Creating a Better SDN Spreadsheet

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Narmerguy

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ORIGINAL POST said:
======ORIGINAL POST=====
Hey Everyone,

If you didn't know, SDN a few years ago came together to create a legitimate, free spreadsheet (google doc) of all the US Allopathic and Osteopathic schools, collating all the MCAT/GPA/etc data. This sheet has been useful for tons of applicants as a free resource, but I think we can make it better. The last time it was updated was March 7th, 2012--nearly 2 years ago.

What I'm proposing is that we update the MCAT/GPA info on the sheet. Additionally, I think a resource that a lot of students would appreciate would be things about the actual school's curriculum and finances. We could create a separate spreadsheet for this too, but it might be more useful to just keep it all in one spreadsheet.

I think we could turn this sheet into an even more essential resource with some of the following improvements:
  • Update (where possible) the GPA/MCAT info
  • Add a column for whether the school require's a thesis before graduation
  • Add a column for whether the school uses a 1-year, 1.5-year, or 2-year preclinical portion
  • Add a column for whether the school offers merit aid / average indebtedness (if this can be found in a free fashion)
  • Add a column for whether the school is P/F, H/P/F, etc
While GPA/MCAT are important information when choosing schools to apply, I think this other information is also important.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? What other information might we include, and would it be better to just create a separate spreadsheet for this entirely? If each person took a school or two and searched for the information, we could be done in less than a week.

Edit: New template is up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtXl1rN3VAffdHlIQlRyWWNvZjBiNjFUQ09jdVRKLXc&usp=sharing

Do you have thoughts on categories that can be added/removed? After we figure this out we can begin populating this bad boy.

I think I should also point out that this won't be the final format. If we can't get enough information for some columns we will drop them in the final version. Plus we can move things around or hide them as necessary, etc. This is primarily to get us the information we need to work with.

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Great idea. Might be worthwhile to add a column for in-state or regional preference, and how much? A lot of applicants, lacking this data, crack their heads on this wall.

Hey Everyone,

If you didn't know, SDN a few years ago came together to create a legitimate, free spreadsheet (google doc) of all the US Allopathic and Osteopathic schools, collating all the MCAT/GPA/etc data. This sheet has been useful for tons of applicants as a free resource, but I think we can make it better. The last time it was updated was March 7th, 2012--nearly 2 years ago.

What I'm proposing is that we update the MCAT/GPA info on the sheet. Additionally, I think a resource that a lot of students would appreciate would be things about the actual school's curriculum and finances. We could create a separate spreadsheet for this too, but it might be more useful to just keep it all in one spreadsheet.

I think we could turn this sheet into an even more essential resource with some of the following improvements:
  • Update (where possible) the GPA/MCAT info
  • Add a column for whether the school require's a thesis before matriculation
  • Add a column for whether the school uses a 1-year, 1.5-year, or 2-year preclinical portion
  • Add a column for whether the school offers merit aid / average indebtedness (if this can be found in a free fashion)
  • Add a column for whether the school is P/F, H/P/F, etc
While GPA/MCAT are important information when choosing schools to apply, I think this other information is also important.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? What other information might we include, and would it be better to just create a separate spreadsheet for this entirely? If each person took a school or two and searched for the information, we could be done in less than a week.
 
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While having everyone crowd-source information works well in theory, it's generally better if a select few people collaborate on it so that it doesn't become a heaping mess of disorganized and unverified information (e.g. half the GPAs/MCAT reports are for acceptees, the other half are for matriculates and no one knows which is which). Just my $0.02.
 
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I would absolutely love an updated spreadsheet.
 
Might be nice to invite any current med students to share any information that may not be super readily available on the application websites like specific yearly schedules/small group attendance/lectures, etc, etc, etc.

I'd also be a fan of crowdsourcing, but only to trustworthy people.

The formatting of the spreadsheet also leaves a lot to be desired.
 
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I can help out as well.

Other things to consider: GPA/MCAT percentiles, internal rankings for P/F schools (i.e. pseudo P/F schools), organ systems based v. traditional curriculum, exam scheduling (i.e. every 4 or 6 wks).
 
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Another column for extra time sinks such as mandatory group work and labs would go along well with the mandatory attendance and recording section. There could also be an inclusion of when step 1 and step 2 are generally taken since there is increasing variability in the timing along with the average grades for each institution (applicants seem to value this data despite their general uselessness in choosing a school).
 
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Another column for extra time sinks such as mandatory groupwork or labs would go along with the mandatory attendance and recording section.

Don't you mean curriculum enrichment and team building?


