CV for Grad School Applications: CV vs Resume

CV for Grad School Applications: CV vs Resume

Upload what the slot asks for, built around the contents the program lists. Of seven graduate programs checked on October 30, 2026, none sets a page limit for the CV or resume, five list the contents it should include, and one, Penn Biomedical Graduate Studies, says "Please do not include GPA or Latin honors".

The CV templates that come up for this search are built for job seekers and faculty candidates, with sections for grants, teaching philosophy and service that an applicant cannot fill. The result is a padded document that hides the one thing an admissions committee reads it for: what research or professional work you have done, and your role in it. This page shows what programs actually ask, the order to use for a PhD or a professional master's, what to cut, and a constructed sample for an applicant with no publications.

Every program page quoted below was checked on October 30, 2026. Application instructions can change during a cycle, so reread your program's page before you upload.

What seven programs actually ask for

Read across the rows and three facts settle most of the formatting questions:

• The label does not decide the format. Six of the seven slots say "CV" and "resume" interchangeably. CMU MHCI asks only for a resume. Nobody asks for an "academic CV" by that name.
• The lists overlap. Education, work experience, publications and honors appear on all five content lists, and research experience on four. Build those sections first.
• The exceptions are specific. Penn excludes GPA and Latin honors. UW asks for volunteer, community and diversity-related activities with organization, title and dates. Princeton SPIA asks for annotation. UIUC uses the document to identify candidates for research and teaching assistantships.

CV or resume: decide by program type, not the label

Our view: choose the document by what the program trains you to do, then follow the program's list.

The basis is the program pages above. Princeton SPIA asks for enough detail that "the admissions committee has an accurate picture of the applicant’s professional trajectory — such as promotions or job progression, leadership profile, and impact." UIUC says the document "helps when identifying M.S. or Ph.D. applicants for RA and TA assistantships." Both tell you what the reader is looking for, so put it where it is seen first.

The countercase: if you have no research and apply to a research PhD, a research-first layout leaves an empty top section. Lead with the closest evidence you have, such as a thesis, a capstone or a technical role, and label it accurately. Do not rename coursework "research".

Section order for a PhD applicant CV

This order is our recommendation. It puts the items that CMU SCS, UIUC and UW all list near the top.

List the paper you upload as your sample on the CV under its course or thesis; the writing sample guide covers length and excerpts.

1. Education. Institution, degree, dates. Add your thesis title and adviser if you wrote one. Add GPA only if the program does not exclude it; Penn BGS does.
2. Research experience. One entry per project: title or topic, lab or PI, dates, your role, and one line on what you did and found. This is the section a PhD reader looks for first.
3. Publications and manuscripts. List only what exists, with its real status. Our guide to listing papers under review on a PhD CV covers the labels.
4. Presentations and posters.
5. Honors and awards. Scholarships and prizes appear on the CMU SCS list. Leave out Latin honors for Penn BGS.
6. Teaching and mentoring. TA work, tutoring, lab training you gave.
7. Technical skills and languages. Methods, instruments, programming languages. Keep it to what you could discuss in an interview.
8. Work experience, service and activities. Include volunteer and community roles with organization, title and dates when the program asks for them, as UW does.

What to delete from faculty-job CV templates

These sections come from templates written for faculty hiring. Our recommendation: cut them or merge them, because an applicant cannot fill them honestly and an empty section reads as padding.

• Teaching philosophy or teaching interests. Keep actual teaching under "Teaching and mentoring". Drop statements about courses you would like to teach.
• Grants as PI, and funding history. List scholarships and fellowships you received under honors.
• University service committees. Keep community service and student roles where the program lists them. Drop an empty "Service" heading.
• "References available on request." Your recommenders are entered in the application portal.
• Research statement summaries. Your research story goes in the SOP or a research statement, not on the CV.
• Professional memberships with no activity. CMU SCS lists "society memberships", so keep a membership if you did something in it. Otherwise cut it.

Resume version for a professional master's

Professional master's readers want scope, decisions and results per role. Princeton SPIA's instruction, though written for its PhD, states it plainly: "Include a brief annotation of job responsibilities, leadership, and awards."

Constructed example: one resume entry, before and after

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant résumé.

Before:

Data Analyst, Northfield Transit Authority, 2023–2026. Responsible for reports. Worked with the planning team. Used SQL and Tableau.

After:

Data Analyst, Northfield Transit Authority, 2023–2026. Built the weekly ridership report used by a six-person planning team; replaced a manual spreadsheet process with SQL queries. Promoted to lead analyst in 2025 and trained two new hires.

The revision names the scope (a six-person team), the decision (replacing a manual process) and the progression (a promotion and training), which are the three things Princeton's instruction names. It invents no metrics. If you do not know a number, leave it out.

Constructed sample: PhD applicant CV with no publications

Context (invented): a biology graduate applying to life-science PhD programs, with two research projects and no papers. The layout follows the section order above.

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant CV.

