The high school résumé is a bit different in that you probably don't have any degrees to list or many jobs to write down. Nonetheless, the résumé is vital for communicating your abilities in a concise and clear manner. I would like to share with you what I found to be an effective résumé style.

You should begin with basic contact information: name, address, phone number (home and mobile), and email. Next, include information about your high school, its address, and the contact info for your college counselors (phone numbers).

The following section should be about academics (e.g. "Academic Profile"). Include your GPA, how its scaled, and whether its weighted (e.g. 4.0 on a 4.0 scale (un-weighted)). If you have Latin honors like summa cum laude, include those, along with your best standardized test scores and AP/IB exam results.

Subsequently, you can have a section just on "Honors and Awards," which can cover your most impressive accolades across all topics (not just academic). Include the year of your award but don't write a paragraph about each award. At most you can write about how selective the award was (e.g. only 100 people in the nation received it).

At this point, I begin to talk about more specifics, starting with the "Leadership" section. Here you can talk about your involvement with student government or certain clubs. You may need a brief (short!) description of your actual duties. "Community service" can follow with a description of what you've done for the society along with any recognitions that you have received as a result. "Music and Arts" and "Athletics" are similar specific sections that detail your activities therein.

You should also include a section on "Work experience," with your job title, job location, # of hours per week, and the timeframe of your work. If there are still other aspects that have not been covered, you may consider putting an "Other interests" category, but you don't want to pile too much irrelevant information. Finally, it may be helpful if you put a section on "Media" of you (e.g. reports in the local newspaper).

Remember to keep your résumé short - 2-3 pages maximum. The document will serve you well not only in college applications, but also if you apply for scholarships, summer internships, and a variety of other activities!