Date Formatting for Resumes

Best options on how to format your dates, depending on the section and type of information:

EDUCATION SECTION

Boston University Study Abroad

• Expected Jan 2021 • Sep – Dec 2019

• Expected January 2021 • Fall 2019

• Expected 01/21 • September – December 2018

• Jan 2021 • 09/18 – 12/18

• January 2021

• 01/21

Transfer School (no degree earned) High School or Associate of Arts

• 2018 – 2020 • Jun 2018

• Sep 2018 – Jun 2020 • June 2018

• September 2018 – June 2020 • 06/18

• 09/18 – 06/20

EXPERIENCE SECTIONS

Summer Academic Year Month or Year

• Jun – Aug 2018 • Sep 2017 – Jun 2018 • Mar 2018

• June – August 2018 • September 2017 – June 2018 • March 2018

• 06/18 – 08/18 • 09/17 – 06/18 • 03/18

• Summer 2018 • 2017 – 2018 • 2018

• Summer 2017, 2018

COMMON ISSUES

• Date used for Boston University and other degrees you have completed is your expected graduation date,

with no start date. This differs from other experiences, where you list a date range, from start to finish.

• For date ranges, use “space-dash-space” formatting: “June – August 2017” not “June-August 2017”.

• Be sure that same style of dash (shorter hyphen or slightly longer en-dash) is used consistently throughout.

• Abbreviating months uses less text on secondary information. For a clean and consistent look, use the

first three letters of the month with no period: “Sep – Dec 2019” not “Sept. – Dec. 2019”

• Align dates on the right margin. Recommended so that dates don’t crowd the information about organizations

and positions, which are more important.