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College adviser skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Career Advisors of the CEAE ,

Jingjing Lou Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical college adviser skills. We ranked the top skills for college advisers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 15.6% of college adviser resumes contained financial aid applications as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a college adviser needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 college adviser skills for your resume and career

1. Financial Aid Applications

Here's how college advisers use financial aid applications:

Assisted with completion of college and financial aid applications.
Assist studentswith college admissions applications, financial aid applications, scholarship search, SAT prep, and general college planning.

2. Colleges

A college is a learning environment, an academic institution primarily for degree acquisition. It is targeted at running advanced programs and educational classes for professional degrees. Vocational education is also part of the syllabus in some colleges.

Here's how college advisers use colleges:

Fostered partnerships with colleges, local organizations, and foundations to identify strong student candidates for admission and/or scholarships.
Assisted students with college applications and conducted workshops to seniors applying for Community Colleges and/or Universities.

3. Professional Development

Professional development means to have the essential training certification or education with the purpose of earning and having a successful career. Every job requires a different set of skills. However, new skills may be needed in the future. Professional development, in this regard, helps people to develop and polish the skills and become efficient workers.

Here's how college advisers use professional development:

Facilitate professional development opportunities and training sessions to better equip and inform staff about trends in college admissions.
Design and implement professional development workshops for college students.

4. FAFSA

Here's how college advisers use fafsa:

Review all college application materials and assist with writing personal statements and completing FAFSA and other Financial Aid forms.
Organized events to facilitate students and parents filling out the Free Application for FederalStudent Aid (FAFSA).

5. Admissions Process

Admissions process is the act or process of admitting someone. The admission process is based on the submission of written applications and supporting documents. From the first inquiry made about a college - information gathering, application filing, the admission decision, presentation, matriculation to enrolling for the school year. Especially for schools with competitive admissions, the admissions process requires a lot of time and effort.

Here's how college advisers use admissions process:

Advise prospective students and families including traditional and non-traditional students about the admissions process.
Facilitated regular parent workshops about the college admissions process and financial aid.

6. School Administration

Here's how college advisers use school administration:

Collaborated with high school counseling office, school administration, and classroom teachers to insure success of the program.
Worked with school administration and staff to achieve college and school goals.

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7. Post-Secondary Education

Here's how college advisers use post-secondary education:

Discussed the importance of Post-Secondary Education.
Motivated and assist 9th through 12th grade students in the pursuit of post-secondary educational opportunities.

8. Career Exploration

Career Exploration refers to the process of learning about and investigating various jobs and long-term careers. This exploration is typically seen in younger individuals about to enter the job market or in people attempting to change their career paths. Career exploration may include taking personality tests to see what job may be best suited to one person, or even simply discussing various opportunities with a career specialist or guidance counselors.

Here's how college advisers use career exploration:

Created and facilitated a multipurpose advisory class that focused on college and career exploration and prioritizing life goals.
Sponsored and organized college visits, workplace tours and career explorations for student educational enhancement.

9. Scholarship Applications

Here's how college advisers use scholarship applications:

Assisted high school students in completing college and scholarship applications.
Coordinated post-secondary activities, assisted students in scholarship applications earning $ 1 million in scholarships dollars.

10. Local Schools

Here's how college advisers use local schools:

Partnered with local schools and created monthly workshops for parents and students to begin the college process.
Mentored students from local high schools and guided them through the college application process.

11. Financial Aid

Financial aid refers to cash released to an educational institution to help a student pay the school fee. The issuance of financial aid, whether scholarships, grants, or loans, aims to make access to education affordable to all students irrespective of their backgrounds.

Here's how college advisers use financial aid:

Administer counseling services to students and their families regarding meeting academic requirements, smart college selection and additional financial aid options.
Provided customer service and accurate information about Nellie Mae programs to Financial Aid institutions, loan services and other educational institutions.

12. Academic Performance

Here's how college advisers use academic performance:

Worked with counselors, principals, and other school personnel to collect information about student academic performance.
Improved student academic performance, portfolio and skill set.

13. Career Planning

Here's how college advisers use career planning:

Facilitated workshops related to college and career planning, exploration and awareness.
Provide educational and career planning.

14. Academic Support

Academic support is the assistance granted to students on top of the regular teaching in the classroom.

Here's how college advisers use academic support:

Provided academic support low-income Sunset Park Middle schools' students in the areas of ELA, Math and Science.
Collaborate with school district, postsecondary institutions and local community agencies to provide students with social, career and academic support.

15. Career Development

Career development is a term referring to the process and idea of furthering one's career or otherwise altering its path by a number of processes and methods. A career development plan can be unique to the individual and might simply be to continue working the job one does in a singular company and moving up, in terms of positions and salary. Or it might be an entirely different plan, such as moving on from the position, the company, and perhaps even the industry as a whole, and doing other work somewhere else.

Here's how college advisers use career development:

Provided expert consultation and direction for the development of comprehensive career development and management strategies to effectively generate successful outcomes.
Provide career developmental tools for students towards summer internships.

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What skills help College Advisers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on college adviser resumes?

Career Advisors of the CEAE

Lycoming College

Applicants need to connect their skills and experience with what an employer is looking for. With that being said, flexibility, adaptability, and experience with various technology is increasingly important during a pandemic. Quantifiable achievements are always important as well as leadership, presentation/communication skills, and teamwork ability.

What soft skills should all college advisers possess?

Jingjing Lou Ph.D.

Chair and Associate Professor, Beloit College

1) Productive Collaboration

2) Effective Communication

3) Creative Problem Solving

4) Intellectual and Professional Agility

What hard/technical skills are most important for college advisers?

Jingjing Lou Ph.D.

Chair and Associate Professor, Beloit College

To go along with these soft skills, our students master hard skills such as communications (writings and presentations), quantitative thinking (a requirement for all requirements), and intercultural literacy (understanding and working with people from different contexts).

Do you want to know more?

List of college adviser skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a college adviser resume and required skills for a college adviser to have include:

Financial Aid Applications
Colleges
Professional Development
FAFSA
Admissions Process
School Administration
Post-Secondary Education
Career Exploration
Scholarship Applications
Local Schools
Financial Aid
Academic Performance
Career Planning
Academic Support

Career Development
Class Presentations
Course Selection
AmeriCorps
Community Services
UC
Standardized Testing
Test Preparation
Outbound Calls
Financial Aid Workshops
Community Events
Test Scores
Group Presentations
Education Institutions

Mathematics
Federal Student
CSU
Public Schools
Career Options
Financial Literacy
Academic Programs
Inbound Calls
Study
College Planning
Post-Secondary Options
GED
Educational Programs
Local Businesses

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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