MDapplicants.com Relaunched

BU Medical Sciences
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shemarty said:
On hold doesn't mean "waitlisted."

I would recommend un-checking "waitlisted" and just put the "on hold" date in the comments box.
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This makes sense. Thanks, I'll make the recommended changes. Checking waitlisted for pre-interview hold sort of worked out well categorically in the old mdapps.
 
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mvenus929 said:
Why would you check waitlisted if you didn't interview at all?
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This is the "pre-interview hold" stage of applications that a handful of schools have.

I would recommend not clicking "waitlist"; I'd just leave it as secondary submitted and put a comment saying you're on the pre-interview hold.

EDIT: look at all of us making the same imperfect solution suggestion at the same time...
 
mvenus929 said:
Why would you check waitlisted if you didn't interview at all?
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It worked out in the old system. But I'll just take the advice given on the board and uncheck waitlisted and make notes on the side.
 
xaelia said:
Awesome.

I'm not sure where that comes from - you can still get to SDN Forums, eh? - but there was one webmaster profiling thing on Google where I checked it off as a social network, and I've since deleted that. If you have some idea which firm's list is being used to block MDA, I can e-mail them directly to try and get it re-categorized as an educational resource. It's a social network in the loosest possible sense....
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I'll check when I'm back there in a couple nights. Yeah for whatever reason it considers it a social networking site (and I agree, it's stupid because I can still get on SDN). Thanks for all your effort though.
 
So what's the verdict on having another notation for "Secondary Sent, not yet complete"?
 
johncalvin said:
So what's the verdict on having another notation for "Secondary Sent, not yet complete"?
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"Secondary received, not yet sent" should be one as well. AMCAS verification is also missing.
 
I know the old site was simplistic and had limited features. I'm sorry but the new site loads painfully slowly and, half the time, not at all. I don't mean to be a hater but I have given up on mdapplicants for now. 🙁
 
FuturePittMed said:
I know the old site was simplistic and had limited features. I'm sorry but the new site loads painfully slowly and, half the time, not at all. I don't mean to be a hater but I have given up on mdapplicants for now
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It's still loading slowly for folks? The server is having no trouble keeping up with requests these days...if there are pages that are hanging on load, then there's another problem I need to find and fix.
 
xaelia said:
It's still loading slowly for folks? The server is having no trouble keeping up with requests these days...if there are pages that are hanging on load, then there's another problem I need to find and fix.
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It doesn't seem to be working at all 75% of the time... just hangs and you get a "link broken" or page not found. I'm trying from 2 different computers in 2 different areas on 2 different ISPs.
 
Site back up.

I have some idea what the culprit is for those hanging pages; I'll try to figure out an alternative strategy than storing data in a form that references the aforementioned nonexistent page.
 
Just removed all the duplicates from the trackboards table; if there's something that's displaying redundantly, navigation that is awkward or produces unexpected results, or something else that looks like it might not be working as intended - I can fix these things! Just let me know...the site is made and remade to meet your needs.
 
JimmerJammerMrK said:
The double login bug is still there, FYI.
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The guy who wrote that part of the code is back from vacation today; I've e-mailed him to see if he has any insights.

I've also tweaked a little bit of the trackboard stuff; a number of events weren't being tracked correctly, it doesn't appear, so I think you will now get proper notification of comments, blogs etc that are posted by profiles you're tracking. I've also added a new page, linked from the index and from myprofile, http://mdapplicants.com/discussion.php which shows all the most recent comments and blog entries, for a unified view to see user activity, and so when you're posting blog entries etc., there's a place people can find that.
 
I still can't get on the site... hasn't worked in days for me.
 
xaelia said:
What do you mean (?)
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Several people are reporting this problem... I type in http://www.mdapplicants.com/ or click on a link and nothing shows up - at all. 3 different browsers 2 different computers in 2 different locations with 2 different ISPs... my iphone wont even pull up the site off the 3G network. It just hangs like there's no DNS or something. I'm in Central FL... anyone else having that issue around here?
 
Update: Somehow my iphone pulled it up on the 3G network after about 2 minutes of sitting there. Did you switch hosting too when you updated?
 
n618ft said:
Update: Somehow my iphone pulled it up on the 3G network after about 2 minutes of sitting there. Did you switch hosting too when you updated?
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Yeah, we changed the host IP address. You don't seem to be the only one having this issue. My admin tweak the TTL to see if there's a problem with some ISP nameservers disliking really low TTLs. The new server IP is 99.179.0.103.
 
