When it comes to whether or not you should include high school activities on resume, the main consideration should be when.
In general, you should not include any high school activities on your resume once you pass your sophomore year in college.
However, before that point, it is perfectly acceptable to include those activities.
For the most part, the activities you completed in high school are particularly important for your entrance into a college or university.
However, once you have been accepted and are enrolled in college, you should begin working on updating your resume with the work and activities you have completed there.
Generally, most college students are able to pick up work or extracurricular activities by the end of their sophomore year.
By that point, most students have picked a major or specialty and are better able to narrow their focus of study.
With that completed, updating your resume will be easier and more thorough.
When Can You Include High School Experience?
In general, you can include high school activities on your resume until the end of your freshman year or the beginning of your sophomore year of college.
Until that point in your life and career, you generally won’t have too many experiences to draw from beyond high school.
However, as you go through your college journey, you should be consistently updating your resume to include your work and extracurricular activities which you gained while in college.
This can include not only direct work experience, but also clubs you were a part of, specific classes and courses you’ve taken, and any other certifications you may have gained.
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It is also important to distinguish which activities and experiences you include from high school.
In general, you should only include the experience and activities which are most impressive, and which enhance your qualifications.
For example, your participation in a language club may be less impressive to an employer than your experience which showcases your leadership, and other work-related skills.
While your resume should list your previous work and educational experiences, it should only include relevant experiences which set you apart from other candidates.
When Should You Exclude High School Experience?
In general, by the end of your sophomore year of college, you should have no high school experience included on your resume.
At this point in your college and work career, you should have sufficient experience from college to include on your resume and will no longer need to include the activities you completed in high school.
However, it may still be worthwhile to include high school activities on your resume if you had a truly unique or stellar experience which other candidates may not have had.
This can include work under a prestigious professor or traveling to a remote part of the world to assist in development.
When to Remove High School from Resume?
Though high school may have been a fond time for many of us, you should not leave your high school education, extracurriculars, work experience, internships, or volunteering experience on your resume for too long.
High-school experience is generally worth less than undergraduate, graduate, and career experience.
So, when should you remove high school experience from your resume?
There is no set date or time on when you have to remove your high school experience from your resume.
Generally, high school experience should be removed once you have more important and more real-world experience.
So, if you are currently enrolled in college, then you should remove and replace your high school education with your college.
This is true even if you have not yet graduated, as most colleges require a high-school diploma in order to be accepted or admitted.
When replacing your high school education with your college, you may list out your expected date of graduation.
This will help to give potential employers an idea of your current college timeline and when you should receive your diploma.
Reasons to Include High School Activities on Resume
However, if you attended a particularly prestigious high school or one that has a lot of connections and networks, you may want to leave your high school on your resume while you are still in college.
Doing so will likely increase your chances of landing a job opportunity or internship.
With regards to work experience, you can leave any work experience you acquired during high school on your resume until you have work experience in college.
Your college work experience will generally be more advanced than your high school experience.
As such, it makes sense to replace.
Generally, once you reach the age of twenty, you should have all your high school experiences and education removed from your resume.
By this point, you should have sufficient work and educational experience to replace your high school experience.
This newer experience will likely be more challenging and more rewarding in your long-term career.
If you did not attend college and entered the workforce immediately after high school, it is better to list your high school and indicate that you graduated with a diploma.
Doing so will convey to potential employers that you do have your high school degree, which is often a minimum requirement for many positions.
