To portfolio or not to portfolio ?

[DeeD]

So I'm a final year IT student doing a four year undergraduate course and I'm applying to grad schools in 2014 (late, i know.. but I wanted to make sure I have the best possible profile)

I was wondering whether to make a portfolio of the work I've done in the past four years which is substantial in volume but ... well.. its not complete. Its basically a collection of many many ideas (which are awesome ,if i can say so myself), some work I did for a start up (summer internship) and entries to design contests, etc. I want to show the admission committee that I have a good imagination which I believe is essential. But .. and this is gonna sound dumb.. I don't know anything about the legalities of putting content on the web. Once its out there, its not yours anymore, right ?Some of this work is just "ideas under construction" and some of it belongs to companies I've worked for ( I cant put up the source code). So can I or can I not, should I or should I not put this up online ? I don't want to share my ideas with my competitors ( I still participate in national robotic competitions with these) but I do want to show the admissions committee ... My apologies if I'm coming off like a D-bag; The work may not be great, but its mine and i'd like credit for it.

[TheFez]

Honestly, most Ad Comms are not going to want a portfolio of your work, especially a collection of awesome ideas. They are certainly not going to want source code.

They want your transcripts, GRE scores, LORs, SOP ... and then maybe one or two writing samples.

If you have won awards, been published, spoken at conferences - then they will want to know that.

If you want to point them to more -- then maybe posting them on a web site is a good idea. Nobody is going to find them under some obscure URL like www.dardiesawsomeideas.com

If you are invited on an interview - then bring some stuff along just in case the right opportunity comes up.

Yes, creativity is important, but so are grades, scores, recommendations.

[TakeruK]

As TheFez said, many AdComms won't want to see a portfolio, and some might even forbid sending in any material that isn't required.

I'd also like to add that what they want to see is you describing this work in your CV and your SOP. For work that you did for companies, you should be able to summarize what you accomplished in a few lines. You should also discuss it in the SOP but give it a different spin. For me, I put technical details of what I did in a CV and wrote about other skills (communication, etc.) and what I learned from each project in the SOP. As for "awesome ideas", I don't think they will care unless you have something started already.

It is very important to be able to describe months and months of work/accomplishments in a few sentences. I think this is how you should show the AdComm your previous work. Actual samples can wait until an interview, or if you really want, put online and include the URL at an appropriate place in the CV (or SOP, but I think CV is better). You should be careful to check the rules for applications -- some schools also forbid linking to URLs or any outside content.

Note: You say you are in IT which I am interpreting that you are applying to programs that are like computer engineering, where portfolios are less common, rather than graphic design or other more artistic fields.