:naughty:
 
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This makes a lot of sense. I think many applicants do a lot of this work themselves (eg figuring out which schools are true P/F) and it would make a lot of peoples lives easier if this info was already available.

In fact, it's just the sort of info that the MSAR should include, but doesn't.
 
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Hey Everyone,

If you didn't know, SDN a few years ago came together to create a legitimate, free spreadsheet (google doc) of all the US Allopathic and Osteopathic schools, collating all the MCAT/GPA/etc data. This sheet has been useful for tons of applicants as a free resource, but I think we can make it better. The last time it was updated was March 7th, 2012--nearly 2 years ago.

What I'm proposing is that we update the MCAT/GPA info on the sheet. Additionally, I think a resource that a lot of students would appreciate would be things about the actual school's curriculum and finances. We could create a separate spreadsheet for this too, but it might be more useful to just keep it all in one spreadsheet.

I think we could turn this sheet into an even more essential resource with some of the following improvements:
  • Update (where possible) the GPA/MCAT info
  • Add a column for whether the school require's a thesis before graduation
  • Add a column for whether the school uses a 1-year, 1.5-year, or 2-year preclinical portion
  • Add a column for whether the school offers merit aid / average indebtedness (if this can be found in a free fashion)
  • Add a column for whether the school is P/F, H/P/F, etc
While GPA/MCAT are important information when choosing schools to apply, I think this other information is also important.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? What other information might we include, and would it be better to just create a separate spreadsheet for this entirely? If each person took a school or two and searched for the information, we could be done in less than a week.

==================================================
Edit: Additional Suggestions:
  • In-State Preference
  • Recorded Lectures
  • Mandatory Attendance

Sounds great! How will you be collecting data? I'd like to help if possible!
 
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This sounds like a great idea! I think we have a good number of med students who frequent the pre-allo forum who can easily fill out the information for their school. And people could volunteer to scour through the school-specific threads to find info.
 
Also, placing it in a 'Table' from the start makes it far, FAR easier to sort through.
I know when I downloaded the old one, Step 1 was turning it into a table, and step 2 was creating conditional formatting for the 'LizzyM' column and the 'IS%' column which used my entered stats to automatically color code the schools...all I had to do was glance down the list and look for double greens to get the population I should primarily be looking into.
 
Lots of great suggestions to include. I think getting input from medical students would be key. Additionally, if there's something more we should be collecting that premeds don't often think of, be sure to bring that up now (if the information can be found).

I agree that we'll have to have some control over who's contributing to make this reliable and efficient. I think what we might do is open up a spreadsheet to a few people identified here, and then anyone else who wants to make a contribution will post it here. It may be best to create a form that people can fill out to enter data. This way the data is collected into a spreadsheet, without actually giving public access to the spreadsheet itself. I like that idea, but am curious to see if someone else has another.
 
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This could be a handy companion to the MSAR. Good thread OP.
 
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Lots of great suggestions to include. I think getting input from medical students would be key. Additionally, if there's something more we should be collecting that premeds don't often think of, be sure to bring that up now (if the information can be found).

I agree that we'll have to have some control over who's contributing to make this reliable and efficient. I think what we might do is open up a spreadsheet to a few people identified here, and then anyone else who wants to make a contribution will post it here. It may be best to create a form that people can fill out to enter data. This way the data is collected into a spreadsheet, without actually giving public access to the spreadsheet itself. I like that idea, but am curious to see if someone else has another.

Well, this post combined with my slightly buzzed state of mind in prep to go out tonight has got me going...

I have had a decent amount of experience with things like this. I think if you try to do the crowdsourcing in this manner you're still going to end up with a cluster**** of information and counter-information. That will make it difficult to call useful, likely end up as gibberish, and ultimately be deemed as insufficient and not a reliable alternative to materials people already complain about (e.g. MSAR). GTLO seemed to end up with that result, too. :(

An alternative capitalizes on the incredible resources we have at SDN:

xP4EruY.png


I honestly believe this a huge undertaking but would vastly improve the quality of the premedical content on SDN.

Edit: To add, all the columns (independent variables) would have to be predetermined before the collaboration begins. This could be determined by SDN coming together and listing the most common answerable questions about schools (Accepted GPA?, Matriculated GPA?, Secondary Cost?, Rolling/Non-rolling Admissions?, Interview Format?, Mandatory Lectures?, Recorded Lectures?, etc). The list of these would be inserted into an Excel document to be answered, and each answer would require an "Insert Comment" in Excel with the source citation. The Excel Document and the Predetermined One-Page School-Specific Word Document would be sent to each medical student to report back with - this allows for a much smoother operation down the line.
 
