A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Prepare A Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Curriculum Vitae (CV) is your personal brochure. It allows you to feature all the aspects that make you the optimum choice for any University. The Curriculum Vitae is listed as an admission requirement for all American universities. A Curriculum Vitae differs from a Resume. A Resume is more professionally focused, whereas a Curriculum Vitae for Masters is more academic-focused. In this guide, we will prepare your Curriculum Vitae (CV) from scratch. Even if you already have a good CV, we recommend you follow this guide to update it and tailor it to the requirements of the universities you apply to.
A Step-by-Step Guide on how to prepare a Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Curriculum Vitae (CV) is your personal brochure. It allows you to feature all the aspects that make you the optimum choice for any University. The Curriculum Vitae is listed as an admission requirement for all American universities. A Curriculum Vitae differs from a Resume. A Resume is more professionally focused, whereas a Curriculum Vitae for Masters is more academic-focused. In this guide, we will prepare your Curriculum Vitae (CV) from scratch. Even if you already have a good CV, we recommend you follow this guide to update it and tailor it to the requirements of the universities you apply to.
Before You Start
- Get all your academic certificates, achievements, medals, etc. in one place before you begin with the documentation to avoid forgetting to mention something important.
- Do some background check and determine what kind of candidate your target university is looking for. You can look at information like course details, research groups, professor profiles etc. For example, if you are applying for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Master's program at Georgia Tech, you might want to mention that summer internship at BSNL in your CV.
- A golden rule of any Curriculum Vitae (CV) is focusing on your achievements in academics over the professional ones. Professional experiences and achievements are also necessary, but make sure to throw more light on academic ones.
Reference Documents
- All the essential academic and extra-curricular achievement certificates.
- Your patents, publications, experience certificates, language certificates, training certificates, if any.
- Your Bachelors' Thesis and Capstone Project details.
Step by step guide on how to prepare a Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Several online tools are available that may be used to build your Curriculum Vitae.
- Check whether you want to build your CV for master’s in US from scratch or simply update your existing CV. Decide if you want to opt for online readymade templates or custom made on your PC.
- Include your personal information. Include/exclude some sections to suit your academic and job profile. Match the details to your target university profile.
- Limit the entire document to two pages.
- Once all the editing is done, verify whether you have entered the correct details. Save the document in its original format and as a PDF file.
Trivia
- In general, your CV should fit in two (A4) pages.
- The Admission officer will probably spend no more than 2 to 3 minutes scanning your Curriculum Vitae, so make sure it is organized, grammatically correct and easy to read.
- Do not forget to mention the timeline for different events in chronological order.
- In the US, it is often considered strange to have a photograph on your Curriculum Vitae. Unless explicitly mentioned, it would be recommended not to include your photograph.