ANANYA RAO
ananya.rao@example.edu · Riverbend, OH
 
EDUCATION
B.S. Biology, Riverbend State University, 2022–2026
  Honors thesis: "Temperature effects on zebrafish fin regeneration"
  Adviser: Dr. S. Menon
 
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Undergraduate Researcher, Menon Lab, Riverbend State, Jan 2024–May 2026
  - Designed and ran a 12-week temperature series on fin regrowth
    (own project, honors thesis)
  - Imaged and measured 140 fins; wrote the analysis scripts in R
  - Found no growth difference at 24 vs 28 °C; reported the null result
    and a revised protocol at the department symposium
 
Summer Research Intern, Coastal Genomics Program, Jun–Aug 2025
  - Prepared sequencing libraries for a 40-sample marine microbe survey
    (team project, five interns; I handled extraction QC)
 
PRESENTATIONS
  Poster, Riverbend State Undergraduate Research Day, April 2026
 
HONORS
  Departmental Research Scholarship, 2025
 
TEACHING AND MENTORING
  Peer tutor, Introductory Biology lab, 2024–2026 (4 hours/week)
  Trained two new lab members on imaging protocol, 2025
 
SKILLS
  Zebrafish husbandry, fluorescence microscopy, R, basic Python
 
WORK
  Pharmacy technician, part-time, 2022–2026

What carries the weight. The research entries do the job a publication list would do. Each says whose lab, how long, whether the project was the applicant's own or a team's, what she personally did, and what came of it, including a null result. That matches what CMU SCS, UIUC and UW list. The GPA line is absent, which keeps the same file usable for Penn BGS. The pharmacy job stays because it explains the work hours; it goes last because it is not research.

Check the CV against your SOP

The CV lists; the statement of purpose argues. CMU MHCI says it directly: "Rather than summarizing your résumé, focus on the experiences, decisions, and lessons that have shaped your perspective and aspirations."

Run this check before you upload either document:

1. Every project named in your SOP appears on the CV, with the same title, dates and role.
2. No CV entry claims more than the SOP does. If the SOP says "I assisted", the CV cannot say "I led".
3. Manuscript status matches across the CV, the SOP and the application form.
4. The SOP explains, not repeats. If a paragraph in your SOP could be rebuilt from the CV alone, it is a list. Our guide to an SOP that reads like your résumé shows how to turn it into an argument.

Questions about grad school CVs

How long should a CV for grad school be?

None of the seven programs above sets a page limit. Length should follow evidence. Our view: if you are applying from a bachelor's degree, one or two pages should hold everything you have, and a page of empty headings is worse than a short page.

Should I put my GPA on my grad school CV?

Only if the program does not exclude it. Penn Biomedical Graduate Studies asks you not to include GPA or Latin honors. Some applications collect GPA in the form itself; Princeton SPIA, for example, asks for the grade point average from each degree-granting program in the application.

Is a resume or a CV better for a master's application?

Follow the slot. CMU MHCI asks for a resume. For a professional master's, a resume that shows scope and results per role usually serves the reader better than a long academic CV. For a thesis master's, use the research-first order.

Should the CV be a PDF?

Yes. UW iSchool asks you to "Upload a PDF", and CMU MHCI asks for "PDF format". Whether you write it in LaTeX or a word processor does not matter once it is a PDF.

Should I include high school activities or a photo?

Our recommendation: no to both for US programs. None of the seven pages asks for either, and high school entries take space from your university work. If a paper is accepted after you submit, the CV you already sent may not be replaceable; see how to update a grad application with a new paper.

Get a free review of your statement of purpose

Get a free Quick Review of your PhD statement of purpose against GradPilot's PhD SOP rubric, the document your CV supports. GradPilot has no CV rubric, so review the SOP against the CV you just built. The rubric reads for a clear research direction, how your prior work prepared you for it, and your own role in that work. Applying to a master's? Use the MS statement of purpose rubric or start from the master's SOP review. If your program reads the SOP as a research record, the Research Dossier read checks whether you list labs and awards without showing what you did.

More guides for the same application:

• How to ask for a letter of recommendation for grad school: the CV is the first item in the packet you send.
• Research statement example for a PhD application: where the research story goes when the program asks for it separately.
• Statement of purpose for a master's: the full master's SOP guide.
• All graduate school essay guides.

Sources

Retrieved October 30, 2026 (UTC), except where noted.

• University of Illinois Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, Applications Process and Requirements (no year stated): CV/resume contents and assistantship use.
• Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, Graduate Admissions (no year stated): resume contents.
• Carnegie Mellon HCII, MHCI Admissions (current cycle): resume contents, PDF, SOP instruction.
• University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Graduate Studies, PhD Application Information (Fall 2027): no GPA or Latin honors.
• University of Washington Information School, Ph.D. Application Materials (Autumn 2027): résumé or CV contents and format.
• Princeton SPIA, Ph.D. Application (deadline December 1, 2026): résumé contents, annotation, GPA field.
• MIT Department of Economics, PhD Admissions (September 2027 start): Resume/CV requirement and suggested contents.