I'm also tweaking the login system this afternoon; trying to make it so it _really_ remembers you, i.e., takes you directly to myprofile without ever seeing the login page. So, behaviors might be interesting. Hopefully, interesting -> better.
 
xaelia said:
I'm also tweaking the login system this afternoon; trying to make it so it _really_ remembers you, i.e., takes you directly to myprofile without ever seeing the login page. So, behaviors might be interesting. Hopefully, interesting -> better.
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Fix for the problem of the site not loading... delete all browser cache/cookies. Seems to fix it individually with Firefox/IE but still doesn't work at all in Google Chrome... so weird! 👍
 
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actually now for me it does the opposite. it used to remember my user name and password in the login fields (i just had to click the button to log in), but now when i go to mdapps it takes me to a blank login field - it doesn't remember me at all 🙁
 
it always makes me sign in twice. always. i do use google chrome.
 
the site hasn't loaded for me in the past 2 weeks, it just loads into a blank page. (using IE/FF) I'm in Florida btw, I don't know if that may be the problem.
​
 
WhizoMD said:
the site hasn't loaded for me in the past 2 weeks, it just loads into a blank page. (using IE/FF) I'm in Florida btw, I don't know if that may be the problem.
​
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Haven't been able to get the site to load since the relaunch in either IE or FF.
 
I don't know what's up with the blank page loading...

I have successfully loaded the site in IE 6.0 and Firefox on the PCs at the hospital.
I've loaded it in Safari and Firefox on my Mac at home, at several locations and networks in Raleigh, etc.

The DNS interrogation seems to suggest everyone has the correct IP address dispersed throughout the wild. I don't know if it's a caching issue. The server only shows 40-odd attempted accesses to the dead webserver address.

I guess I really don't know, but I can't tell if there's anything I have control over....
 
Search function works more appropriately now; when searching for specific scores under advanced search, it no longer does "greater than" a certain section score, it searches for exact numbers. Now you can find those folks who had >40 total MCAT but M on their writing, etc.

Keep criticizing! It won't get any better/more usable/less annoying if you don't make your opinions heard.
 
Steeler7588 said:
So far, we have dates for:
- submitting your primary for the school
- getting marked complete
- getting an interview invite
- attending the interview
- being waitlisted
- getting accepted
- being rejected

All you're missing is dates for receiving a secondary and submitting the secondary. These wouldn't be inconvenient to add, as there's already space for two more dates in the third column of school tabs.
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Adding to this: date of verification, option to keep anonymous the name of your school (I don't see the point of hiding your major), and indicating the school of matriculation (not really helpful, in serving as a reference of the "admissions" cycle for future applicants, but others wanted it in the other thread).

On a side-note: the double login problem I was having seems to be gone. I can't tell for sure, because when I click the "Login" link at the top I'm automatically logged in, I'm guessing because I selected "Remember Me". But this is good, because that never happened before.
 
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Steeler7588 said:
Adding to this: date of verification, option to keep anonymous the name of your school (I don't see the point of hiding your major), and indicating the school of matriculation (not really helpful, in serving as a reference of the "admissions" cycle for future applicants, but others wanted it in the other thread).

On a side-note: the double login problem I was having seems to be gone. I can't tell for sure, because when I click the "Login" link at the top I'm automatically logged in, I'm guessing because I selected "Remember Me". But this is good, because that never happened before.
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Yep, Remember Me works the way it does on a million other websites now...instead of just remembering your username and making you log in, it checks cookies and tries to redirect you to your profile page and bypass the login screen whenever possible. It was my cheating way of solving the double-login bug...just try and bypass it. 😉

K...anonymity and more granular breakdown of various dates in the application cycle, check. Don't expect things that change the structure of the database to change very quickly, but I do keep looking back at these feedback threads whenever I sit down to work on the site.

Anything else that annoys people, or would go on their wish list? One folks in the other thread complained fewer people were commenting on his profile. Part of that is disallowing anonymous posting, and not planning on changing that - any ideas on how comments might be better handled/more easily encountered/etc.?
 
I really like the re-launch, good work!

I guess I do have one "wish list" item....is it possible to have another search item added for "Rejected From...?". You can search people who received an interview with a school, an acceptance from a school, but often times I am more interested in seeing people who get rejected from a school to see how I compare.
 
This has probably been asked elsewhere but I can't seem to find it. Is there a way to "tag" certain profiles so that you can follow them more easily?
 
Does anyone else find it impossible to visit the site? I got on once to make a profile a few days ago... and now the page just will not load for me.
 
Exalya said:
Does anyone else find it impossible to visit the site? I got on once to make a profile a few days ago... and now the page just will not load for me.
Click to expand...

I've never been able to get that site to load.
 
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