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I'm just not sure we have enough people on board to specifically have 2 student at each med school unknown to each other, etc...
A lot of this info you can get from the internet. Actually, almost all of it.
 
I think we should update the fields we have first before adding new information. I really like this idea though and I'm in to help out!
 
I'm just not sure we have enough people on board to specifically have 2 student at each med school unknown to each other, etc...

Actually, I made 2 as a limit. I think you are underestimating the size of the community - we'd likely have more than that from every school offering to help, if they know about it. That just takes a post in the school-specific thread with a link to message to 'apply'. And since they apply and verify independently, they won't know the other student participating.

Also, I could probably fill in every single desired column for the schools I have interviewed at, and most certainly the ones I will be accepted to, not to mention attend. But if I tried to fill in the information for some random school, I doubt it'd be nearly as easy or accurate.

A lot of this info you can get from the internet. Actually, almost all of it.

Unless you're directly stealing the same exact information from one source (e.g. MSAR), it's time consuming, unreliable, and inconsistent. A medical student should be able to get nearly all the reliable information from just a couple sources because they should, ideally, know their own school. They do the heavy lifting, but on a much smaller scale. It makes it more manageable all around.

Whoa, where the heck did this magical process diagram come from?

A six pack and an hour long wait for a ride.
 
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Actually, I made 2 as a limit. I think you are underestimating the size of the community - we'd likely have more than that from every school offering to help, if they know about it. That just takes a post in the school-specific thread with a link to message to 'apply'. And since they apply and verify independently, they won't know the other student participating.

Also, I could probably fill in every single desired column for the schools I have interviewed at, and most certainly the ones I will be accepted to, not to mention attend. But if I tried to fill in the information for some random school, I doubt it'd be nearly as easy or accurate.



Unless you're directly stealing the same exact information from one source (e.g. MSAR), it's time consuming, unreliable, and inconsistent. A medical student should be able to get nearly all the reliable information from just a couple sources because they should, ideally, know their own school. They do the heavy lifting, but on a much smaller scale. It makes it more manageable all around.



A six pack and an hour long wait for a ride.
I'm not underestimating the SIZE of the community, just questioning their willingness to volunteer for something that simultaneously gives them some (admittedly small) amount of responsibility and compromises their anonymity, especially when they are not the beneficiaries in any way other than the satisfaction of contributing.
And I don't think it's that time consuming to use the internet to find basic facts. If you cut your system off at the 5schools/person level, it'd still function just fine.
 
I'm not underestimating the SIZE of the community, just questioning their willingness to volunteer for something that simultaneously gives them some (admittedly small) amount of responsibility and compromises their anonymity, especially when they are not the beneficiaries in any way other than the satisfaction of contributing.

I imagine being on this forum means you would prefer to benefit your community, especially if you frequent your school-specific thread to answer questions.

Anonymity isn't really an issue unless you require a very serious 'verification.' Just asking for some proof of admission/attendance (e.g. blurred out name on acceptance letter, blurred out face/name on an ID badge, etc) and it wouldn't change anything.

As for beneficiary, I think you're right to an extent. But we could allow for recognition (opt-in for participants to be listed on a "Contributor" list), the fact the school-specific threads won't be plagued by repeat questions, and I think, just like volunteering, it's a sense of helping others for the greater good. Also, to put all this information together for just one school would take hardly more than a moderately long survey.

And I don't think it's that time consuming to use the internet to find basic facts. If you cut your system off at the 5schools/person level, it'd still function just fine.

Basic facts, yes. But not all these questions are basic. You also lose the context of where those numbers come from, when, and how reliable they are. I have a document saved on my computer from the internet where the reported average MCAT for MCW is a 35, and it doesn't even list whether it's matriculate or accepted applicants. It's also going to put a lot more work on the hands of those 5 people. Additionally, if you don't attend a school it's much more difficult to find information, as the released information from school to school is drastically different. It may take a medical student 10 minutes to fill out a 100 question survey about their school, where it'd take hours for a random person to find all that information from random sources.

I think I did go a bit overboard on requiring sources for all information, though. As long as two medical students provide the same information it should be enough. If they don't match up or something seems fishy someone higher up can double check.

Edit: In the end, it's all about how reliable you want this information to be. If you want to just get that information out there and are less concerned about its validity, I could throw up a survey for every school in the school-specific forum and just take the top answer for each of those and get a decent gauge of school compositions. But if you want something that's closer to an official representation of the schools like MSAR, you're going to have to be a little more careful than that.
 
