University resume templates: McCombs, Yale, Penn, Stanford, MIT

UT Austin McCombs resume format

McCombs School of Business

The undergraduate BBA program shares its resume template with its own students. We couldn't find a public copy; versions on document-sharing sites are unofficial and undated, so we don't rely on them.

The McCombs MBA program does publish a resume checklist. It prefers one page (two only with five or more years of experience), Calibri, Arial or Times New Roman at 10 to 12 pt, margins between half an inch and an inch, two to four bullets per role, and no objective statement, photos or graphics.

Official: BBA Career Management, MBA resume checklist (PDF)

Closest free template: Classic, education first, serif, one page; use Compact if you have five or more years of experience.

Yale resume format

Office of Career Strategy

Yale's Office of Career Strategy offers several resume templates as Word files: a general one, one with a summary section, and versions for creative fields and alumni. It says they're formatted to work with applicant tracking systems. Its bullet advice is action, project, result, with the result in numbers, and it notes that some careers call for a longer resume.

Official: Yale College resume templates, Writing impactful resume bullets

Closest free template: Classic, education first, then work and leadership, dates on the right.

Penn resume format

Career Services

Penn Career Services publishes an undergraduate resume guide with four templates and a checklist. Education comes first, experiences go newest first, and the resume stays on one page unless you're an alum with an advanced degree or substantial experience. To fit, it allows going down to 10 pt (no smaller) and slightly narrower margins; the guide and the checklist differ a little on the exact margin, so check both.

Official: Undergraduate resume templates, Undergraduate resume checklist

Closest free template: Student, education first, with room for activities and part-time jobs.

Stanford resume format

Career Education

Stanford Career Education shares its resume template and guides as public Google Docs. Its brief guide suggests 10 to 12 pt text (10.5 or more for smaller fonts like Times New Roman), a standard font such as Times New Roman, Calibri, Garamond or Arial, an optional summary, no first person, and your expected graduation date rather than your start date. It lists GPA only if it's above 3.5.

Official: Career Education resources

Closest free template: Plain, Arial, one column, optional summary at the top.

MIT resume format

Career Advising & Professional Development (CAPD)

MIT's CAPD publishes sample resumes rather than a template, and advises against templates because applicant tracking systems can have trouble reading them. Its checklist asks for a conservative font at 10 to 12 pt, margins between half an inch and an inch, one page unless you have extensive experience or an advanced degree, and no personal details like age or a photo on US resumes.

If you use any template, ours included, the thing to check is that it's one column of real text. That's exactly what we test for.

Official: Five steps to writing a great resume, Resume checklist, Sample resumes

Closest free template: Jake's, dense one-page layout favored for technical roles.

Harvard resume format

Mignone Center for Career Success

Harvard publishes a resume guide and bullet-point templates, with education first and short, verb-led bullets. We cover it in detail on its own page.

Official: Bullet point resume template

Closest free template: Harvard-style resume template, our Classic template, explained against Harvard's guide.