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10 Ways to Build a Standout High School Resume in 2024

Writer's picture: Matt McGeeMatt McGee

Stop me if you’ve heard his before: 


“If you want to get into a top college you’re going to need to keep your GPA as high as possible and make sure you do well on the SAT. Take AP classes and find a great tutor so you get an A. Do as much test prep as you can and take the SAT multiple times.” 


This is all actually sound advice. The problem is that you already knew it. 


It takes less than a Google search to know that you’re going to need a high GPA and test scores to get into a top university. While doing so will likely give you a solid foundation for getting into a great school, not going further to distinguish yourself will leave the success of your application to chance. 


You’ll become one of the thousands of students with a perfect GPA and SAT score applying to one of the hundreds of spots at an Ivy Plus University. 


So what can you do? 


Well, you’re in the right place. 


In this blog, I’m going to outline 10 ways beyond your GPA and SAT score that you can build the perfect high school resume that will have college admissions officers bragging to their colleagues about you. 


  1. Don’t just do any extracurriculars, do the right extracurriculars. 

One of the most common questions I get asked as an admissions counselor is about which extracurriculars to get involved in. While the answer isn’t as straightforward as choosing activity X over activity Y, it is still a relatively simple answer: Go deeper, not wider.

While you should have more than 1 or 2 extracurriculars, you should aim to be more involved in the ones you are genuinely interested in rather than trying to get involved in as many as possible. Bonus points if this extracurricular is related to your intended major. Colleges want to see direction and passion. Use your extracurriculars to show you’re plotting a specific path through life.


2.  Create Leadership Opportunities 

Top colleges want leaders! They want people who are putting in the work to excel in whatever field they’re in. They’re looking for initiative and proactivity. The only thing they want more than people who stand out from the crowd are people who lead the crowd. This is where you can leverage your extracurriculars. Become a team captain, organize fundraisers, do more than what everyone else is doing.

Volunteering for a noble organization is great. Volunteering one summer to then become a volunteer coordinator the next summer is even better. It shows passion, direction, and initiative. Anyone can sign up for an organization, but only a few will show they have the necessary skills and character to lead one. 


3. Pursue Research Opportunities 

Chances are you already know about this one since you’re reading this on the Lumiere Blog, but research opportunities are an excellent way to bolster your high school resume. Nothing shouts “my academic capabilities go well beyond traditional markers” quite like a well-qualified research opportunity. 

But remember, colleges want depth on your application, not quantity, so you get bonus points if you can tie your research to your statement of purpose, intended major or other significant life event. 

Once you’ve completed the research, you’ll want to go beyond the experience and networking that these opportunities provide. What can you do with the research? Can you submit to an academic journal? Being one of the few high school students published in an academic journal can go a long way in the mind of an admissions officer


4. Create Meaningful & Diverse Experiences 

Top colleges don’t want to have a campus full of students who all have the same background and outlook on life. They want a campus with diverse perspectives, full of people who will challenge and complement each other. You must create diverse and meaningful experiences so admissions officers won’t see you as just another student.

The tricky part is that diverse & meaningful experiences mean different things to different people. So you’ll have to seek out experiences that will affect you - and be proactive about how it can transform your perspective on life. What could qualify as a Meaningful or Diverse Experience? Here are a few examples from students I’ve worked with in the past: 

  • One student spent her summer vacation taking a camper-van from Los Angeles through the Yukon Territory to Alaska and back.

  • Another student volunteering with his youth group, built houses with mosquito nets in sub-saharan Africa.

  • A third student started and scaled his own woodworking business. 

  • A fourth spent 6 weeks photographing the aftermath of the 2020 wildfires and was later published in her local newspaper.

Diverse and meaningful experiences are important not only in showing schools you’re an individual with a unique perspective, they also give you an opportunity to show how you’ve grown and they make great fodder for personal statements.


5. Get an Internship 

What better way to involve yourself in something beyond school than by getting involved in the workforce?


Internships can even have the added benefit of providing a little pay. The key to finding a good internship is to get involved in something you care about or major. If you’re interested in Law and writing, an internship at a law firm is going to be more fruitful and enjoyable than if you get one at a tech startup. 


