How to include an unpublished work other than a preprint site (i.e.arXiv) in CS PhD Application I am a MS student in Computer Science, I will apply for PhD position in the following months. I am also planning to contact with Professors these days. I have a paper which co-authors and I think it is strong (which I am the first author). Which will be submitted to a journal in a week. I definitely want to show that work to the admission committee and Professors. 

The problem is that co-authors(2) does not allow me to upload it on arXiv (or any other public preprint service). I am not satisfied with the option of putting the name of the paper as 'submitted' in my CV (or should I be satisfied?). I would like them to have some insight or read it since I think they will find it attractive.

Below there are some options that I could think of, what would you suggest?


Uploading the pdf file to Dropbox(etc.) and putting the link in the CV.
Sending the pdf file attached in the emails that I will send to the Profs. way before the applications
Visiting some Profs. in person and showing them the hard-copy which will be really expensive for me but safe.


P.S: Are the options 1 and 2 risky? Is there any chance that they publish it as it is their own. Note that the same paper has been rejected by a prestigious conference with a different template. Can I testify that the paper is ours in such case?
The graduate school applications I'm familiar with typically have an option to include papers or other supplementary materials.  I don't think you need to worry about people stealing your application materials, but if you are worried then formally including the paper as part of your application seems particularly safe, since the university will have a record of what was submitted, at least in the short term.

Including a link in your CV would be almost as good, and better than a separate e-mail since it ensures that everyone reviewing the CV will have access, whereas many people will ignore an email and then forget they ever received it.  (Of course you could do both.  I don't see either one as being too risky.)

Visiting professors in person and showing them a hard copy is not a feasible option.  I assume you'd be taking the hard copy away with you (otherwise you could simplify things by mailing it, and in any case even a hard copy could enable theft of ideas), which is a major problem since looking over a paper quickly and without further access is not very useful.  Furthermore, there's no good way to explain why you are doing this.  If someone showed me a paper while meeting in person, I'd suggest that they e-mail me a copy to look at later.  It would come across as very strange if they declined to do so without explanation, or if they explained that they were reluctant to give me a copy out of fear that I would steal it.