A resume or CV (as it is called in India) is a brief written account of your educational, professional and extra curricular experiences in a one page document.
Most Indian students applying for study abroad, especially for an MS degree, do not understand the importance of a resume. A resume is a primary sales tool which consolidates your achievements so the admission officers can learn about you in a glance. It also helps you to stick to word limits your statement of purpose (SOP) by providing a second platform to list your achievements that do not fall in the SOP theme. Your resume should also reflect your academic interests and research abilities and an objective stating your goal of entering that school’s program.

Some of the common mistakes which students make while applying with regard to a resume are:

• Since many schools do not list the resume as a required document, many students do not send a resume along with their application. Make sure that you do send a resume even if it is not listed in the required documents. As mentioned, Resume is a sales tool that you cannot ignore.
• Most students send the same resume which they have been using for applying to jobs. Make sure that you use an US style Resume which is different than the traditional Curriculum Vitae that you used to get a job in India. An American Resume has a different layout format and does not include personal details like your father’s name, sex, date of birth, passport details, sibling details, semester wise academic table. You can check school site for resumes of their current students to get an idea of the layout to use.
• Most students also make the mistake of having a resume running into multiple pages. Let your resume be confined to 1 (max 2 pages)