My web-site portfolio and admissions committees

[Delarne]

Hi everyone,

I decided to create this topic because I can't even sleep without thinking about my admissions and analyzing my situation. So I have a question and would be happy if you help me answering them.

I am applying to several TOP-10 graduate schools for autumn 2011. I have included the string "My portfolio web-page: the name of the web-site" at the end of every statement of purpose I have written. As of today only 1 school visited my web-site (I am using logging system) and spend there about 5 minutes. It makes me thinking that others are not interested in me and will reject me. It sounds even more plausible in consideration of the fact that one of the schools will begin sending out admissions letters next Monday and another school even began sending out them (but nobody was denied yet). So how do you think - is it already time to look for a new pastime for the next year (other than studying at the grad school) or not?

Thank you in advance for your answers and advices.

[Golden Monkey]

I think it is best not to look at your web stats. I started looking at mine, and it weirds me out a bit.

667 views to my CV, but only 44 views to my home page?

[Delarne]

667 views - it's a great number. How have you got it? You've included the link to your CV in every application?

After you message I began thinking that my 1 view of my web-site (view by grad school) is awful comparing to yours 44)

[Golden Monkey]

667 views - it's a great number. How have you got it? You've included the link to your CV in every application?

After you message I began thinking that my 1 view of my web-site (view by grad school) is awful comparing to yours 44)

Yes, but mine is splattered all over the place--to my linkedin profile, to my current program, to my Vimeo account, which is also in groups, etc., etc. Since I've been working for 20 years, mine includes a lot of industry work, and it's also a professional blog (which I'm told is a very effective self-promotion tactic.) If this PhD thing doesn't work out, it's also my homepage in an attempt to scare up a new job or more work. I'm sure that more hits are generated by my participation in Linkedin professional groups than anything else. I also included it on all of my CVs, but I honestly don't know if a single adcomm has bothered to look at it at all.

But I would stop looking at the webstats if I were you. It doesn't help things at all. I was reading last year's results here, and one very bitter person who had been rejected by my #1 pick was really griping that he knew they hadn't looked at his site, because he had examined his logs carefully. I really don't want to get to that level of obsession and figure it is best to not know. I figure that adcomms are not required to look at your work at all if they don't want to.

[Delarne]

You are right. But, you know, it's very difficult to wait for these decisions. You're waiting and they are not coming you are waiting, waiting.... And it seems to you that nothing happens and the process is not going. So when you see in the logs something connected with grad schools' IPs you understand that something is taking place and they are examining your application. And in this case it's much more easier to wait.

[thelost]

Maybe they are using a plugin or have their browser configured to block or trick your analytics. Ok, that's highly unlikely, but it's possible. Let's stay positive!

[Vacuum]

I know when I was in admissions, the committee met in a boardroom and usually didn't have computers or anything like that with them. They would just review the paper forms. It could be that the group making the decisions is doing something similiar and aren't actually doing the 'labor' part of the admissions process. Usually you have people working in the office that make sure the forms are all there and sometimes they even do intial reviews (for GPA and the like). They might be the ones who would look up that address, whereas the committee might just be reviewing what is in front of them on paper that represents you and not the virtual version!

[Delarne]

I know when I was in admissions, the committee met in a boardroom and usually didn't have computers or anything like that with them. They would just review the paper forms. It could be that the group making the decisions is doing something similiar and aren't actually doing the 'labor' part of the admissions process. Usually you have people working in the office that make sure the forms are all there and sometimes they even do intial reviews (for GPA and the like). They might be the ones who would look up that address, whereas the committee might just be reviewing what is in front of them on paper that represents you and not the virtual version!

It's a pity, because I've created this web-site to tell more about me and my projects. So I hoped that it will be a plus for me comparing to other candidates So it's time to wait one more month

[Delarne]

Maybe they are using a plugin or have their browser configured to block or trick your analytics. Ok, that's highly unlikely, but it's possible. Let's stay positive!

I see the IP address in any case) So this is not the way it could be done. The only solution to cheat me is to use proxy servers, so that your IP address would somewhere from China, so I will not consider it as the graduate school IP

[Pratik.]

Hi everyone,

I decided to create this topic because I can't even sleep without thinking about my admissions and analyzing my situation. So I have a question and would be happy if you help me answering them.

