Leadership Brainery · Doctoral Guides
Academic CV Guide for Graduate Students
How to write an academic CV for graduate school — what to include, how it differs from a resume, and how to build one from scratch as a first-gen student.
Academic CV vs. Resume: The Core Difference
A resume is curated — you trim it to fit a job description. An academic CV is a complete scholarly record — you add to it, never cut it. There is no page limit. A sparse CV as a new graduate student is normal and expected; a padded CV with inflated entries is a credibility risk.
What Goes in Each Section
Standard sections appear in roughly this order. First- and second-year graduate students will have fewer sections — skip any section with no entries rather than leaving it blank.
Contact Information
Name, institutional email, personal website or ORCID, and mailing address. No photos, no personal social media.
Education
All degrees in reverse chronological order. Include degrees in progress with expected graduation year, dissertation title, and advisor name.
Publications
Peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, conference proceedings. Use your field's citation format. Bold or underline your name. Label under review and under revision separately.
Presentations
Conference papers (even refereed posters), invited talks, guest lectures. Include venue, city, and year for each.
Grants, Fellowships, and Awards
All external funding, fellowships, and competitive awards. Include the awarding institution, year, and amount where disclosed.
Research Experience
Named research positions, lab roles, independent study, archival projects. Include supervisor name and dates.
Teaching Experience
Teaching assistant roles, sole-instructor courses, tutoring with institutional affiliation. Include the course name, institution, and term.
Professional Service
Journal reviewing, conference organizing, departmental committee work, mentoring programs. Demonstrates citizenship in the discipline.
Skills
Programming languages, archival languages, statistical software, laboratory techniques, spoken languages and proficiency level.
How to Build Your Academic CV: 5 Steps
Set up the document
Open a clean document. Use a standard serif or sans-serif font (Georgia, Garamond, Calibri — nothing decorative), 10 to 12pt body text, 1-inch margins, and your name in 14 to 16pt at the top with contact information (email and website or ORCID).
Create the section structure
Create sections in this order: Education, Publications, Presentations, Awards and Fellowships, Research Experience, Teaching Experience, Professional Service, Skills. Skip empty sections — do not include section headers with no entries.
Fill in your education
Under Education, list all degrees in reverse chronological order. Include: degree, institution, expected or actual graduation year, dissertation or thesis title (in progress is fine), and advisor name for graduate degrees.
Format your publications
Under Publications, use your field's citation format consistently throughout the document. Underline or bold your name in each citation. List under review and under revision separately from published work, clearly labeled.
Maintain it continuously
Update the CV before every major application — fellowships, conferences, job applications. Do not wait until the deadline to remember what you have done. Keep a running list of every presentation, award, and publication the moment it happens.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an academic CV and how is it different from a resume?+
A resume is a 1 to 2 page document curated for a specific job, emphasizing skills and accomplishments relevant to that position. An academic CV (curriculum vitae) is a comprehensive record of your scholarly work — there is no page limit, and it grows over the course of your career. An academic CV includes education, publications, conference presentations, awards and fellowships, teaching experience, research positions, professional service, and skills. It is organized chronologically and reverse-chronologically by category, not curated for a specific audience. CVs are used for graduate school applications, academic job applications, fellowship applications, and conference submissions.
What sections does an academic CV include?+
Standard academic CV sections in approximate order: Contact information; Education (including degrees in progress — list the expected graduation year); Publications (peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, conference proceedings — use your field's citation format); Presentations (conference papers and invited talks); Grants, Fellowships, and Awards; Research Experience; Teaching Experience; Professional Service (journal reviewing, conference organizing, committee work); Professional Memberships; and Skills (languages, software, research methods). Not all sections are present on every CV — first- and second-year graduate students will have shorter CVs, which is expected.
How long should an academic CV be?+
There is no correct length — the CV is a complete record, not a curated highlight document. A first-year PhD student's CV may be 2 to 3 pages. A recently defended doctoral student may have a 4 to 6 page CV. A mid-career professor's CV may be 15 to 25 pages. The only rule is accuracy: include everything relevant and accurate, exclude nothing relevant out of false modesty, and include nothing inflated or inaccurate. For graduate school applications, committees expect shorter CVs from early-career applicants — a 2-page CV for a senior undergraduate is appropriate.
What publications go on a graduate student CV before the first article is published?+
Graduate students without journal publications can list: manuscripts under review (include the journal name and 'Under Review' as the status); conference papers published in proceedings (if your field counts these as publications); chapters in edited volumes; working papers or preprints posted to public repositories; and undergraduate thesis or senior research project (if the work is genuinely of publishable quality). Do not list papers 'in preparation' unless the manuscript is complete and being actively submitted. Do not pad the publications section — a short, accurate publications section is professional; a padded one is a credibility risk.
How do first-gen students build an academic CV from scratch?+
Start with what you have: education (all institutions, degrees, expected graduation dates, relevant coursework if a graduate student), any research positions (including lab assistant roles and independent study credits), any presentations (including undergraduate research symposia), any awards (including need-based scholarships if they have a competitive component), and any relevant skills (programming languages, archival languages, statistical software, lab techniques). The CV is a living document — it grows as your career develops. Having a sparse CV as a new graduate student is not a disadvantage; fabricating entries is.
Related guide
Fellowship Application Guide — how to build a competitive fellowship application packet alongside your CV.
Leadership Brainery
Build Your CV With a Community That Knows the Path
Leadership Brainery fellows share CV drafts, fellowship applications, and career strategies — the peer review first-gen graduate students navigate without.
Learn About the Fellowship