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Do graduate committees follow links, to personal websites, the applicant provides on his statement of purpose?

How common is this? If there are no visits one has to assume his application was not accepted / no one is taking a look?

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  • Do they check Facebook? Tinder? etc?
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Jan 14, 2018 at 23:11
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    I would not take the number of visits (including zero) as an indication of lack of interest. Now, please remember, a watched pot doesn't boil. Find something constructive to keep you occupied while you wait for a response.
    – aparente001
    Commented Jan 17, 2018 at 16:58

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For applications like the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, candidates are explicitly told not to include such links, because it creates an unequal playing field, and that these websites might be used as an "end-around" against page and length restrictions. Similar rules might also hold for other applications as a result.

On the other hand, some schools may ask you for such a link, in which case there's a good chance it will be seen if someone is interested in you. But if you're not specifically asked to include such a link in your application, there's no guarantee that anyone will look at whatever's posted.

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  • "there's a good chance it will be seen if someone is interested in you" Can you please elaborate on this?
    – SuperHeroY
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 2:24
  • @SuperHeroY: There's not much to elaborate on. If a faculty member thinks you might be a good fit for her group, then she might look up a website if you listed one to learn more about you.
    – aeismail
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 3:20

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