How To Write A College Student Cover Letter –The Complete Guide
It isn’t bad to think you can write a college student cover letter the same way the regular cover letter is written. But frankly, you need to bear some specifics in mind while writing the college student cover letter. These specifics are probably the thin lines that differentiate the regular cover letter from the one you write as a college student.
While writing a college student cover letter, you need to bear in mind that you –most probably –lack professional experience, and as such it would be hard to sell yourself on grounds of work experience. In this regard, academic achievements come to the fore as key accomplishments with which college students can sell themselves when writing cover letters.
In this cover letter writing guide, you’ll not only find out the tips for writing a college student cover letter, but also find a well-written template showing what the college student cover letter should contain.
Clever Tips for Writing a College Student Cover Letter
Do a Background Check about Your Prospective Employer
A background check is an important step in the writing of a cover letter. If you’re able to carry out a detailed background check about a company, you’ll find it pretty easy to tailor your cover letter to the company and/or what it does. If, for instance, your background check has equipped you with substantial knowledge of the company’s goals, you should be able to verify whether these goals resonate with your occupational ambitions. Moreover, you can leverage a background check to learn about the company’s work ethics, culture, history, etc.
Ensure your background check covers different aspects of the company (i.e. your prospective employer). Your background check might not seem sufficient if all you’ve learnt about the company is just the name of its founder/manager/CEO or the year the company was established. Make good use of job sites –inclusive of LinkedIn and Indeed –in generating useful information about your prospective employer.
Ensure Your Contact Details Are Up-to-Date
Irrespective of the kind of cover letter you’re writing, it would be grossly unprofessional for wrong contact details to appear in the letter. A college student cover letter is as important as any other form of cover letter; since accuracy and relevance are necessary for every cover letter, the college student cover letter is expected to bear up-to-date contact details.
If you seem to change contact details –phone number, email address, etc. –quite often, ensure you include only your current contact details in the cover letter. Including wrong or unreachable contact details in your college student cover letter might spell doom for your employment chances, even if the contact details in your resume are up-to-date.
Moreover, avoid including your contact details in a haphazard manner. According to experts, the best way to incorporate your contact details –email address and phone number –into a cover letter is to add the details to a sort of call to action in the closing of the cover letter. A good example is: “While I’m looking forward to an interview regarding the stated job, please reach me on (phone number) or via (email address).”
Align the Cover Letter with the Relevant Application Instructions
While job hunting, you’re normally expected to duly follow application instructions. There are likely some guidelines your prospective employer expects you to follow while putting your college student cover letter together. These instructions may include formatting the cover letter in a specific way, addressing the letter to a particular hiring manager, or providing specific information in the letter.
We highly recommend that you carefully read the (job) ad for the position you’re seeking with your college student cover letter. This way, you’ll likely find some or all of the relevant application instructions.
Include a Title (Especially If the Letter Is to Be E-mailed)
If you’re going to email your college student cover letter, ensure you give a befitting and simple title to the letter. While one would normally expect an email to bear a title, the title of your emailed cover letter should be highly relevant for the job you’re seeking. This way, hiring managers will easily identify the cover letter in a pool of email messages.
Verify That the Hiring Company’s Information Is Accurate
One of the mistakes that could make you lose a prospective job is inputting wrong information about the recipient of your cover letter and/or your potential employer. While your college student cover letter is expected to include the name of the hiring manager, the name of the hiring company, and the company’s contact details (company address and phone number), you shouldn’t make any mistake when providing any of these details.
Include Your Relevant Accomplishments
Selling yourself is necessary while writing a cover letter. Hiring managers want to read things that could convince them that you’re an ideal fit for a particular job. While some job applicants leverage work experience to sell themselves, others capitalize on skills and accomplishments that seem relevant for the positions sought. As a college student who doesn’t have any prior work experience, mentioning your relevant accomplishments is probably the best way to sell yourself when writing a college student cover letter.
Take advantage of accomplishments/achievements like remarkable GPA, academic awards, and meaningful extracurricular engagements, to sell yourself in the college student cover letter. For example, you can make a reference to your excellent Grade Point Average of 3.9 on a 4.0 scale.
Generally, it’s advantageous to have your achievements/accomplishments cited in a college student cover letter. But you must avoid including too many accomplishments to the extent of including irrelevant achievements. With regard to the best practice, it’s advisable that you cite only your academic achievements (and/or relevant academic engagements) in your college student cover letter.
Research has revealed that many hiring managers often give preference to the cover letters of applicants who seem to have mentioned their relevant accomplishments.
Ensure the Cover Letter Is Properly Structured
No hiring manager would hold your cover letter in high regard if the letter seemed to have been badly structured. Whether it’s a college student cover letter, a part-time job cover letter or any other form of cover letter, proper structuring is a must for the letter.
