Resume template · Updated October 2026
Resume template for a graduate school application
Short answer
Henrietta suits a graduate school application because it prints education immediately after research positions, so an admissions committee sees your lab work and your degree, GPA and core courses together. The fictional sample is a psychology graduate working full-time as a research assistant and applying to Ph.D. programs, with an honors thesis, human subjects training and two presentations.
Download the graduate school application sample
Jasmine is a fictional research assistant. Replace every detail with your own before you send it.
The files are made in your browser by Resumity's own exporters, from this sample. The builder opens it as your own resume: click any line to replace it. Free plan, no watermark.
Why Henrietta suits a graduate school application resume
Henrietta prints education straight after work experience, so the degree, honors and relevant courses sit right under the research positions a committee reads first. Its conventional black and grey layout keeps an academic page sober, and presentations print in their own titled list at the end.
Second choice: Leslie. Leslie also leads with experience but prints skills before education; choose it if your methods and software make a stronger case than your transcript.
What goes in each section, in Henrietta's order
Henrietta prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.
- Professional Summary. Name the degree and field you are applying to, the start term and the research question that interests you. Committees read for fit with their faculty, so one specific interest is worth more than a list of them.
- Work Experience. Research positions come first, with the lab and its focus. Describe what you ran, coded or analyzed yourself; admissions readers can tell running sessions from watching them.
- Education. Degree, honors, GPA and three or four courses that prepared you for the program. For graduate admissions the GPA usually stays, since the application asks for it anyway.
- Skills. Lead with methods (experimental design, coding schemes, statistics), then software. Henrietta prints the skills grid without labels, so methods belong in the first group.
- Projects. A thesis or independent study is often your strongest evidence of research ability. Give the question, the method, the sample size and where you presented it.
- Certifications. Human subjects research training, such as a CITI course, tells a lab you can join studies without delay. Give the course name and year.
- Presentations. Posters, talks and papers go here in your field's citation style, with your name in each entry. A paper under review can be listed as "under review", never as published.
The sample resume as text
The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.
Jasmine Oyelaran
Research Assistant, Developmental Psychology
Madison, WI | jasmine.oyelaran@example.com | (608) 555-0181 | linkedin.com/in/sample-jasmine-oyelaran
Research assistant with two years of full-time work in a child language lab, applying to Ph.D. programs in developmental psychology for fall 2027. Has run more than 150 study sessions with families, coded video data in Datavyu and co-authored two conference posters. Interested in how bilingual toddlers learn new words.
Experience
Research Assistant (full-time), Early Language Lab, Lakeview State University, Madison, WI (07/2024 to Present)
- Run about 15 study sessions a month with toddlers and parents, from scheduling and consent to the eye-tracking task.
- Coded about 400 hours of play-session video in Datavyu and checked reliability with a second coder.
- Cleaned and analyzed study data in R for two papers now under review.
- Train and schedule six undergraduate research assistants each semester.
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Cognition and Development Lab, Lakeview State University, Madison, WI (09/2022 to 05/2024)
- Recruited families for studies at community events and through the lab's database.
- Entered and double-checked questionnaire data for a 200-family study.
Projects
Honors thesis: word learning in bilingual toddlers: Supervised thesis, 2023 to 2024.
- Designed and ran a word-learning task with 32 toddlers and presented the results at the department honors symposium.
Presentations
- Oyelaran, J., and Kessler, M. (2026). Gaze patterns during novel word learning in bilingual toddlers. Poster, Midwest Child Development Conference.
- Oyelaran, J. (2024). Bilingual exposure and word learning at 24 months. Talk, Lakeview State Honors Symposium.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, minor in Linguistics, Lakeview State University (05/2024). GPA 3.8, graduated with honors. Coursework: Developmental Psychology, Research Methods, Statistics II, Language Acquisition
Certifications
- Human Subjects Research, Social-Behavioral-Educational, CITI Program (2024)
Skills
Experimental design, Eye-tracking studies, Behavioral video coding, Mixed-effects models, R (tidyverse, lme4), Datavyu, Qualtrics, REDCap, Spanish (professional working)
How to make the sample yours
Check whether the program asks for a CV
Some programs want an academic CV, which is longer and lists everything; others want a resume. If the instructions say CV, keep this structure and add teaching, grants and a full publication list.
Rewrite the interest line for each program
Match the research interest in your summary to that department's strengths, but keep the detail for the statement of purpose.
Make your own part of lab work clear
Say which tasks were yours: you ran sessions, coded video, wrote analysis scripts. "Assisted with research" tells a committee nothing.
Applying for a professional master's instead?
For an MBA, MPH or similar degree, results at work matter more than research. Keep the layout, write bullets about outcomes on the job and drop the presentations list if you have none.
Already in graduate school?
For jobs or fellowships during the degree, put the current program first in education with "Expected" and the year, and add teaching assistant roles to experience.
Keywords to keep where they are true
Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.
- research experience
- experimental design
- data analysis
- R
- statistics
- literature review
- poster presentation
- IRB
- human subjects research
- honors thesis
- GPA
- research interests
- Qualtrics
Mistakes to avoid
- Listing a paper as published when it is submitted or under review. Use its real status; committees check.
- A summary about passion with no research interest named. One concrete question shows you know why you are applying.
- Sending the same version to every program, when fit with the faculty is what each committee reads for.
- Leaving your own role in group research unclear, so the reader cannot tell whether you designed a study or only entered data.
How the sample PDF reads in text extractors
We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.
| Extractor | Name, email, phone | Headings | Bullets intact |
|---|---|---|---|
| pdf.js 4.10.38 | All found | 7 of 7 | 7 of 7 |
| pdftotext (Xpdf) 4.00 | All found | 7 of 7 | 7 of 7 |
| pypdf 6.13.0 | All found | 7 of 7 | 7 of 7 |
Frequently asked questions
What should a resume for graduate school include?
Education with GPA and relevant courses, research and work experience, a thesis or independent project, methods and software, and any presentations or publications. Add training such as human subjects certification if you have it.
Is a graduate school resume the same as a CV?
Not quite. A resume is usually one or two pages; an academic CV is longer and lists every publication, presentation, grant and teaching role. Follow each program's instructions on which to send.
How long should my grad school resume be?
One page for most applicants coming straight from a bachelor's degree, two if you have several years of research or work. Keep it shorter than a full academic CV.
Should I include jobs unrelated to my field?
Yes, briefly, if they account for your time or show skills such as supervising people or handling data. Research and field-related work get the most detail.
How do I list a paper that is not published yet?
Use its real status: "in preparation", "submitted" or "under review", with the authors in order. Change it to published only once it is accepted.
Will applicant tracking systems read this Henrietta PDF?
The sample PDF read back with its contact details, all 7 section headings and all 7 bullets intact in three open-source text extractors (pdf.js, pdftotext and pypdf). Commercial systems such as Workday, Greenhouse or Taleo were not tested, and each employer configures its own.