How to Put Cum Laude on Your Resume

Your resume is all about presenting yourself in the best light possible.

And despite work experience being the most important thing for the hiring manager, you can still improve your resume through other sections as well. A great way to tweak up your education section is including Latin honors if you have any.

It is especially impressive for the hiring managers if you have cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude. These show your potential employer that you are a really hard-working individual, and you are ready to put in that extra effort.

But listing your cum laude properly is the key to success. So, in this article, we are going to explore the following questions:

• What is cum laude?
• Should you list cum laude on your resume?
• How to list cum laude on your resume?

By the way, If you are not quite certain about your resume our resume builder can help you build a resume that gets noticed.

Ready to explore the topic of cum laude on your resume? Keep reading!

What is Cum Laude?

Cum laude is one of the three distinctive Latin honors you can get - cum laude, magma cum laude, and summa cum laude. What “cum laude” means translated from Latin is “with honor”.

The requirements for achieving cum laude vary between different universities and colleges. There is one similarity – it absolutely shows that you have been recognized for your hard work and achievements during your academic years.

Most academic institutions require a certain GPA, credit hours completed, and class rank. But as Latin honors requirements vary in different academic institutions, you need to be careful when it’s good to list it.

For example, if you list cum laude with a GPA of 3.0, it might seem like you are trying to lie on your resume. You might in fact be truthful, and it is due to your university of college Latin honor requirements, but you might never get your shot.

Should You List Cum Laude on Your Resume?

Graduating with cum laude honor is a great accomplishment in your academic years. If you feel like you should share your accomplishment with your potential employer, there is no reason for you not to.

It can show them that you are committed to success and have a strong work ethic. That’s why cum laude can really set you apart from other candidates and get you one step closer to the job you want.

In most cases, listing your cum laude is acceptable, and even encouraged. You should absolutely list your cum laude honor in any of these cases:

• You’re writing a resume as a recent college graduate.
• You have minimal work experience.
• You’re writing a resume for graduate school.
• You’re applying for jobs in academia or law, where employers give importance to your educational background.

How to List Cum Laude on Your Resume?

Okay, now you understand the importance of listing your cum laude honors on your resume. Now you need to figure out how to do it right. There are quite a few things you need to keep in mind while doing that. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered and will go through them one by one.

Figure out where to list your cum laude honor.

The first important thing to figure out is where to include your cum laude honor. There are two main options for you to choose from:

• List it in your education section.
• List it in a separate awards and honors section.

If you go for the education section, you just need to add the honor under the academic institution you acquired it from.

But if you decide to create a separate awards and honors section, make sure cum laude is not the only honor there. For an awards and honors section, you should create a bullet list with at least three bullet points inside it.

Format your cum laude honor correctly.

Knowing where to list cum laude is not all you need to do it right. Formatting it correctly is an extremely important part.

If you decided to list your cum laude in your education section, you can list it either on the same line as the academic institution or on a separate one. But if you went for a separate awards and honors section, make sure cum laude is on a line of its own.

You would want your Latin honor to be as easy-to-spot as possible. But either way, cum laude should always be listed using lower case and italics.

Determine if you should include your GPA, or not.

In most cases, GPA is not needed on your resume, if you have listed a cum laude honor. However, your potential employer may require it on your resume, in which case, you should list it. The best way to do it is just to use parentheses next to your cum laude honor and list your GPA there.

Another reason for you to consider listing your GPA is if your academic institution has exceptionally high requirements for receiving cum laude honor.

Template of Cum Laude on Your Resume

Great, now you know everything you need to list your cum laude honor correctly on your resume. But we wouldn’t leave you without an example to get you started.

Use these templates and include your cum laude in the section you have chosen:

In the education section

[ACADEMIC INSTITUION] [START YEAR] - [END YEAR]
[DEGREE EARNED]
cum laude (GPA: 3.9)
Keep in mind if you need to include your GPA, or not.

In a separate awards and honors section

• [HONOR]
• cum laude (GPA: 3.9)
• [HONOR]
• [HONOR]

In a separate awards and honors section, you can either list your GPA in parentheses next to your cum laude honor, or you can use a separate bullet point.

Keep in mind if you need to include your GPA, or not.

Takeaways: How to put cum laude on resume

Now you know how to list cum laude on your resume. You are now ready to use your Latin honor to get one step closer to the job you want.

Don’t forget – pick the right placement for your cum laude and keep the formatting strict to the rules. Check out the template once again and get one step closer to getting your next interview.