I am applying to several TOP-10 graduate schools for autumn 2011. I have included the string "My portfolio web-page: the name of the web-site" at the end of every statement of purpose I have written. As of today only 1 school visited my web-site (I am using logging system) and spend there about 5 minutes. It makes me thinking that others are not interested in me and will reject me. It sounds even more plausible in consideration of the fact that one of the schools will begin sending out admissions letters next Monday and another school even began sending out them (but nobody was denied yet). So how do you think - is it already time to look for a new pastime for the next year (other than studying at the grad school) or not?

Thank you in advance for your answers and advices.

HI same here,

But I was rejected by Washington-Seattle and they didn't even visit my website. I fear for the worst. I've got a 1510 in GRE but low GPA (we dont have a GPA but academics arent so great), I think the rest of the profile is pretty decent. It is kind of scary, but apparently nobody from the universities and courses that I've applied have received any information yet, so keeping my hopes high

[qbtacoma]

By including more information on a website, you get around not only the word count restrictions, but also the document restrictions that other applicants have. Many schools allow applicants to submit supplementary information, so if you really had something new or different from what was in the application it should have gone there. My guess is the adcomms won't like either the extra work required to go visit the website (it's not a little thing when you have so many applications to go through), or the fact that you will have an advantage over other applicants by submitting a website when they don't. So they don't visit.

[one eyed rex]

Without knowing the norms in your field, I would tend to agree with qbtacoma that adcoms simply aren't going to bother with looking up additional information beyond what you have directly provided with the application. I wouldn't interpret it as programs being disinterested, but more time-pressed and perhaps (as qbtacoma suggests) keeping a level playing field for all applicants.

[Golden Monkey]

I definitely understand the "aren't going to bother" part, but the "unfair advantage" part kind of eludes me. Websites and portfolio sites are free these days: weebly.com, google sites (amazing,) behance portfolios for artists, free blogs from tumblr, soup.io, wordpress, blogspot, profile pages on linkedin, vimeo for free video hosting, etc. Some of them, like tumblr, require zero computer skills. I am kind of puzzled that a portfolio/work site isn't considered a requirement instead of an unfair advantage.

But hey, I got my first rejection today, so obviously it didn't help me at all.

[qbtacoma]

I definitely understand the "aren't going to bother" part, but the "unfair advantage" part kind of eludes me. Websites and portfolio sites are free these days: weebly.com, google sites (amazing,) behance portfolios for artists, free blogs from tumblr, soup.io, wordpress, blogspot, profile pages on linkedin, vimeo for free video hosting, etc. Some of them, like tumblr, require zero computer skills. I am kind of puzzled that a portfolio/work site isn't considered a requirement instead of an unfair advantage.

But hey, I got my first rejection today, so obviously it didn't help me at all.

Just because it's more stuff. The CV, SOP, writing sample, and all that have limits, but a web page can't. So seeing extra stuff that someone does (look at aaaaaaall my volunteer jobs!) gets around that.

[Golden Monkey]

I guess I was assuming that Delarne was applying to visually-related fields (as I am,) because he/she referred to it as a "portfolio" site. If you're a sculptor, theatrical lighting designer, programmer of beautiful fractals, or even someone who just created a really good database system, you can't really convey a whole lot through an SOP. If adcomms won't bother to go to a portfolio URL in those cases, it's pretty much hopeless for some of us.

[jergensultrahealing]

667 views - it's a great number. How have you got it? You've included the link to your CV in every application?

After you message I began thinking that my 1 view of my web-site (view by grad school) is awful comparing to yours 44)

REFRESH

CLEAR CACHE

REFRESH

CLEAR CACHE

*** REPEAT 400 times ***

[Golden Monkey]

Interesting-- I finally found out why my resume got so many hits compared to the rest of my site. I'm reading a job search book (part of Plan B in case this PhD thing doesn't pan out,) and apparently headhunters now use spiders/bots to search for resumes. Searching for resumes on job boards costs them money, but using a bot to scour the internet for key phrases is free. So a lot of headhunters will set up their bots to look for any pdf, doc, or html file, where the name of the file includes the string "resume" in it (like mine does,) and then it will search the file for key words, like "Pro E," or "javascript," or "php" or "IEEE," or something like that.

So it's a good way to get found by headhunters, but it still doesn't help you out at all with the adcomms, unfortunately.