Student portfolio website checklist.
A good student portfolio does three jobs: it shows your strongest work first, explains who you are in a few lines, and makes it easy to contact you. Use this checklist before you share the link with a recruiter, professor, or admissions reader.
Before you build
Decide who the site is for. A portfolio for engineering internships, one for design roles, and one for graduate school applications should lead with different work. Pick one main reader and order everything for them. If you are unsure whether you need a site at all, read portfolio website vs LinkedIn first.
- Choose three to six projects. Fewer, stronger projects read better than a long list.
- Write one sentence on what you want next: an internship, a research position, freelance work.
- Collect images or screenshots for each project, plus links to code, papers, or live demos.
- Get a current resume as a PDF, and decide whether to show it on the page, link it, or both.
How to describe each project
Most visitors skim. Give each project a short, specific summary before any detail, and make your own contribution obvious, especially on team projects.
- What it is, in one line, without jargon.
- Your role: what you personally designed, built, tested, or wrote.
- Tools and methods you used, named plainly.
- The outcome, stated honestly: what works, what you learned, what you would change.
- A link to the code, report, or live version where you are allowed to share it.
The essentials on the page
- Your name and a one-line description near the top.
- Your strongest project visible without much scrolling.
- A short about section in your own words.
- Contact details and links to profiles such as GitHub or LinkedIn.
- A layout that works on a phone, because links from messages and emails are often opened there.
When a one-page site is enough
For most students, one well-organized page is enough: projects, resume, and contact. That is what the Launch package covers. Launch is $49 (student pricing, regularly $99), with 1 revision round.
If you have detailed case studies, freelance work, or a lot to show, a few pages give each project room. Presence covers up to 3 pages. How much a student website costs breaks down the price, the domain, and hosting, and the web design for students page shows what the student package includes.
Common questions
How many projects should a student portfolio include?
Three to six is a good range for most students. Lead with the work that best matches the role or program you are applying for, and cut anything you would not want to talk about in an interview.
Should I put my resume on my portfolio website?
Yes, in a form that reads quickly on a phone, with a downloadable PDF for people who want the file. Keep both versions in step.
Web design for students
A custom portfolio or resume website for students: one polished page on your own domain, designed around your work, with clear student pricing.