How to put your expected graduation date on a resume? (+3 Samples) 

In addition to college name and major, employers also would like to know when you expect to graduate. They want to know whether you’ll be comfortable working full-time, or will need a flexible schedule to attend classes or write a dissertation. And if you work part-time, graduation date will inform them when you’ll be able to be more engaged at work. 

Resume experts say that outlining the month and year of anticipated graduation is enough. To get more details about formatting your education section and keeping it informative for hiring managers, keep reading. The experts of ResumePerk.com have prepared a short guide to help you ‘sell’ your education to employers. 

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The effective way to specify the expected graduation date 

State the expected graduation date in Month/Year format

The recommended way is to write as follows: 

Expected Graduation: May 2023 

Including a month is necessary since the employer needs to know exactly when you’ll be able to start working full-time. If you’re not sure about the month, contact your college or visit the college website to find out. 

List all details about your education 

Include the university name in full, as well as the degree you are currently obtaining. It is helpful to specify the major (or double major) and minor so that the employer could understand your areas of specialization in advance. 

If you have no work experience, consider including coursework. List up to 8 courses that are most relevant to the target job opening. In this way, you will show that your theoretical background is enough to perform well in this role. 

If you’ve started working on your thesis, include the title as well. If it relates to the target job title, the hiring manager will see that you are well-versed in a certain narrow specialization and have strong research skills. 

Highlight the accomplishments 

When hiring experienced professionals, employers prefer those with plenty of achievements. This works for students as well, with the only difference that achievements are academic. Here are the examples of accomplishments you need to show off as a university student: 

• High GPA (3.5 or above)
• Dean’s list
• Membership in sororities, such as Phi Beta Kappa 
• Winning a scholarship or research grant 
• Athletic achievements 
• Student volunteer awards 
• National student awards, etc. 

If your resume has a Summary section, anticipated graduation date and accomplishments can be mentioned there as well. 

Anticipated graduation date: Examples 

With the above-listed tips in mind, let’s look how you can effectively describe your education. Here’s an example for an MBA student: 

The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL – Anticipated Graduation May 2023 

Master of Business Administration 

Major in Marketing | Minor in Business Analytics 

• GPA: 3.8 
• Dean’s List (Winter 2022)

And here’s a sample for an Economics student: 

New York University, New York, NY 

Bachelor of Science 

Double Major: Economics and Statistics 

Expected graduation: September 2023

• Coursework: International Economy, Money and banking, Applied statistics, Public finance 

Both samples are well-structured and let the employers know the most essential information. You may format your education following these examples. 

Building a strong resume: General tips 

Once you have formatted the education section, it’s time to make sure the rest of the document is composed well either. Follow these tips from our in-house experts who have created thousands of resumes: 

Place Education above the Experience 

Students and recent graduates should place the emphasis on education. Therefore, you need to put it above work experience. When you gain 2-3 years of relevant experience, it is recommended that you put that experience first. 

This rule is also applied if you decided to return to school after 5 or 10 years of work experience. If you are currently studying for a degree, education should be moved to the top of the first page. 

Keep the formatting consistent 

To create the document that is visually appealing to the reader, use the same type of formatting everywhere. Opt for one font, preferably Times New Roman or Arial, as varying fonts are hard to read. Keep the formatting plain, since this is a professional document. 

Optimal font size is between 10 and 12 pts. To emphasize the important details, use bold or underline the text. Use all caps for section headers, and make sure that sections are clearly divided. 

Use a one-page document 

An entry-level professional should submit a one-page resume. If you have limited experience, one page will be enough to describe your education, part-time jobs, internships and extracurricular projects. Note that if you’ve had many jobs and activities, you needn’t list them all. Focus on the most relevant ones. 

If you have plenty of experience and important activities, you may use the second page. But in this case, make sure that it takes two full pages and looks easy on the eye. If the document takes one and one quarter of the second page, alter the font size or margins to fit everything into one page. 

Create a career summary 

Summarize your top qualifications and achievements in 2-3 sentences at the beginning of the resume. These can be your anticipated degree, college awards or important skills. 

Since you have limited work experience, employers are interested to know where you are headed in your career. At the end of the summary, you can outline this in one sentence like this: “Seeking an entry-level Front-end Developer position in a product-based company”. 

List professional skills 

List up to 14 skills that match the job description. Since skills in a job posting work as keywords, in this case you’ll have a higher chance of passing the ATS and be reviewed by a hiring manager. You may list industry skills, software proficiency, and soft skills. 

However, avoid indicating trivial things such as organization, responsibility, teamwork, dedication, or punctuality. Such words are so overused that hiring managers often skip them. Focus on something more specific and relevant. 

Don’t stretch the truth 

It might be tempting to exaggerate or add false information about your accomplishments to get more interview calls. However, today it is incredibly easy to check the facts about your education or work history. If the information you stated on a resume turns out to be false, you can lose a chance for a job and can damage your professional reputation. 

Being honest is the best strategy. 

Edit and proofread before sending 

Students often neglect this one, but mistakes can be costly. According to the statistic, 59% of hiring managers will reject a resume that contains typos or poor grammar. So, don’t submit a resume in a hurry and proofread it several times. In addition, do not forget about a professional email with a proper ending. 

You may use an online spell checker to fix minor issues, and then read aloud to make sure each bullet point makes sense. Double-check the contact details – if you misspell an email or a phone number, the hiring manager might not contact you! 

Using expected graduation date: What to do next? 

Stating your degree and the graduation year is an important step in resume creation. Yet, other sections need to be written effectively and persuasively as well. If you would like to exclude resume mistakes and be confident that it makes the right impression, consider our Resume Editing service. 

This service includes the correction of mistakes, improvement of word choice, formatting and adding keywords upon request. At ResumePerk.com, we have 100+ resume experts who specialize in every industry, so we will connect you with an editor who understands your field. Moreover, if it’s your first order with us, you’ll receive a welcome 15% off!