Personal Homepage

[DeleteMePlease]

Hi,

 

is anybody else having a personal homepage? I read on these forums that they can help with applications. So I set one up with CV, Projects, and a small blog about Computer Science (my major) topics. I also put a link to my website on my SoP.

 

Now, I am monitoring access to the website. I was wondering if anybody else is doing it and how much visits they get. If so, what are your experiences?

 

So far as I can see three (out of 9) universities have visited my site. That hopefully means that I have passed the first barrier (GPA, GRE scores) and am seriously considered.

One came from Google so it seems like they are doing background checks of applicants.

 

Thanks!

Edited January 20, 2014 by GermanStudent

[TakeruK]

I have one but I only created it after I already started my PhD program. I think they might be helpful to have, if you have the time to create one during your applications. However, I don't think it makes such a difference that an applicant absolutely must spend their time doing this! 

 

I do think that all academics, especially current graduate students, should have an academic webpage. It's a good way to introduce yourself to others who are curious about you (e.g. people who saw your name on a talk or a poster, or people you meet at a conference). I don't get very many hits on mine and I think most of them are actually just web robots crawling the web, but I do notice spikes during and after I present something at a conference. 

 

So, if you are able to start one now, it's great

[DeleteMePlease]

Well I am using it mostly to find out who is interested in me and also uploaded some additional stuff there I couldn't put in on my application like links to all my projects and some slides I made. 
 

It seems like adcoms are in fact googleing you. I tried to make my results as positive as possible and I think the website helps a lot. I also have a Twitter account where I only post "serious" content. In fact, one of my POIs is following me and encouraged me to apply via Twitter (yeah that really happened).