship Resume Samples—High School

Let’s break this down.

This is what to put in your scholarship resume education section:

1. Graduation date or expected graduation date

2. School name

3. GPA score

4. Thesis title

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?

• If you’re applying for a freshman scholarship—put your high school education.
• If you’re a college student preparing a scholarship application—add high school education if you graduated in the past five years.
• When looking for a Ph.D. or postgraduate scholarship, include both your BA and MA education. Skip high school entirely.

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.

Scholarship Resume Sample—Leadership

4. Turn Your Work Experience and Skills Into Assets

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.

Resume for College Scholarship—Example

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:

• Volunteering
• Part-time gigs
• Side jobs
• Community service

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.

Skills to Put on a Scholarship Resume

• Written and oral communication
• Problem-solving
• Organization
• Collaboration
• JavaScript
• SQL
• HTML5

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.

5. List Your Awards, Honors, Leadership Experience, and Others

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.

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Key Points

This is how to write a scholarship resume:

• Select the best scholarship resume template. Choose the template that best serves your purpose, and has all the sections you’d like to include in your scholarship resume.
• Give it a great look. It’s not just about what you show, but how you show it. So, keep your scholarship resume short. With the right resume template, you may be able to fit everything on a single page. Beware of cramming in too much information, and make good use of white space.
• Pay particular attention to the education section. Read this section back and forth. Make sure you’ve included every detail that makes you stand out.
• Add the professional experience section to your scholarship resume. This is where your work and internship experience should go. No professional experience? Focus on your volunteering work, part-time gigs, side jobs, or community service.
• Boost your scholarship resume with your extra strengths. Your skills, leadership positions, awards, languages, and membership in student societies and associations do make a difference. Don’t fail to show them off.
• Write a cover letter for a scholarship that will make you stand out from the crowd. 

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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