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...is now functional, by popular request. There are only 191 profiles currently in the database with applicants who applied MD/PhD to any medical school.
MDapplicants.com MD/PhD Search
- Thread starter xaelia
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"they"Caristra said:
"they" is just lail' ol' me. I've just been a little busier during 3rd-year of medical school. As for the waitlist...hmm. Check back later tonight. I'm feeling like not studying.
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sen said:
I second this. Being able to search waitlist outcomes would be great.
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Is the newly implemented waitlist search feature what you were looking for?TheMightyAngus said:
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That is great. I relied on google search to find MD/PhD profiles this year, but it wasn't very efficient.
p.s. I am using wireless internet for the fist time, and this is so cool. I'm in Barnes&Noble, and I'm on SDN.
I know I'm way behind the times, but this is my first new laptop in over 5 years.
p.s. I am using wireless internet for the fist time, and this is so cool. I'm in Barnes&Noble, and I'm on SDN.
I know I'm way behind the times, but this is my first new laptop in over 5 years.
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Most of the upgrades to MDapplicants.com have been mostly invisible. For instance, 38% of searches originate via the Select School interface...however, that page is dynamically generated from the database every time the page is loaded. This was fine when the site was smaller; now that there are 4500 profiles, and it takes 2-4 seconds for that database query. Last night, I cached the page generation so it only takes 0.04 seconds instead. This should speed up the entire site overall.
Most of the problems I'm solving right now are problems of scale. When the site was small, the primary issue was returning the maximum number of search results. Now, I'm trying to find automagical ways to return smaller numbers of higher-quality results - both trying to define what a higher-quality search result might be, and to implement it.
At some point I need to rewrite the site to join the web, 2006, with better use of style sheets. Luckily, there's only about 18 pages, all told, on the site - they just tend to have a great deal of complicated code on them to generate everything. I've also toyed with the idea of supplementing the comment system with a forum for further discussion of applications to each individual medical school....
Good thing the most expensive vacation of my life is coming up next year. Only chumps study for Step 2!
Most of the problems I'm solving right now are problems of scale. When the site was small, the primary issue was returning the maximum number of search results. Now, I'm trying to find automagical ways to return smaller numbers of higher-quality results - both trying to define what a higher-quality search result might be, and to implement it.
At some point I need to rewrite the site to join the web, 2006, with better use of style sheets. Luckily, there's only about 18 pages, all told, on the site - they just tend to have a great deal of complicated code on them to generate everything. I've also toyed with the idea of supplementing the comment system with a forum for further discussion of applications to each individual medical school....
Good thing the most expensive vacation of my life is coming up next year. Only chumps study for Step 2!
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xaelia said:
sweet
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I wouldn't; most webmasters get this idea in their head as soon as their website gets popular, and it usually leads to a vacant forum. The forum probably wouldn't be as popular as you expect, particularly since a lot of your traffic is coming from SDN, and I can't imagine any topics you could have there not fitting into the pre-allo forum here.xaelia said:
Good call on replacing the tables, though! 😉
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Yo, many props xaelia, I have always loved the site and its simplicity/lack of spam. Keep it up. (pun intended)
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I have a misc. question of folks trying to use the site....
How frustrating, or not, are the profiles that have been abandoned? I was thinking of implementing a profile scoring system that took into account the completeness and information available in a profile and provided contextual information in the search results how valuable a profile may or may not be....
How frustrating, or not, are the profiles that have been abandoned? I was thinking of implementing a profile scoring system that took into account the completeness and information available in a profile and provided contextual information in the search results how valuable a profile may or may not be....
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By abandoned, do you mean profiles that haven't checked the 'I'm done for sure' box? I'm not annoyed by those at all. In fact, when I search MDApplicants, I always uncheck the box. I think that a lot of people probably stop caring about checking that box as soon as they get admitted. You know, everyone's all intense about the process until they get in, at which point they're like, "Damn that was easy. Who cares about my stats?"
The incomplete profiles are just as useful as the complete ones.
The incomplete profiles are just as useful as the complete ones.
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I agree with Cent. I don't mind incomplete profiles- they're better than nothing.
AND THANKS FOR THE WAITLIST SEARCH FEATURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND THANKS FOR THE WAITLIST SEARCH FEATURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
