Hyperlinks in SOPs?

[Bombaygunner]

I'm an international candidate applying to the well known American International Relations / Public Policy programs for Fall 2015 admission. Does anyone know how creative applicants can be on SOPs? I'm a journalist and I'd love to provide the reader hyperlinks to my published work in my SOP. Is this advisable? Or do essays get printed out and read in hard-copy? I've seen successful SOPs to LSE for example, where the writer used photographs and text boxes and generally went above and beyond the usual 5-6 paragraphs of black and white text.

 

Would love to hear your thoughts.

[ProfLorax]

I wouldn't do it, but mostly because I think hyperlinks in Word documents and PDF's look unprofessional and ugly. However, I would create an online portfolio of my work and mention it somewhere in my application, so that if adcomms are interested, they could easily go to one place to see my work. 

[TakeruK]

I think this is tough. First, I would make sure to check the application instructions carefully. Some schools explicitly instructed me to not include any outside material whatsoever, including hyperlinks. But other schools also stated I must include hyperlinks to e.g. any papers mentioned in my bibliography etc. 

 

Other than that, I think you have to judge what the school wants and go with whatever advice you can get about the particular program you are applying to. Someone was successfully admitted to my current program with a very non-standard SOP -- it included some funny pictures of their experience and was very creative rather than the standard direct approach used in science SOPs.

 

Finally, I just want to add that you should rely on readers visiting the hyperlinks as little as possible. Make sure your SOP still presents a strong argument even without the external material. 

[Bombaygunner]

Thanks folks!

[leon32]

Why not email the admissions staff and ask?  I know that many of them print out all the applications and read them on paper, so it might be a waste of time.

[Gov2School]

Some applications (not all) have a separate section where you can upload additional work, so I would think rather than put links your SOP, the best thing to do would be to make a word document with your best clips (you can include links, but would also copy/paste the text) and include that as a supplemental material.  You could also add hyperlinks to your resume (separate from your SOP), just know that they may or may not click through.  Most schools have multiple people read each application, and some I'm sure do print out and read in hard copy, so you shouldn't assume they're able or interested in clicking on links.  

 

For your SOP, you can always ask the admissions office if they accept non-traditional statements, but generally speaking the best advice I got from admissions staff is to stick to the instructions exactly as they lay them out.  They have hundreds of applications to read, and while deviating from the instructions might sound to you like being creative, to them it's probably a huge pain to deal with.  If the instructions permit/encourage creativity, then go for it, but if they ask for an essay, write an essay.