CV Questions

[DarwinAG]

I have been getting mixed messages on what to include and exclude as an undergraduate applying to PhD programs.

Would it be a good idea to include GRE scores on top of your CV along with your education, overall gpa, major gpa, and last 60 units?

Also, what is the best sequence of information? Research experience, manuscripts/posters, awards? or Awards first?

Thanks!

[kaister]

Hm I wouldn't put GRE scores, because you're going to be sending those in anyways. I've never gotten advice telling me to include it. I would put research experience first, and that's how I see many other CVs organized as well. Awards are tricky, if they are tied into your education you can sneak it in up with your education section. I usually put "Publications/Presentations" after "Research Experience".

[Sshaw9]

I wouldn't put GRE scores unless they are all 90% +

I've seen GPAs included, but again I would only put them if they are stellar.

Usually you want to lead with your strongest aspect first, and if you have publications or research experience, you want to make sure they read that first and foremost, and not leave it for the end where they may have already decided one way or the other.

[mandarin.orange]

Would it be a good idea to include GRE scores on top of your CV along with your education, overall gpa, major gpa, and last 60 units?

I second not including the GRE scores. Also, I've only seen coursework listed for 2nd-3rd year undergrads looking for experience in a lab or to get scholarships/fellowships. I would remove the coursework - the adcom's going to see your transcript anyway. Including GPA or not is up to you, but again, it's on your transcript.

Also, what is the best sequence of information? Research experience, manuscripts/posters, awards?

I would go with this sequence. Do you have any teaching/TA/mentorship experience? If so, don't forget to include. I also have a section "Service and Stewardship." Finally, if you do have awards and memberships in professional organizations, list those.

[DarwinAG]

Thank you so much for the feedback.

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

Here's a list of sections I put on my cv. Maybe that will help you.

Education (majors, honors thesis advisor, overall gpa, psych,methods, math gpa, major gpa)

honors and select awards

research and teaching positions

representative undergraduate papers

professional employment (I had a psychometrics consulting gig and a data analysis summer job)

representative presentations (school and work presentations)

works in progress (honors thesis, coauthoring papers, ongoing work research projects)

general research interests

university service

workshops attended

technical certifications and select software proficiency

language proficiency

relevant quantitative coursework (I debated including this, but in quant, there's a wide range of prep that applicants had. Plus, none of my schools have transcripts yet, so I thought I might as well include it.)

select eclectic hobbies

references

associate chair/thesis advisor/RAing/TAing,

senior prof in experimental methods,

assistant prof in quant methods/coauthor

boss for research consulting gig

It seemed to work well for me. I have a scheduled visiting weekend with one of my top choices in a few weeks.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Quant_Liz_Lemon

[DarwinAG]

I have an additional question. I have also been getting mixed information regarding length. Is there such a thing as too long of a CV as an undergraduate assuming it includes all relevant research and teaching experience? As of now my CV is 8 pages long.

[PsychGirl1]

Get your CV down to 2-3 pages. The only 8+ page CVs I've seen have been full-fledged, 50-year old Professors and the main reason it's so long is from publications. If an undergrad sent me their CV and it was 8 pages, I would probably laugh. And honestly, most PIs are so busy that it takes some harping to get them to review a 250-word abstract in a timely manner- let alone an 8-page CV for a prospective student. Find a way to highlight the most important things, or consolidate. No matter how amazing you are, I find it hard to believe that you need 8 pages to explain all your accomplishments over your 20whatever years of life.

[PsychGirl1]

That sounded a bit harsher than I intended- but yes, I would consider that 5-6 pages too long.

[DarwinAG]

No this is wonderful feedback. Again it is mostly packed with research experience. I actually have a buddy with a much longer CV with over 25 presenations. Faculty CVs no longer have those as they are packed with publications and presenatations.

[PsychGirl1]

Is there some way you can consolidate? For example, take out local poster presentations, call the section "Selected Poster Presentations", and only list the more prestigious ones? Or if you have multiple entries for the same projects in the same lab, consolidate them under one heading as "research assistant" for the lab and put specifics in bullet points? Your CV should really contain highlights. For example, in college, I worked in 3 labs, then after college, I worked part-time in a lab for a year, worked full-time as a research coordinator for 1.5 years, and now i'm in graduate school. So that's about 6 different labs, all with very different roles, focuses, and projects. But on my CV, my research experience is only one page. I dropped one lab that I worked in for a short period of time a long time ago and wasn't relevant to Psychology, and consolidated the rest into thorough bullet-points, one for each lab. For things like teaching experience, i consolidated all my TA'ing jobs at the same university into the same "entry" and then just listed the courses under it and general duties I performed in general. I have sections for education, awards/honors, research experience, clinical experience, teaching experience, posters & presentations, publications, organizations & memberships, other experience, and skills, and mine is about 2.5-3 pages, which I think should pretty much be the max.

[lewin]

^^ Those are good suggestions. I'm a graduating PhD student with 20 conference presentations (after dropping the local ones) and 5 publications, and my CV is still < 4 pages. So I can't help but think that you could include the same amount of information but with fewer words.

I'm curious how you are accumulating so many conference presentations. Are you presenting the same research at multiple places? Because that can seem a bit.... tacky. It suggests a bit of CV padding.