In addition to your personal statement, there are two other crucial components to your graduate application – your curriculum vitae and your letters of recommendation. Your overall application is not just about who you are, it’s also about what you’ve done and who you know.

Part 1: CV
First, what is a CV or Curriculum Vitae? A CV is not the same as a resume. It is longer and provides more in-depth information about what you have done in your career. In other words, a CV is an “in-depth document that can be laid out over two or more pages and it contains a high level of detail about your achievements, a great deal more than just a career biography. The CV covers your education as well as any other accomplishments like publications, awards, honours etc.”

There is no real standard format for organizing a CV. Yes, there are common categories that re-occur across different CVs. However, whether you put “publications” after “conference presentations” or before “awards”, will be determined by what you want to highlight and in what order. This is also not a static document and it will undergo many revisions, re-organizations, and updates as time goes on. The key part of CVs – especially as it relates to graduate school and fellowship applications – is that you are doing things to build and improve the different sections of your CV. Find a committee, help organize a conference, present on a panel, win other grants and fellowships. (… to the extent that it makes your applications more competitive, without burning yourself out.) Unlike a resume there is no page limit for a CV. Furthermore, if you can fit everything you’ve done on one page, you’ve got more work to do.

Part 2: Letter of Recommendation
Much like references included with job applications, in the graduate school journey, letters of recommendation are a way for other people to support and verify the things you’ve said in your application. Letters of recommendation support your admission to graduate school and your applications for scholarships, grants, and fellowships. They carry a significant amount of weight in the overall graduate journey. A bad letter at any stage can seriously hurt your chances of success. A crucial aspect of good letters is developing professional relationships with faculty, staff, and supervisors. This means having real conversations with people about your plans and goals, asking for and following advice, and sharing updates on your progress.

Another important aspect of receiving a good letter of recommendation is giving the recommender ample time and material to write your letter. You will want to notify your recommender(s) that you’ll need a letter at least four weeks in advance. Additionally, you’ll want to provide them with the program or fellowship description, submission instructions, and drafts of your personal statement for the application. These documents will allow your recommender to know how to best support the rest of your application.

CVs and letters of recommendation situate you within communities and give readers a more dynamic picture of who you are. It’s important to take the time to build on these aspects of your professional career.