Meanwhile, this proper structuring goes down to employing the befitting (amount of) spacing, margins, and font for the letter. While the amount of spacing should generally enhance readability, the ideal font for the letter should seem legible. Some experts recommend a font size of 12 points, and as for the font type, you can select any of common options including, but not limited to, Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri. The befitting length for a cover letter –including the college student cover letter –is a maximum of one page.
Part and parcel of proper structuring of a cover letter is to also ensure the letter is well organized in terms of grammar, spelling, paragraphing, etc. Careful editing and proofreading is necessary for the cover letter you’re writing as a college student. If you can’t objectively judge the grammatical structure of the cover letter, you may seek the assistance of a professional in this regard.
[Name of hiring manager]
[Name of hiring company]
[Company address]
Dear [Mr./Mrs./Ms.] [Surname of hiring manager]
Introduction: Your introduction is the opening paragraph and as such, it has to be powerful and attention-grabbing. Make good use of this opening paragraph to introduce yourself to the hiring manager, with respect to the job you’re seeking. Briefly state how you came across the job ad. You may also add that you’re excited to know your potential employer has a vacancy for a position you perfectly fit into. Provide a clear, brief and punching statement of why you’re a perfect fit for the job sought; if you’re a college student in the field of marketing, you may state that you’re applying for the job because you’re very confident that your education and skills will enable you to function effectively on the company’s marketing research team.
Body: The body of your college student cover letter is basically an extension of the introduction. It’s the part where you have the luxury to include additional information about what you already stated in the introduction. It is important that you reel out your relevant accomplishments in the body of the letter. Such accomplishments may include your college GPA, your remarkable engagements (such as internships), and your impressive practical feats such as handling an academic project that has solved a real-life problem. You should also relate your achievements, skills or ability to what the company does, or the goals of the company. Endeavour to combine this with a succinct statement of how your professional ambition resonates with the goals, vision or mission of the company.
Closing: This is the last paragraph of your college student cover letter. It is a paragraph that should perfect the strong points or impression you must have built with your intro and the body of the letter. The closing, in a nutshell, is expected to complement the rest of the cover letter. With regard to the best practice, your closing should not only re-affirm your interest in the job sought, but also send a strong impression about your intent. Experts often recommend including a call to action, along with your contact details (phone number and email address), in the closing of the cover letter. Here is a good example: “I strongly believe that with my skills and education in marketing, I am the perfect candidate for a marketing research position in your company. I hope that after reviewing my resume, you are now fully convinced that my passion strongly reflects your company’s mission. While I look forward to an interview for the stated job, please reach me on (your phone number) or via (your email address).”
What Are the Important Things to Note While Writing a Cover Letter as a College Student?
When writing a cover letter as a college student, you need to bear several important things in mind. Earlier in this cover letter writing guide, we spelt out these important things as the clever tips for writing a college student cover letter. These tips are as follows:
Do a background check about your prospective employer
Ensure your contact details are up-to-date
Align the cover letter with the relevant application instructions
Include a title (especially if the letter is to be emailed)
Verify that the hiring company’s information is accurate
How Do I Sell Myself in My Cover Letter as a College Student?
Selling yourself is necessary when writing a cover letter. Hiring managers want to read things that could convince them that you’re an ideal fit for a particular job. While some job applicants leverage work experience to sell themselves, others capitalize on skills and accomplishments that seem relevant for the positions sought. As a college student who doesn’t have any prior work experience, mentioning your relevant accomplishments is probably the best way to sell yourself when writing a college student cover letter.
Generally, it’s advantageous to have your achievements/accomplishments cited in a college student cover letter. But you must avoid including too many accomplishments to the extent of including irrelevant achievements. With regard to the best practice, it’s advisable that you cite only your academic achievements (and/or relevant academic engagements) in your college student cover letter.
You can take advantage of accomplishments/achievements like remarkable GPA, academic awards, and meaningful extracurricular engagements, to sell yourself in the college student cover letter. For example, you can make a reference to your excellent Grade Point Average of 3.9 on a 4.0 scale. Fortunately, research has revealed that many hiring managers often give preference to the cover letters of applicants who seem to have included their relevant accomplishments
Is a College Student Cover Letter Different from the Regular Cover Letter?
Yes. A college student cover letter is, at least, quite different from the regular cover letter. Unlike applicants submitting general cover letters, college students writing cover letters most probably lack any professional experience with which they can sell themselves. This is one of the reasons why you need to emphasize your relevant accomplishments (such as academic achievements) while writing a cover letter as a college student.
Conclusion
The college student cover letter shares some attributes with the regular cover letter. But in reality, it is quite different from the general cover letter because college students often lack professional experience that could be included in cover letter writing as the selling point of the letter.
