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Harvard-style resume template

The Harvard-style resume is a plain, one-page format taught by many US career offices: your name centred at the top, education first while you are a student, then experience, leadership and skills, each with dates on the right. This page opens the Ivy template with a made-up graduate example on US Letter paper. It follows the conventions of published career-office guides and is not affiliated with Harvard University.

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How the format is laid out

  • Name centred, with one line of contact details beneath it
  • Education first while you study or in your first year after graduating
  • Experience in reverse date order, with dates aligned to the right
  • Short bullet points that start with a verb and show a result
  • Leadership and activities as their own section
  • Skills and interests on two or three lines at the end
  • One page, black text, no photo and no personal pronouns

The example resume

Every person, employer and figure in it is made up. Press Open this example in the tool above, or pick it under New resume, then replace each detail with your own.

Emily Carter

Economics Graduate

[email protected] · +1 617 555 0142 · Boston, MA · linkedin.com/in/emily-carter-example

Summary

Economics graduate with research and internship experience in consumer finance. Comfortable with large data sets, careful with detail, and able to explain a model to people who do not build them. Ready to grow as an analyst in a team that values clear thinking.

Education

BA Economics, minor in Statistics, Bayview University · Boston, MA · Sep 2021 – May 2025

  • GPA 3.8 of 4.0; Dean's List for six semesters
  • Thesis: How price comparison sites change grocery spending
  • Relevant courses: Econometrics, Corporate Finance, Machine Learning for Economists

Experience

Summer Analyst, Harbor Lane Bank · Boston, MA · Jun 2024 – Aug 2024

  • Built a loan pricing model in Excel used by a team of 12
  • Presented the findings of 40 customer interviews to the head of product
  • Cut a weekly risk report from three hours to 40 minutes with a short Python script
  • Checked 2,000 loan files against new pricing rules and flagged 37 for a second review

Research Assistant, Bayview University, Department of Economics · Boston, MA · Jan 2023 – May 2024

  • Cleaned and merged survey data for 3,000 households in R
  • Wrote the data appendix for a working paper
  • Ran 25 robustness checks that the professor presented at a conference

Peer Tutor, Bayview University Learning Center · Boston, MA · Sep 2022 – Dec 2023

  • Tutored about 15 students a week in introductory statistics and microeconomics

Leadership and activities

Treasurer, Bayview Investment Club · Sep 2022 – May 2025

  • Managed a $25,000 student fund and reported its results every term
  • Grew membership from 30 to 75 students in two years

Volunteer Tax Preparer, Community tax help clinic · Jan 2024 – Apr 2024

  • Prepared 45 simple tax returns for local families under supervision

Skills and interests

Technical: Excel, R, Python, SQL, Stata, Tableau

Languages: English (native), Spanish (conversational)

Interests: Distance running, Chess, Cooking for friends

Why this plain format still works

Recruiters at banks, consultancies and large companies often see hundreds of student resumes for a single programme. A layout everyone knows lets them find the school, the grades and the most recent role in seconds, and the same plain structure reads cleanly in screening software. The style puts the effort into the words rather than the design: specific verbs, numbers where you have them and no filler.

Writing bullet points in the Harvard style

Each line answers what you did, how, and what came of it. 'Built a loan pricing model in Excel used by a team of 12' tells the reader more than 'Responsible for pricing analysis'. Use the past tense for past roles and the present tense for a current one, keep most lines to a single row, and drop words such as I, my and responsible for. Two to four lines per role are enough on a student resume.

Moving from student to experienced format

Once you have a year or two of full-time work, move Experience above Education and trim the school details to the degree, the university and the year. Coursework, clubs and an average GPA can go. Keep to one page until you have roughly ten years of experience, which matches what most US recruiters expect.

Yale, law school and other Ivy-style resumes

Career offices at Yale, Princeton and many other universities teach a similar plain, one-page layout, so this template suits their students too. Law school applications usually ask for the same kind of resume, with education first and every job and activity dated; follow the school’s own instructions on length. The template is not affiliated with any university.

Applying in the UK instead? Use the UK CV template

Questions

Is this the official Harvard template?

No. Harvard's career office publishes its own guides for its students, and this template follows the same widely taught conventions. It is not made, checked or endorsed by Harvard University, and you do not need to have studied there to use the format.

Should I include my GPA?

Many students list it when it strengthens the application, and some employers ask for it on the form anyway. If you leave it off, expect to be asked and have the number ready. After your first full-time job it usually comes off the resume.

Can a Harvard-style resume be two pages?

For students and recent graduates, keep it to one page; that is the point of the format. Experienced professionals and academics may need two pages or a full academic CV, which the Scholar template here is designed for.

Will this format pass an applicant tracking system?

It is one of the safer formats: one column, real text, standard headings and a date on every entry. Run the resume score after editing to check the details, and download the plain PDF if a job site has trouble reading your file.