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Blurred out name on acceptance letter haha. You're not a medical student until you're actually in medical school, taking classes. And even then many students don't know much about step 1 or the clinical years until they're halfway through M2.
 
Blurred out name on acceptance letter haha. You're not a medical student until you're actually in medical school, taking classes.

No need to be so haughty and condescending. I was just throwing out examples of possible verification processes.
 
Maybe someone can get @kfre2435 out of hiding to revamp the MD/PhD Compilation.
 
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I imagine being on this forum means you would prefer to benefit your community, especially if you frequent your school-specific thread to answer questions.

Anonymity isn't really an issue unless you require a very serious 'verification.' Just asking for some proof of admission/attendance (e.g. blurred out name on acceptance letter, blurred out face/name on an ID badge, etc) and it wouldn't change anything.

As for beneficiary, I think you're right to an extent. But we could allow for recognition (opt-in for participants to be listed on a "Contributor" list), the fact the school-specific threads won't be plagued by repeat questions, and I think, just like volunteering, it's a sense of helping others for the greater good. Also, to put all this information together for just one school would take hardly more than a moderately long survey.



Basic facts, yes. But not all these questions are basic. You also lose the context of where those numbers come from, when, and how reliable they are. I have a document saved on my computer from the internet where the reported average MCAT for MCW is a 35, and it doesn't even list whether it's matriculate or accepted applicants. It's also going to put a lot more work on the hands of those 5 people. Additionally, if you don't attend a school it's much more difficult to find information, as the released information from school to school is drastically different. It may take a medical student 10 minutes to fill out a 100 question survey about their school, where it'd take hours for a random person to find all that information from random sources.

I think I did go a bit overboard on requiring sources for all information, though. As long as two medical students provide the same information it should be enough. If they don't match up or something seems fishy someone higher up can double check.

Edit: In the end, it's all about how reliable you want this information to be. If you want to just get that information out there and are less concerned about its validity, I could throw up a survey for every school in the school-specific forum and just take the top answer for each of those and get a decent gauge of school compositions. But if you want something that's closer to an official representation of the schools like MSAR, you're going to have to be a little more careful than that.

Some thoughts:
1) Being able to source some of the information with public links could be helpful in establishing that the information was obtained not by simply copying MSAR data
2) We could employ a variety of verifications and just let people decide which (People could send a mod an email with their school address, or send a PM with ID & Name blurred, etc).
3) We probably don't really need to focus too much on strict verification. If we focus on letting forum regulars who have been on SDN for a while to contribute, those that are current medical students have no real incentive to lie about their background and it should be fine to take them at their word.
4) If we have multiple people contributing with a little bit of overlap, it will become obvious if some of the data is incorrect.

For the most part, a lot of this is information that's out there, it's just a matter of collecting it all into one place and organizing it so everyone can use it efficiently. There have been a lot of great suggestions so far, I think we should spit out a few more and then we'll take stock and make a plan.
 
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Some thoughts:
1) Being able to source some of the information with public links could be helpful in establishing that the information was obtained not by simply copying MSAR data
2) We could employ a variety of verifications and just let people decide which (People could send a mod an email with their school address, or send a PM with ID & Name blurred, etc).
3) We probably don't really need to focus too much on strict verification. If we focus on letting forum regulars who have been on SDN for a while to contribute, those that are current medical students have no real incentive to lie about their background and it should be fine to take them at their word.
4) If we have multiple people contributing with a little bit of overlap, it will become obvious if some of the data is incorrect.

For the most part, a lot of this is information that's out there, it's just a matter of collecting it all into one place and organizing it so everyone can use it efficiently. There have been a lot of great suggestions so far, I think we should spit out a few more and then we'll take stock and make a plan.

I could certainly help in spearheading this, but I will probably unable to contribute until this spring due to my current workload.
 

Gonna be honest here and say I think you're expecting a lot of the med students with this plan. I'd love to contribute info about my school if it helps people out, but I have no interest in taking the time to photograph something of mine, edit it for anonymity, and then send it to somebody on SDN for your approval when the only tangible benefit is something like a little badge next to my name, especially when I should probably be using this time to study for school, work on research, etc. I'd imagine most other med students feel the same way.
 
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Would it be too much work to include in parentheses, perhaps, the year from which the data came? I know a lot of schools are in the midst of changing their curriculums, and it would be helpful to know from/'til when the years of preclinical, grading and Step scores are valid so we know if it's (soon to be) outdated or not. If it's too much work, maybe we can just have a column that indicates whether prospective curriculum changes are in the works.
 
We should totes do this, but isnt there like a service on the AAMC website that you subscribe to and they tell you everything? MSAR?
 
