Applicant Websites?

[Speromelior]

Does anyone have an online presence with samples of their work, CV, etc? Does this help or hurt in admissions? 

[hashslinger]

I would recommend NOT having this as an applicant. You will need an online presence when you go on the job market. But for now, the less there is about you on the internet, the better. There's an advantage to being an unknown quantity at this stage.

[AurantiacaStella]

I don't think it hurts. Especially if you are already professionalizing yourself through conference presentations and maybe even a publication or two, it is natural that you are also putting yourself out there as serious scholar-in-the-making online as well. Really, they will only see an updated version of your CV if you keep your profile nice and neat, so it's not like they'll be unearthing anything they didn't already know.

[Speromelior]

I can understand how having a polarizing presence online could be problematic. Like, political or religious stuff perhaps working against an applicant? I think I remember seeing a space for "website" on Berkeley's app, so it got me thinking. Plus, I'm doing a lot of digital humanities work now so I would like to showcase it. 

[ProfLorax]

The nice thing about sites like LinkedIn and Academia.Edu is that you have a professional online profile for search committees to find if they google your name. Most importantly, you can obsessively check the stats to see how many people have been googling your name and checking out your profile. I was happy to have as many sites as possible to compulsively check during January, February, and March.

[lisajay]

Plus, I'm doing a lot of digital humanities work now so I would like to showcase it. 

 

FWIW, i included a link to my vimeo profile (which is where my video scholarship lives) in my SOP. i had asked around, & the general consensus seemed to be that it certainly wouldn't hurt.

[asleepawake]

So... this is what most academic websites look like now:

 

I would say most people do have have personal webpages anymore. LinkedIn and Academia.edu are both better options.