MDapplicants.com launched - Please contribute!

[xaelia]

After spending the last few months intermittently browsing this forum, there has been this one particular recurring theme I have noticed in the postings:

"My name is X, my stats are Y, do I have a chance to get into Z (or any) medical school?"

Understandably, with over twice as many applicants as their are spots available, prospective medical students are, with a dearth of tangible data for comparative self-evaluation, a little neurotic. You know who you are.

Wonderfully, most of these sincere questions get answered, often by the same angels in the forums, over and over, volunteering some general information about themselves and their experiences in the process to help guide those just beginning the grasp the scope of what they face.

I thought I would create a website, in the database-driven-automated-searchable spirit of our fondly ressurrected Interview Feedback, where those who have completed the process could share a brief profile of stats, general information and the final disposition of their files at the schools they applied to.

The site, http://MDapplicants.com/ is now live!

To make it a useful resource for prospective medical students, however, it desperately needs contributions from the community, just as Interview Feedback would not be the invaluable resource it is today without its rich supply of user-supplied data. Please take a moment to visit MDapplicants.com and add your profile to the database, particularly those of you browsing these forums who are already in medical school. Please share the URL of this site among your medical student friends and ask them to contribute as well. I am hoping to have 500-1000 profiles by June in order to have a minimally useful sample size for the next wave of medical school applications.

Thanks!

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[BushBaby]

WOW..this is sorta cool ..thx

Now can more people add their profile so I can have a search that doesn't turn up "0 results.

 

[Mike59]

I don't mean to rain on your parade,

BUT

Doesn't the inherent tendency of schools to interview and accept students from a wide variety of backgrounds and GPA/MCAT dilute the value of your site?

Harvard all the way down to D.O. schools, each will post stats such as: MCAT range: 23-43, GPA range: 3.0-4.0.

What do you expect your site to accomplish? Just curious

 

[indianboy]

While this is true Mike59, I imagine that one will find that most scores that are posted are not too far from the averages listed by the school. If they are outliers, the EC's and other activities/accomplishments/demographics will shed light into why they were able to get in with a lower score, or why someone with sparse EC's etc... would get in with very high scores. If it collects enough data, it will be a useful site.

Hope that Helps.

PShankOut

 

[xaelia]

Mike59:
I would imagine, given a large enough sample size, that the acceptances/interviews at a school would form a bell curve around whichever average MCAT or GPA...with the curve being wider, especially at the lower end, for interviews. If someone with a certain MCAT score were searching the site, they might see that people with scores similar to theirs were frequently interviewed at Tulane, but rarely interviewed at Harvard. And that may be useful information in picking a realistic range of schools to apply to....

At least, that might be one goal the site could aspire to providing with enough data....if you can think of something that might be added to the site to make it more useful, I'd be happy to pursue it.

Thanks!

 

[::Seabass::]

hmm, it is Baylor College of Medicine, not Baylor University

I know the Texas schools are hard, but there must be a way to show that you didn't get rejected from the schools due to the ranking system, you'll never really know about some anyways. also, I am waiting to hear post interview on some schools, and it instead shows up that I have been rejected. this is tricky I know

 

[banannie]

this sounds like a really cool idea

i will be happy to fill it out in very great detail, once i'm done the admissions process

but . . . it does seem a little bit dangerous, because it's a pretty easy way for admissions committees to find out where specific applicants are applying, where they're interviewing, and where they've been accepted.

i'd urge caution to anyone who is currently applying, if you feel like you want that information private until May 15th.

But xaelia, please do send out a reminder in a few months, as I am sure that many current applicants would be happy to put in all of their info when they're complete, and many new applicants would love to take advantage of this resource!

 

[shamthis]

i concur with banannie...my entry, 00005, was deleted because there is enough information in that profile to conclusively identify me. its a stretch to suspect adcoms of using that information in an underhanded light, but in general i dont feel comfortable disclosing all i did. hence, "2nd thoughts, pls delete"...

however, i do think this is a great resource for premeds, and all past applicants should create a profile. xaelia, still a few glitches- i.e., confusion between waiting for response and post int rejection, etc...

sham

 

[xaelia]

Originally posted by shamthis
however, i do think this is a great resource for premeds, and all past applicants should create a profile. xaelia, still a few glitches- i.e., confusion between waiting for response and post int rejection, etc...
sham

Yeah, it's not really feasible to separate out "no decision yet made" vs. actual rejections in the add forms; the site is geared towards displaying contributions from those who have completed the process and know their final disposition from everywhere. I simply left blank all the schools I applied to that I didn't know the final disposition from, and I'll go back over the next couple months to update.

