What is the best way to present my education?
Dear Deb:
I need your help regarding my recently-updated resume. I earned a Bachelor of Arts from a small obscure college, name withheld, that is now closed. I received my MBA from a well-known university. My neighbor said I should not show my undergrad degree on my resume because of the school being closed now.
What should I do? How do I present my education?
Thank you!
Martin
Dear Martin:
Was this an unaccredited school? Is this a school that provides life experience degrees? Is this is a situation where the school was closed for negative reasons (like unethical practices, etc.)?
Unless those items listed above are the reasons, I would leave the undergraduate degree/school on the resume. Many people earn degrees from small colleges. If you omit it, the reader may assume something worse than your situation, like an undergraduate degree from a mill.
You shared the name of your school and I withheld it on this blog to keep your anonymity. I did a quick 2-minute research and it appears some degrees were accredited and some only regionally-accredited. So, you'll need to verify that. Generally when a school closes there is some custodian of the academic data. Also, I see cited that the reason it failed due to an exhausted endowment and lack of public funding. Please don't hold me to this data - you'll want to research all of this yourself.
Readers tend to assume the worst when reading your résumé. It's the screener's job to weed people out of the process. What they could imagine might be worse than attending a small school that is no longer operating. An invalid degree would be something to omit from your résumé. If the degree is valid, include it.
Thanks!
Deb
If you have a question for Deb, please email debra@careersdonewrite.com. The Ask Deb column appears every Friday on our blog at the Careers Done Write website.