Student Athlete Resume Example

If you’re a student athlete, there’s a good chance you may not have much (or any) professional experience yet.

Don’t sweat though — you can play to your strengths and impress potential employers by writing an effective student athlete resume that emphasizes your skills and educational background.

Learn how to make a student athlete resume using three helpful writing tips below so you can receive more interviews.

1. Write a strong education section for your student athlete resume

Even if you don’t have a lot of work experience, you can make your student athlete resume stand out to potential employers by writing a descriptive resume education section.

Here are three ways to enhance your student athlete resume’s education section:

Include your GPA

If your GPA is 3.5 or higher, adding it to your student athlete resume is a great way to show hiring managers you’re motivated and capable of producing excellent work.

Maintaining a high GPA throughout school while balancing sports competitions and school tasks shows employers you’re a dedicated and responsible student.

Also, when including your GPA on your resume, clearly label it after listing the name of your degree.

Have a look at our student athlete’s education section, with their GPA listed on a separate line:

Bachelor of Science, Metropolitan State University of Denver
Major: Business Administration
magna cum laude (GPA 3.6/4.0)

Add honors and academic awards

Including honors (with distinction, cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude) and awards on your resume (like making the Dean’s list) shows you’re a high achiever and helps make up for a lack of professional experience.

List your honors and awards directly in your education section, or create a separate section for them.

If you do include Latin honors in your student athlete resume’s education section, follow these tips to ensure proper formatting:

• list Latin honors on their own line below your degree
• write your honors next to the name of your degree (separated by a comma)
• ensure the honors you list are uncapitalized and in italics

Here’s an example of a candidate who listed their honors below their degree:

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
magna cum laude (3.7/4.0)
May 2020

You can also list honors next to your degree, like this applicant did:

Bachelor of Science in Engineering, magna cum laude (3.8/4.0)
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
May 2021

If you choose to include honors and awards in a separate section, simply list your honors in a bulleted list along with your other awards.

Here’s an example of a candidate who included a separate honors and awards section:

HONORS

• Honors: summa cum laude
• Dean’s List at Columbia University (Last 4 semesters)
• Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society

2. Add relevant coursework to your student athlete resume

If you’re a recent graduate or have minimal professional work experience, including any relevant coursework on your resume helps to fill up space while highlighting the skills and knowledge you gained from your studies.

To include classes you’ve completed in your education section, write “Relevant Coursework” beneath the degree name, and then separate the titles of the courses with commas, like this student athlete applicant did:

If you have extra space to fill, try formatting your relevant coursework as a bulleted list with each course on its own line, like the example below:

Bachelor of Arts in History
Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 2021

Relevant Coursework:

• American History
• European History
• Non-Western History
• Western Tradition of Justice and the Law

2. Make sure your student athlete resume is one page

When you’re new to the workforce, knowing what to put on your resume as well as how long your student athlete resume should be can be challenging.

Remember to keep your student athlete resume as concise as possible when writing each part of your resume to keep your resume length at one page.

3. Emphasize your soft skills

Employers seek student athletes who have good soft skills (or character traits). Listing your soft skills on your student athlete resume informs hiring managers how well you work with others in professional settings.

And as the workforce continues to evolve, employers increasingly recognize the value of soft skills, so take the time to research which soft skills will be most relevant to the industry you’re aiming to work in.

Below are several soft skills for your student athlete resume:

Also, don’t forget to include your hard skills. You’ve likely learned hard skills from taking university classes or from practical experience. A good example of hard skills for student athletes is planning group transportation for tournaments. If you’ve done that, you can list your event coordination skills when you make your resume.

Here are some other hard skills for student athletes:

• Writing and editing
• Microsoft Office 365 (Word/PowerPoint)
• Google Workspace
• Research
• Adobe Photoshop
• Email (Gmail, Outlook)