Tips for Adding Cum Laude to Your Resume

Updated June 17, 20221.4k

If you’re thinking about how to improve your education section, a cum laude honor may be helpful. Here’s what you need to know if you’re adding cum laude to a resume

Cum Laude on Resume

When you graduate, especially if you have a high GPA, you’ll likely receive specific academic honors. The most common type of honor you’ll see is the “cum laude,” which means, “With praise” or “With honors.” If you’re thinking about including cum laude on a resume, you’re not alone. It can be a great way to distinguish yourself from other job seekers. Not only does it show your work ethic, but it can improve the chances of your resume getting through applicant tracking systems (ATS) and moving your application to the top of the pile. Here’s what you need to know about including academic honors on your resume.

Different Types of Academic Honors

There are many different types of academic honors that you might want to include on your resume. The first is the cum laude. There are three tiers to this honor: cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude, meaning “With honor,” “With high honors,” and “With the highest honor.” These Latin phrases are extremely common in the U.S. and indicate that an individual graduated within a specific high percentage of their classmates. The second type of academic honor is any non-Latin honors that are awarded to specific people who excel academically in the school. This may be awarded during individual semesters or overall, and is often awarded based on cumulative GPA. This means that your grade point average needs to be at a specific level to receive these awards. This may include the Dean’s List, for example. The last type of common academic honor is membership in a specific prestigious organization that only allows people with a high GPA or generally great performance to join. This may include Phi Beta Kappa in the United States, for instance.

Tips for Adding Latin Honors to Your Resume

What do you need to know about listing Latin honors on your resume? Here are some formatting tips regarding how to list Latin honors that you should know.

You should always put Latin honors in lower case letters: “cum laude,” not “Cum Laude.”
You should always use italics rather than parentheses: “cum laude,” not “(cum laude).”
You should typically list Latin honors in the education section of your resume, not in your professional experience section.

Deviating from these formatting tips may make a hiring manager view them as a formatting error, which can be the same as a typo and make the hiring manager reject your application.

How To Maximize Your Latin Honors on a Resume

If you have Latin honors, you want to get the best use out of them as possible. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind regarding the use of Latin honors:

If you have many honors, you may consider creating a separate honors section. In this case, you could include one honor per bullet point.
Latin honors are most effectively used for entry-level jobs, especially if they’re for high school or an associate degree. However, Latin honors for a very high degree, like a Ph.D., will carry more weight on a job application.
Remember that you can include your Latin honors in both your professional resume and your cover letter. Use the cover letter builder to create a cover letter that incorporates your Latin honors.

Generally, remember that your honors are an additional piece of information that a hiring manager can see when reading through your resume. But you still need to have a compelling resume.

FAQ: Cum Laude on Resume

Should I put cum laude on my resume if I “graduated with honors”?

Different schools have different ways of showcasing the honors you graduated with. If you have “Dean’s List” or “Graduated with Honors” on your resume, you shouldn’t try to translate those honors into Latin honors. All of these honors showcase to a potential employer that you put in plenty of hard work to get the honors you did. Include the specific honors and awards that your school gave you instead of changing them to other types of academic honors.

How long should I keep cum laude honors on a resume?

You can list cum laude on your resume for as long as you want. Because these honors go in your education section, which you should always include on a resume, you can essentially keep them forever. Just know that they do lose their impact after a little while. Although they’re still a badge of pride, most hiring managers know that they don’t have much of an impact on your knowledge after a few years, and your work experience will become much more important.

How many academic achievements should I include on a resume?

You can include as many academic achievements as you have on your resume. Earlier on in your job search as a recent graduate, you may even want to create a separate section for academic accomplishments. Especially if you have a wide variety of achievements and honors.

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About The Author

Cindi Cervone Carlson

Cindi Cervone Carlson is a Senior Vice President for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Cindi is responsible for developing, delivering, and implementing a dynamic, world-class organization dedicated to delivering outplacement consulting, training, support, and executive coaching. Cindi started her career at Challenger as a client who had lost her job. Over the past nine years, she has risen from an entry-level, part-time professional to Senior Vice President.