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We should totes do this, but isnt there like a service on the AAMC website that you subscribe to and they tell you everything? MSAR?

btw, i paid for that so if you need me to screen capture them info, i can do that.

That's a good approach if you want to get served by the AAMC when they find out that you are, for free, publicly giving away information that you purchased from them for your private use.
 
That's a good approach if you want to get served by the AAMC when they find out that you are, for free, publicly giving away information that you purchased from them for your private use.
i am using it privately and just happened to share it with my friends, in private. LOL
 
i am using it privately and just happened to share it with my friends, in private. LOL

If there are AAMC data in there it WILL get taken down and the whole project will be bunk, which I believe is what happened the first time around.
 
If there are AAMC data in there it WILL get taken down and the whole project will be bunk, which I believe is what happened the first time around.
what can we do, then?
 
what can we do, then?
The point is that if we do the legwork ourselves, the final product is ours.
We can make a product that is more useful than the MSAR, formatted nicely, and free.
 
The point is that if we do the legwork ourselves, the final product is ours.
We can make a product that is more useful than the MSAR, formatted nicely, and free.
i see...where do we get the info? normally SOMs dont publish their stuff til later later...i could be dead wrong here.
 
i see...where do we get the info? normally SOMs dont publish their stuff til later later...i could be dead wrong here.

I've seen a lot of data presented about curriculum, scores, average debt, etc at interview days, and I'm sure current medical students have access to that data (and more) as well.
 
I've seen a lot of data presented about curriculum, scores, average debt, etc at interview days, and I'm sure current medical students have access to that data (and more) as well.
Oh ok. I didn't know that.
 
Also while at it, are we allow to put secondaries questions in there as well? LOL sorry new to this.
 
Also while at it, are we allow to put secondaries questions in there as well? LOL sorry new to this.
There's an entire section of SDN on this...easier just to hyperlink the name to the school's SDN page.
 
with actual questions?
Yup.
There are some holes, sure...but each list has the prior year's list at the top, and if you go back 1 or 2 years you find pretty much every school.
 
Yup.
There are some holes, sure...but each list has the prior year's list at the top, and if you go back 1 or 2 years you find pretty much every school.
do you happen to have the link to that master thread?
 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtXl1rN3VAffdHlIQlRyWWNvZjBiNjFUQ09jdVRKLXc&usp=sharing

Ok, here's the template for information that we need to fill. It's not editable yet. The sheet includes MD & DO schools. Anything being left out here before we begin populating the sheet? The sections included at the moment are:

Medical School Name
State
Allo/Osteo

LizzyM Score
cGPA Median/Average
sGPA Median/Average
MCAT Total
VR
PS
BS

Total Applicants
In State
Out of State
IS%
OS%

Total Interviewees
In State
Out of State
IS%
OS%

Total Acceptances
In State
Out of State
IS%
OS%

Total Matriculants
In State
Out of State
IS%
OS%

Interview Format (MMI vs Traditional)
In State/ Regional Preference (None, Mild, Strong)
Rolling vs NonRolling
Secondary Fee

Average Tuition -OR- Out of State Tuition (2014)
Average In-State Tuition (if applicable)
Average Student Indebtedness
Maximum Merit Aid Offered (full ride, full tuition, % of tuition, $ amount,)

Class Size
AOA (yes/no)

Preclinical Curriculum Length (1, 1.5, 2)
Grading (P/F, H/P/F, H/HP/P/F, etc)
Internal Ranking Used?
Traditional vs Organ Systems vs Other
Recorded Lectures (none, A, V, A/V)
Lecture Attendance (Mandatory, Not Mandatory)
AOA (Yes/No)

Required Thesis? (Yes/No)
Research Funding Available?

Step 1 Schedule (Winter Year 1, Summer before Year 2, etc)
Time off for Step 1 (2 weeks, 4 weeks, 2 months, etc)
Step 2 Schedule (Summer before Year 3, Winter Year 4, etc)
Time off for Step 2 (3 weeks, 3 months, etc)

MBA (Yes/No)
MPP (Yes/No)
MPH (Yes/No)
JD (Yes/No)
MSTP (Yes/No)
MA (Yes/No)
MS (Yes/No)
 
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Looks pretty good!

Block scheduling?
I dunno if there's wide demand for that question, but it's definitely one of my key points when I'm looking at schools. Perhaps that goes under the 'traditional/organ systems' heading.

Do we need an "IS preference" trinary if we already have IS%?

We should totally use the drop-down function for most of these ones to keep them quick/consistent.
 
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