CV - where to put a summer study abroad?

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

Hey, all - 

I did a shorter study abroad program, run by my undergrad university, during the summer. Where should I put it on my CV?

I don't have a coursework section, as I've been told that isn't necessary for my field (English) and I agree - my BA and MA transcripts are clear about what I have studied. 

My thought was to slip it under the undergrad info at the "Education" section at the top - I'm overthinking this, I'm sure - it is very far from being a make-or-break thing (no adcom will likely care) but I'd like to include it if I can. 

Thanks in advance!

Edited November 23, 2017 by a_sort_of_fractious_angel
clarity

[fuzzylogician]

I'd put such a thing under Education. As long as it's clear what it is (a short stay, not a degree), all is good. 

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

Thanks, @fuzzylogician - I'll be very clear that it was run by my university and was a summer study abroad. I appreciate it! 

[TakeruK]

During my Masters, I was in Ontario where there is a province-wide "Visiting Graduate Student" program, that allows grad students at one Ontario school to take grad courses at another Ontario school as long as both host and home institutions/departments sign off on it. This resulted in me having transcripts from an extra school (the home institution transcript just says "credit granted", need to submit the host institution transcript for the results). So there were two good options for the CV: either list it as a separate entry in Education and put "Visiting Graduate Student" where I would put the degree type, or have it appear as a bullet point under my Masters school entry. So I suppose you could do the same with your study abroad status to make sure it's very clear that it's not a degree program.

Note: After a few years in grad school, I removed all mention of this status completely though.

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

30 minutes ago, TakeruK said:

During my Masters, I was in Ontario where there is a province-wide "Visiting Graduate Student" program, that allows grad students at one Ontario school to take grad courses at another Ontario school as long as both host and home institutions/departments sign off on it. This resulted in me having transcripts from an extra school (the home institution transcript just says "credit granted", need to submit the host institution transcript for the results). So there were two good options for the CV: either list it as a separate entry in Education and put "Visiting Graduate Student" where I would put the degree type, or have it appear as a bullet point under my Masters school entry. So I suppose you could do the same with your study abroad status to make sure it's very clear that it's not a degree program.

Note: After a few years in grad school, I removed all mention of this status completely though.

Thanks! I've currently put it under my BA information line as Summer Study Abroad Program (Course #: Title) to make it clear it was a summer course associated with my undergrad. I may end up axing it as my MA work/experiences may outweigh its significance, now that I'm looking at it. Although interesting, it's not relevant. 

May I ask, @TakeruK - I'm guessing you did an MA thesis or cumulative project? Did you include that on the CV? I have both a BA and MA thesis, but I don't currently have them on the CV because neither are particularly related to the work that I'm doing but perhaps listing the title and director would be wise? 

[TakeruK]

6 minutes ago, a_sort_of_fractious_angel said:

Thanks! I've currently put it under my BA information line as Summer Study Abroad Program (Course #: Title) to make it clear it was a summer course associated with my undergrad. I may end up axing it as my MA work/experiences may outweigh its significance, now that I'm looking at it. Although interesting, it's not relevant. 

May I ask, @TakeruK - I'm guessing you did an MA thesis or cumulative project? Did you include that on the CV? I have both a BA and MA thesis, but I don't currently have them on the CV because neither are particularly related to the work that I'm doing but perhaps listing the title and director would be wise? 

I did list my thesis work when applying to grad schools. In my field, it doesn't matter if it is related to what you are applying to for grad school. First, because the grad schools care about the fact that we have had research experience, and less about specifically what we did (after all, whatever we do in PhD programs will overshadow earlier work anyways). Second, my field is a multidisciplinary one, where we have people going into Planetary Science from Astronomy, Physics, Math, Geology, Biology, or Chemistry.

So, my education section looked something like this when I applied:

2010-present:    MSc, University of Awesome
                            Thesis advisor: Prof. Awesome, Title: Awesome studies of Awesome stuff

2005-2010:        BSc, University of Spicy Foods
                            Thesis advisor: Prof. Chili, Title: Chemical reactions of spicy peppers
                            -including co-op program with 16 months of full-time research

For grad school applications, I included my participation in my school's co-op work experience program (turns a 4 year degree into 5 years: 4 years of courses + 1 year of research work plus summers doing research). I put it there because it shows up as a notation on my degree but also to explain the extra year (and to emphasize research experience).

So I think having something like that along with your school info is fine. If you list your study abroad, I don't think it's necessary to put it as a course number. You can just say "including Study Abroad semester at Foreign University". Technically the four semesters of co-op were course numbers too but I didn't include them.
 

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

1 minute ago, TakeruK said:

I did list my thesis work when applying to grad schools. In my field, it doesn't matter if it is related to what you are applying to for grad school. First, because the grad schools care about the fact that we have had research experience, and less about specifically what we did (after all, whatever we do in PhD programs will overshadow earlier work anyways). Second, my field is a multidisciplinary one, where we have people going into Planetary Science from Astronomy, Physics, Math, Geology, Biology, or Chemistry.

So, my education section looked something like this when I applied:

2010-present: MSc, University of Awesome
                         Thesis advisor: Prof. Awesome, Title: Awesome studies of Awesome stuff

2005-2010: BSc, University of Spicy Foods
                     Thesis advisor: Prof. Chili, Title: Chemical reactions of spicy peppers
 

Thanks! As soon as I hit "send" I realized I should list mine. Thanks for the format advice - I'll do that.

[TakeruK]

1 minute ago, a_sort_of_fractious_angel said:

Thanks! As soon as I hit "send" I realized I should list mine. Thanks for the format advice - I'll do that.

I hit "send" too soon and had to edit the response to add another line, sorry for any confusion!

[TwirlingBlades]

I similarly did a short winter term trip (where I completed my senior capstone) when I was in undergrad. I put it under education.

I formatted it as:

Study Abroad • January 2016

Completed Senior Capstone

• description of trip, including destinations and activities

This was the last thing listed under education. I did my undergrad and (currently doing) masters at the same institution, so the university was implied. You could put the university next to the date if you wanted to.

Edited November 25, 2017 by TwirlingBlades

[ClassicsCandidate]

Since I studied abroad multiple times to different countries, I had a "study abroad experience" subsection under my education, which seemed to work out fine for me.