Finding internships in high school can require some creativity, but there are options out there. You can use a service like Ladder Internships, which helps customize an internship experience for you. You could also use your network - ask your parents, friends’ parents, teachers, and coaches. You can also reach out to local businesses that are within your field of interest. You might get a lot of ‘no’ but it only takes one ‘yes’ to land a solid internship that you’re interested in!

 

6. Highlight Your Adversity

Despite the end of race-based admissions, schools are still trying to make sure that they are admitting diverse, well-rounded classes. One of the keys to this is giving advantages to students who have faced significant adversity. So even if you were born with a metaphorical silver spoon in your mouth, lean into your adversity. 

Everyone has had some sort of adversity in life, what is yours? 

Maybe you lost a loved one, struggled with mental health, or had other circumstances you had to overcome. Leaning into your adversity isn’t about creating a boo-hoo, woe-is-me story. Instead, it is about showing universities that when you face obstacles you find a way through them and grow in the process. Colleges love initiative and perseverance. Show them yours by showing them your adversity and how you emerged from it as a better person, a better student, and a better member of society. 


7. A Unique Contribution

A unique contribution can be one of the most helpful tools for getting you into a top school. You’re probably wondering, what even is a unique contribution. ‘Unique contribution’ is a term I coined at MRM Education to describe any specific creation or action, preferably not scholastic, a student takes which constitutes a meaningful contribution to their community or society at large. 


My favorite example of this is a student who was accepted to MIT with a subpar GPA because he had pioneered a primitive AI system that helped patrons of his local library find relevant books. On paper, he wasn’t qualified to get into MIT, but the uniqueness and usefulness of his contribution showed intelligence, ingenuity, and perseverance that his grades did not. Another student went on to study at Berkeley after discovering a species of fish thought to be extinct in that area, then worked with local scientists to study the implications. 


At the very least, unique contributions make you stand out. However, at their best, unique contributions allow colleges a glimpse into your future. One that has admissions officers daydreaming about all that you’ll accomplish and how their schools can boast about themselves as the alma mater of the next great engineer, scientist, activist or artist.  


8. Focus on Non-Scholastic Achievements 

If I could change one thing on every student’s college application that I’ve worked on, I would add more non-scholastic activities. 


Almost every student we work with comes to us with all sorts of academic awards and achievements thinking that it’s setting them apart when instead it is just making them look like they’re spending every waking minute of their life trying to get into college. 


Colleges want people, not academic machines.


Explore your options outside of what the school offers. This is your opportunity to diversify and, more importantly, it's your opportunity to get involved with some of your passions. 


9. Identify and Pursue Your Passions

You’ve probably noticed I keep coming back to your passion. It doesn’t matter whether it's extracurriculars, research, non-scholastic activities or something else - finding and cultivating experiences that you care about is essential to being the type of person that the best colleges want on their campus. They want people who will engage, inspire, challenge and ultimately, contribute to the micro-society they are creating on their campus. What will you contribute?


10. Create a Person, Not a Resume

The ultimate advice I would give someone trying to create the ideal high school resume is don’t create a resume. Colleges aren’t admitting a piece of a paper or a nebulous collection of scores, grades, and activities. They’re admitting a full 3 dimensional person that has interests, dreams, passions and goals


Don’t just aim to become the best student, aim instead to become the best person you can be. Creating a good resume is about being able to make yourself jump off the page. So get involved, be passionate, and work hard, but also live your life. Build relationships, read books, develop a skill, and have fun. 


You’re not a perfect SAT score, a 4.0 GPA, or a list of extracurriculars. You are a person who one day is going to contribute to society and change the world. Showcase that person to colleges and let your resume be the icing on the cake!


MRM Education provides personalized tutoring and elite college admissions advising to ensure each student reaches their academic goals and secures admission to their desired schools. Our tutors, mentors, and advisors focus on the unique needs of every student, fostering the long-term success and confidence necessary to build lasting academic excellence.



Matt McGee founded MRM Education after working as a private tutor and college admissions counselor for over a decade. An advocate of customizable, 1:1 education, his unique methods have helped students gain admission to MIT, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, Pomona, Williams, and other elite universities.


Image Source: MGM Education


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