Include high school while you are still attending or soon after graduation. If your diploma is your highest completed qualification, keep a short entry when it helps show the education the job requires. After earning a college or university degree, you can usually remove the high school entry. Substantial relevant work experience can also make it unnecessary. Follow any employer instructions asking for specific credentials or a complete education history.
Starting college does not automatically make a high school diploma irrelevant. The useful question is whether the entry helps explain a qualification this application needs, rather than whether you have reached a particular age or semester.
Decide what the high school entry adds
Use the posting and your actual education record together:
| Your situation | A useful approach |
|---|---|
| You are currently in high school | Name the school and label the diploma as in progress. Add an expected graduation date if you have a reliable one. |
| A high school diploma is your highest completed qualification | Keep a concise entry, especially when the posting asks for it or your work history is limited. |
| You have started college but have not earned a degree | Lead with current study when relevant. Keep high school if it clarifies your completed education. |
| You have a completed college or university degree | Usually leave high school off. Retain it if the application specifically requests it or it adds a relevant detail that the degree does not show. |
If you have substantial work experience and the diploma adds little to the application, you can omit the entry from a standard resume. A request for your education history still needs its own complete answer. Neither a long work history nor enrollment in college changes what you actually earned.
Show a completed diploma beside current study
The following applicant, schools, and application are fictional. Janelle Brooks earned a High School Diploma at Maplecrest High School in Spokane, WA, in June 2026. She began an Associate of Applied Science in Business Administration at Cedarpoint College in September 2026 and expects to finish in June 2028.
Janelle is applying for a part-time office assistant job that requires a high school diploma. She includes both schools so the reader can distinguish the completed requirement from the qualification she is still working toward:
Cedarpoint College — Spokane, WA
Associate of Applied Science in Business Administration — In progress
Expected graduation: June 2028
Maplecrest High School — Spokane, WA
High School Diploma — June 2026
The college entry shows Janelle's current direction. The high school entry makes the earned diploma explicit. She does not call herself a college graduate or describe the associate degree as completed.
Use your credential's actual name and the institution that awarded it. If you earned a high school equivalency credential, use that credential's name and issuer instead of claiming a diploma from a school you attended but did not graduate from. If you left school without a credential, describe any included study as attendance or coursework.
For paused college study or a program without a reliable completion date, use the unfinished-degree guide to choose accurate wording. You do not need to list every earlier school you attended on a standard resume.
Separate the school entry from useful school experience
Removing high school from Education does not require deleting every activity from those years. A relevant volunteer role, paid job, or project can remain in its own section when it supplies useful evidence. Keep the real setting, dates, and your contribution visible.
For example, a school newspaper editing role may help support an application involving written communication even after the diploma entry has gone. Describe what you edited and for whom. Membership alone does not establish editing experience, and an old activity should not crowd out stronger recent work. The volunteer-work guide helps distinguish an unpaid role from paid employment.
Keep optional school details selective. A course, award, or project should add something relevant beyond the diploma itself. Leave a broad list of clubs and classes out when it repeats evidence elsewhere on the page.
Enter the diploma and check the finished file
In Better Resume, open Education and use “Add education” for a separate entry. For Janelle's completed diploma, enter Maplecrest High School in “School,” Spokane, WA in “Location,” and High School Diploma in “Degree.” Leave “Field of study” blank unless the credential has a relevant named specialization.
Enter June 2026 in “End date (or expected)” and leave “Currently attend here” unchecked for that completed entry. You can leave “Start date” blank when only the graduation date is needed. Check the result in Preview, then open the file from “Download PDF.”
Before you send your education section
- High school adds relevant information or answers an application instruction
- Each credential name matches what was actually awarded
- Current study and expected graduation are clearly distinguished from completion
- Any retained school activity has accurate dates and a specific contribution
- Required application fields agree with your education record
- The final PDF makes the status of each qualification clear