When creating a resume, experience, and skills are often highlighted. However, it’s important to remember that your educational background is also essential. Specific courses of study and levels of education are required for specific jobs.
Correctly listing your educational qualifications, such as a seminar you’ve attended, or a course or certification you’ve completed, shows that you have the training and, therefore, the skills you need.
Arguably the most influential titles you can will be a diploma or degree.
So if you’re interested in applying for a job fresh out of college should you add your degree to your resume?
It’s definitely a great option. Having a degree or diploma says something about you as a future employee – you had the determination and perseverance to complete multiple years of study.
In fact, according to the BLS, median usual weekly earnings increase based on the level of education completed, which you can see in the graph below:
That’s why it’s essential to know how to list your bachelor or master’s degree on your resume along with any other title.
Follow our tips below and examples of degrees in a resume to understand the best ways to add your qualifications and stand out when looking for some of the most in-demand jobs out there.
How to Write a Degree on a Resume
Many types of degrees exist, but the same basic format is used for each in your resume education section.
You’ll need to include the following details to display your credentials in an organized manner:
- Name of the school
- Location of the school
- Type of degree earned
- Major
You can also choose to list the year you graduated. However, depending on when you finished college, it may be better to add it or leave it out.
If you have more than 5 years of experience, you don’t need to list the year you graduated in your resume.
Remember to include the city and state when you mention the location or country if you studied abroad.
Try our intelligent resume builder to ensure that these details stay organized in your application. Nothing looks worse than a sloppy education section.
How to List Different Degrees on a Resume
You may think that having more than one college degree is automatically a positive and will look good no matter what.
It’s fantastic that you can display your advanced knowledge, but having the right plan in place for listing your degrees on a resume is critical.
To effectively add your well-deserved degrees you should:
- List your degrees in reverse chronological order
- Place your highest level of education at the top of your education section and continue from there
- Separate your double majors with an & symbol to avoid clutter
Remember to include any noteworthy honors or distinctions along with your degrees, especially if they’re relevant to the position you are applying to.
Here’s an example of how to list a bachelor of science degree on a resume:
Education:
Master of Business Administration, Focus on Finance, Ivy League University, 2023
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Double Major: Marketing, Management, State University, 2020
- Relevant Coursework: Strategic Marketing, Operations Management, Organizational Behavior
- Achievements: Graduated Cum Laude, President of the Business Club (2019-2020)
How to Write Your Associate’s Degree on a Resume and Impress Employers
While it may take less time to get an associate’s degree is nothing to look over, especially on a resume.
That means you’ll need to highlight your achievements, just like on bachelor’s or master’s degrees.
Generally, you will record your associate’s degree in the format of the example below:
Education:
Associate of Applied Science in Graphic Design, Springfield Community College, 2021
- Relevant Coursework: Digital Illustration, Typography, Web Design
- Honors: Graduated with Distinction
As a general rule, you should spell out the name of the degree rather than abbreviating it. This prevents confusion on the part of the recruiter.
If you’re running out of space on your one-page resume, you can opt to abbreviate. These are common associate’s degree abbreviations and their meanings:
- AA means Associate in Arts
- AAB means Associate of Applied Business
- AAS means Associate in Applied Science
- AAT means Associate of Arts in Teaching
- ABA means Associate of Business Administration
- AS means Associate in Science
Depending on your college, your degree may be called “Associate of” or “Associate in.” Double-check to make sure you are using the correct terminology. Also, never write “Associate’s Degree” on your resume.
It should always be listed as the proper degree name, without an apostrophe “s”.
How to List Bachelor’s Degree on a Resume
A bachelor’s degree is an undergraduate degree that takes four or more years of study. As like an associate’s degree, you will list your degree with the years you were in school, the university name, the city, and state, the type of degree, and the subject of study. Here’s an example:
Bachelor of Science in Marketing, Magna Cum Laude, University of Michigan, 2021
- Major: Marketing, Minor: Communication Studies
- Relevant Coursework: Consumer Behavior, Digital Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media Marketing
Remember to spell out the name of your degree rather than abbreviating it. If you need an abbreviation to save space, you can use BA for Bachelor of Arts or BS for Bachelor of Science. Additional, less common abbreviations include:
- B.A. for Bachelor of Arts
- Bach. Sci., B.Sc., S.B., B.S., BCs for Bachelor of Science
- BJHum for Bachelor of Journalism and Humanities
- BMPD for Bachelor of Media Production and Design
- BMusA for Bachelor of Musical Arts
- BPAPM for Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management
- BScFS for Bachelor of Science in Forensic Science.
Before using any of these uncommon abbreviations, think seriously about whether the meaning will be clear to your hiring manager.
