mdapplicants.com five-year update

[xaelia]

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Members don't see this ad.

15,457 profiles. Hard to imagine the site is 11 years old now.

I've attached a screenshot of the Google Analytics overview of pageviews for the last five years.

Traffic dropped off about 25% after the site was down for over a week, transitioning to new servers. Never did figure out why it hadn't bounced back.

Probably also doesn't help I don't have the funds to rebuild it using adaptive technology for mobile/thin platforms.

In case you're wondering, the total Google Adsense income for the site is $59,594.41, dating back to October 2004. That makes it about break-even, accounting for the cost of the redesign back in 2011.

And the cost of that redesign is the barrier to ever updating matchapplicants.com as well (oof, so hideous).

Thanks to all who have contributed over the years! Future applicants appreciate the efforts, I'm sure ....

 

[Silverflash]

It's a great site and a great resource. Thanks for making it available to us!

I just got my first acceptance, you reminded me that I need to go update my page!

 

[ski89]

15,457 profiles. Hard to imagine the site is 11 years old now.

I've attached a screenshot of the Google Analytics overview of pageviews for the last five years.
View attachment 189028

Traffic dropped off about 25% after the site was down for over a week, transitioning to new servers. Never did figure out why it hadn't bounced back.

Probably also doesn't help I don't have the funds to rebuild it using adaptive technology for mobile/thin platforms.

In case you're wondering, the total Google Adsense income for the site is $59,594.41, dating back to October 2004. That makes it about break-even, accounting for the cost of the redesign back in 2011.

And the cost of that redesign is the barrier to ever updating matchapplicants.com as well (oof, so hideous).

Thanks to all who have contributed over the years! Future applicants appreciate the efforts, I'm sure ....

Thanks for providing a great resource for applicants! I'm curious though, when will you update the site to include new schools like Quinnipiac and others that are soon to come.

 

[mimelim]

Your page views seems to be slowly dropping...

 

[ridethecliche]

Your page views seems to be slowly dropping...

I wonder if it correlates to a drop in views of SDN? Not sure if this is true or not, but it would make sense if the two went a bit hand in hand.

 

[xaelia]

Thanks for providing a great resource for applicants! I'm curious though, when will you update the site to include new schools like Quinnipiac and others that are soon to come.

I'm probably a couple years behind on new schools; if someone wanted to let me know which are missing or opening for the next application cycle, I can see about the SDN admins getting them into the system (after the server crash, it's been hosted by SDN).

 

[235009]

Is this leading up to you asking for money?

 

[Psai]

I wish you could get rid of the useless profiles, there are a ton that have no information on them

 

[Narmerguy]

I wish you could get rid of the useless profiles, there are a ton that have no information on them

Agreed. To continue to make the site useful, I wish more people would add detail to the profiles to provide a clear glimpse to other applicants of the type of successes and profiles that often go together. I bit ironic that I just removed the mdapps link from my SDN account two days ago...it felt a bit excessive to keep broadcasting the profile so long after my season was over.

 

[chizledfrmstone]

How difficult would it be to have a function where an applicant could put in their sGPA, cGPA, MCAT and then it compiles a list of good places to apply?

 

[Frazier]

Sorry about the drop in pageviews, man.
I haven't been able to get my annual 100k in since leaving premed.
...Maybe I've looked at like 3 profiles since.

That said, I just clicked on an ad. That was the first one in 5 years.

Case study on longitudinal user.

 

[xaelia]

Is this leading up to you asking for money?

Hah, no. That'll never happen.

And I do have the ability to remove profiles that are dead/dormant.

There used to be a site I'd made that searched the database for the most similar applicants, and then compiled rates of interview/acceptance etc. at all the schools. But it was based off the old database structure. It might be possible to rebuild ... but, phew, I'd need a lot more hours in the day ....

 

[HingleMcCringleberry]

Are there considerations about adding an MCAT score percentile function to keep the immense data base of old profiles as relevant for the new generation of applicants utilizing the new 2015 MCAT?

 

[xaelia]

Are there considerations about adding an MCAT score percentile function to keep the immense data base of old profiles as relevant for the new generation of applicants utilizing the new 2015 MCAT?

Oh, wow, big changes to the MCAT.

Interesting.

... and super dumb. Scores now range from 472 to 528? Nonsensical.

It's not clear to me whether there's a precise useful mechanism for translating old scores to the new format.

 

[NickNaylor]

@xaelia, would you be willing to open up for some help with keeping things running? I'm guessing doing things like updating the codebase would be somewhat out of the question given the complexity, but what about things like clearing out useless or incomplete profiles?

 

[Narmerguy]

Oh, wow, big changes to the MCAT.

Interesting.

... and super dumb. Scores now range from 472 to 528? Nonsensical.

It's not clear to me whether there's a precise useful mechanism for translating old scores to the new format.

It'll entail converting based on the percentiles, which they haven't published yet.
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/378098/data/mcat2015scorescaleguide.pdf

 

[AlteredScale]

Oh, wow, big changes to the MCAT.

Interesting.

... and super dumb. Scores now range from 472 to 528? Unacceptable.

It's not clear to me whether there's a precise useful mechanism for translating old scores to the new format.

FTFY! 😀

 

[Lee]

I wonder if it correlates to a drop in views of SDN? Not sure if this is true or not, but it would make sense if the two went a bit hand in hand.

It's possibly due to a change in Google search algorithms. SDN activity continues to increase (or at least remain stable depending on the timeline and metric). Sessions per week for SDN over past 4 years:

Note the seasonal variations: March is our highest point each year with big drops at Thanksgiving and over winter break.

Ultimately, MDApps is a fantastic resource for fellow members; it's great to have the opportunity to support it!

 

[Ismet]

It's possibly due to a change in Google search algorithms. SDN activity continues to increase (or at least remain stable depending on the timeline and metric). Sessions per week for SDN over past 4 years:
View attachment 189152
Note the seasonal variations: March is our highest point each year with big drops at Thanksgiving and over winter break.

Ultimately, MDApps is a fantastic resource for fellow members; it's great to have the opportunity to support it!

Pretty impressive trend. Interesting that May/June/July aren't higher with the start of the app cycle.