As for the deletions...I do want to add an option on the Update form to allow people to delete their submissions if they have second thoughts. Version 1.1...as for admissions spies, somehow I think they're a) busy enough already and b) only this forum knows of this site's existence right now. If at some point the site gets popular enough that Premed advisors are recommending it, then perhaps it'll be on the radar screen of Medical School Adcom.

Thanks! (and, I'll delete profile #5)

 

[shamthis]

you da man

 

[xaelia]

43 profiles on the first day of existence...neat stuff. Something tells me StudentDoctor.net is a little top-heavy for the applicant pool, as 7/9ths of the profiles have had MCATs of 30 or higher....

And yes, banannie, I'll definitely be subtly interjecting suggestions that people add their profiles to the site throughout the upcoming acceptance season; I'm surprised I had such response already this early.

 

[wallie]

interesting info on the site already......but is there a place where the profile says that the decisions aren't final yet? It seems like pending apps are in the reject list, is that right? It's a little terrifying to look at these at this point in the cycle--looks more grim than it may turn out to be for these folks.

I would definitely post my info a little later in the cycle. Not so much that I'm worried about remaining anonymous to adcoms, but more that I don't think I could stand to see all my pending apps in the reject list!

 

[xaelia]

Heh, yeah, the way the data is displayed is not for the faint-of-heart if you're still waiting to hear back from schools. You can wait until you know your final disposition everywhere first.

Site notes:
I added 19 osteopathic schools I somehow left off the list by accident, so it should have all the US and Canadian medical schools on it now (if you see one missing, let me know).

I added an overall "Site Stats" to the "About This Site" page...as of the time of this posting, "This site indexes 51 profiles, with an average overall GPA of 3.59 and an average MCAT score of 31.4. These applicants applied to an average of 12.2 schools, were invited to an average of 4.9 interviews, and received an average of 1.6 acceptances." Hopefully those last two numbers will go up a lot in the coming months!

 

[lola]

wow! does it suck to be a california resident. this site is good in a way, but it also is sort of depressing and frustrating for us non-urm californians

 

[indianboy]

There is no category for pre-interview withdrawals. Or am I just being anti-social?

Hope that Helps.

PShankOut

 

[Katie]

great site! I posted my info and am the only MD resident to do so, hope we get some more..

 

[momofthree]

This is really an interesting site...is it possible to also see an overview of the schools ...ie be able to click on a school and look at the entries for that particular school instead of having to search for each school....

Kris

 

[xaelia]

Originally posted by indianboy
There is no category for pre-interview withdrawals. Or am I just being anti-social?

Hope that Helps.

PShankOut

If you check "Applied", "Secondary", and "Withdrew" it will state that you "Withdrew Post-Secondary." If you check "Applied", "Secondary", "Interview", and "Withdrew" it will state you "Withdrew Post-Interview". It's kind of hard to differentiate between people who were invited to interviews but didn't go, and people who went to their interviews and withdrew before a final decision was made. You should assume checking "Interview" to mean that you received an interview invitation, not that you attended the interview. You can always clarify in the comments.

Originally posted by momofthree
This is really an interesting site...is it possible to also see an overview of the schools ...ie be able to click on a school and look at the entries for that particular school instead of having to search for each school....

Kris

Hmm...that's a good idea. I'm always a fan of different ways to search and parse data. I'll have to think about the best way to present and access a page like that, and perhaps I'll work on it this weekend if I get a chance. Thanks!

 

[pillowhead]

bump
this site is a good idea.

 

[xaelia]

Here's the other approach to browsing profiles, as suggested by momofthree:

http://mdapplicants.com/selectschool.php

You can see the list of schools and the number of profiles that have applied...clicking on any school brings up a summary page that shows the groupings of "Applied, Not Interviewed", "Interviewed, Not Accepted", and "Interviewed, Accepted" along with average GPA and MCAT for each group. Kind of interesting, when you get a sufficient sample size and can see the progression of increasing MCAT and GPA, such as for George Washington:

http://mdapplicants.com/schoolsummary.php?schoolid=20

 

[xaelia]

Just one last bump to see if I can eke out enough profiles to reach double digits.

So far, 96 profiles, over 5000 searches, and over 200 MB of traffic from the webserver....

Thanks to everyone who contributed, and good luck to all those still waiting for decisions!

 

[Hall guy]

bump

http://MDapplicants.com/