Again, you won’t be using an apostrophe. It’s “Bachelor of” not “Bachelor’s.” As with the high school diploma, you can also cite your GPA if it was above 3.5 and include any distinctions, such as graduating Cum Laude.
How to Include Unfinished Degrees on a Resume
What if you are currently working on your degree, but have not yet graduated?
An in-progress degree on a resume doesn’t look bad at all so go ahead and add it!
List it similarly, with your expected graduation date on your resume as the closing year.
If you list a future date, your hiring manager will understand it is your expected graduation date. Optionally, following the listing, you can place the words “Expected graduation in [year]”.
What if you worked hard in college but did not finish your degree?
Don’t worry! Life happens. This experience can still be placed on your resume. You can still list your relevant classes and focus on the transferable skills you picked up while studying.
Consider this unfinished degree on resume example:
Education:
2019-2022
Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN
Completed 48 credits toward a Bachelor of Arts in English
How to List a Master’s Degree on a Resume
Once you’ve obtained a bachelor’s degree, you might get a master’s degree. These graduate degrees usually require two additional years of study.
Always list your master’s degree first and your bachelor’s degree second.
Like previously discussed degrees, your master’s degree listing will include the standard format, meaning dates, the institution’s name, etc.
If you need to abbreviate, the following are common master’s degree abbreviations:
- A.M., M.A., or MA for Master of Arts
- M.B.A. or MBA for Master of Business Administration
- M.E., ME, MEng, or M.Eng. for Master of Engineering
- M.Ed. or MEd for Master of Education
- M.S., MS, M.Sc., or MSc for Master of Science
- M.S.Met. for Master of Science in Metallurgical Engineering
How to Add a Ph.D. to a Resume
If you have a Ph.D. it will look fantastic on your resume or CV, especially if you are looking for a position in the field of education.
Having a Ph.D. in a field that values it will help your application big time.
However, if you are applying to a field that is unrelated to your Ph.D. no need to show it off that much.
But let’s say your Ph.D. is relevant to the position. Where should you place it?
Since it’s the highest distinction you can earn in education, you’ll want to place your Ph.D. at the top of your education section, and even show it off in your summary.
Here’s how it should look when written on a resume:
Education:
Ph.D. in Computer Science, Focus on Artificial Intelligence, ABC Institute, 2019
- Dissertation: “Deep Learning Approaches to Natural Language Processing”
- Advisor: Dr. John Doe
- Research Interests: Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Sentiment Analysis
- Publications: 3 peer-reviewed articles published in leading journals
- Teaching Experience: Graduate Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Programming, Prestigious Institute (2019-2021)
- Awards: Best Paper Award, International Conference on Machine Learning (2022)
How to List a High School Diploma
If you’ve only completed high school, don’t worry; your education section can still shine! A large portion of the U.S. job market only has a high school diploma to their name.
However, there are a couple of questions you should ask yourself before including your high school diploma:
- What if you received a General Education Development Diploma or a General Education Development Certificate (GED)?
- Should you list your high school education on your resume if you have later degrees?
Firstly, a GED is the equivalent of a high school diploma, and it should be listed similarly.
Secondly, If you have just one additional degree, you can also list your high school. Remember to place the college degree first and the high school diploma second, following the reverse chronological order.
Listing your high school information is unnecessary if you have multiple graduate and undergraduate degrees.
Variations in Listing Your Degrees
Now that we’ve looked at how to list each type of degree, let’s look at some acceptable variations.
First, you don’t always have to list all the years you attended a college in [Year-Year] style. It’s also okay to list the year you graduated.
You can also adjust the order of the listing if you want to emphasize what you studied rather than when you graduated.
This is especially helpful if you completed your education many years ago. You can replace the year, school/place, and degree order with a degree, school, and year order. Here’s an example of what that might look like:
[Type of Degree] in [Subject]
[University Name, City, State]
[Graduation Year]
You can also do this if you’re still working on your degree. Then, it will look like this:
[Type of Degree] in [Subject]
[University Name, City, State]
Expected Graduation in [Year]
The important thing is that you maintain the same format throughout your resume.
In Conclusion
Having the right education can mean the difference between getting your desired job and missing out. Therefore, it is essential to master listing your degrees in your resume education section.
Whether you need to list a high school diploma, GED, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or Ph.D., the steps are the same.
Remember to always list your education in reverse chronological order, placing the most recent achievements – and the highest degrees – first. It’s up to you to place the education section before or after the work experience section.
Your choice should depend on how much experience you have (sometimes you can even omit several positions from your resume), as education is great for new applications, and if education is more pertinent to the position.
In either case, you can use a resume template and these tips to ensure you create a stand-out application.
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