Open MSRA - anyone try it yet?

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Well, I just managed to get it running on my PC during my lunch break. There's no data included with it but in the Reddit thread someone managed to import the 2015 MSAR data...they posted a download link which I'm not going to share here since it might be copyrighted.

Nevertheless, this is one nifty tool. The LizzyM data is incredible. If you put in your GPA and MCAT it'll even color-code the schools red/yellow/green for you:
Vs4Xlfo.png


My stats are so low 🙁
 
$25 isn't "shelling out." The MSAR is essential, and using the free/legal version of this Open MSRA does not compare. There's a spreadsheet floating around SDN somewhere where you can input your stats, it calculates your LizzyM score, and it color codes the schools based on your chances. You should be able to find it with a bit of digging.
 
Ismet said:
$25 isn't "shelling out." The MSAR is essential, and using the free/legal version of this Open MSRA does not compare. There's a spreadsheet floating around SDN somewhere where you can input your stats, it calculates your LizzyM score, and it color codes the schools based on your chances. You should be able to find it with a bit of digging.
Click to expand...
And if you can work your own Excel magic, you can turn that into something more like this:

WhichSchoolsImage.JPG


which I personally prefer...the 'Hopeful' and whatnot completely disregards IS%. I like to just go down the list and match colors. If the overall is on the greener side of yellow, it's worth applying to!
Plus, you can sort by LizzyM, state, MDvsDO or by IS%, or by anything else you feel like, and you can decide to take something off your list (I removed all DOs with one click, as I am not applying AACOMAS yet, and also all schools in certain states) without getting rid of the data.

I do plan to buy the MSAR, as these numbers are slightly out of date...but I'll be updating this table with the numbers, because the format is just too good!
 
Noctámbulo said:
Here is the LizzyM score evaluation spreadsheet mentioned above: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Ex2MjlBTDE0bXFXNGFZczZqYTZKb2c&hl=en_US#gid=0
Click to expand...
Is that the 'legal' one, or the 'please do not post on SDN' one?
Also, it still drives me CRAZY that they don't just put it in as a Table so you can actually sort it...gets rid of all those foolish tabs at the bottom, and allows for what I was talking about above. Takes ~5s to convert over if you download as an Excel file, though, so I guess it's the same.
The conditional formatting is key, though.

Edit: Ah, it's the legal one, coolio!
 
If you think paying for the real MSAR is shelling out, you've got a long application cycle ahead of you.
 
The program with the data set is beautiful...so not legal.

wh2k13 said:
While we're on the topic of the MSAR, I'd like to nominate WashU for having the weirdest thumbnail picture ever.

thumbnail
Click to expand...

Lmao I noticed that too.
 
Ismet said:
$25 isn't "shelling out." The MSAR is essential, and using the free/legal version of this Open MSRA does not compare. There's a spreadsheet floating around SDN somewhere where you can input your stats, it calculates your LizzyM score, and it color codes the schools based on your chances. You should be able to find it with a bit of digging.
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter how much it costs, this is information that should be free. I find it ridiculous that people are trying to put a copyright on basic admissions information that should be free and open to everyone. Wake up, sheeple!!
 
AORiverContra said:
It doesn't matter how much it costs, this is information that should be free. I find it ridiculous that people are trying to put a copyright on basic admissions information that should be free and open to everyone. Wake up, sheeple!!
Click to expand...

A lot of the information is free. You can very easily spend hours or days reading every page of every school's website and get pretty much the same information as the MSAR. You pay for the convenience of all of that information in one database, easily searchable, each school formatted the same way, the compare feature, etc. It's also not free for AAMC to create/update/host the MSAR, so you pay for that too.
 
rfenzo said:
If you think paying for the real MSAR is shelling out, you've got a long application cycle ahead of you.
Click to expand...
This.

The MSAR is a phenomenal tool for applications; skip all the books at B&N about applying to medical school and just buy a one-year MSAR subscription. It'll help you get a sense of where to apply, and then provide school-specific information for interview preparation. Overall, very very worth it.
 
AORiverContra said:
It doesn't matter how much it costs, this is information that should be free. I find it ridiculous that people are trying to put a copyright on basic admissions information that should be free and open to everyone. Wake up, sheeple!!
Click to expand...

This. I don't care if it "only" costs $25. Facts can't be copyrighted. More importantly, considering how much money AAMC is extorting from us applicants for MCAT registration and AMCAS application fees, I'm going to do everything I can to save money and pay them more than I have to.
 
wh2k13 said:
This. I don't care if it "only" costs $25. Facts can't be copyrighted. More importantly, considering how much money AAMC is extorting from us applicants for MCAT registration and AMCAS application fees, I'm going to do everything I can to save money and pay them more than I have to.
Click to expand...
The facts aren't copyrighted. Their efforts in gathering the facts are protected.
You are perfectly able to go to each website and gather the information for yourself - and we have attempted to do something of the sort with the SDN spreadsheet.
However, you can't gather your data from their neatly organized source without paying them for it. The price is for their research and organization efforts, not the facts themselves.

I agree with you about the price gouging, and if someone gave me the MSAR for free, I'd take it without even feeling guilty. But I wouldn't post its contents (say, in an updated version of SDNs spreadsheet) because I do understand why the protect it. Likewise, I wouldn't gather the info myself, because the time and effort it takes is worth more than $25 to me.
 
wh2k13 said:
This. I don't care if it "only" costs $25. Facts can't be copyrighted. More importantly, considering how much money AAMC is extorting from us applicants for MCAT registration and AMCAS application fees, I'm going to do everything I can to save money and pay them more than I have to.
Click to expand...

Again, it's not the facts that are copyrighted. It's the database. It is illegal for someone to take the MSAR data and distribute it for free because they are not the ones who compiled that data. If someone spent the time going to each school's website and compiled that data, even if it was all the same data available in the MSAR, they can distribute that for free, because they themselves compiled it. Let me ask you this, if you spent multiple days or weeks of your life compiling that data and had to spend even more time formatting it and coding it and updating it and spend money for hosting it and bandwidth, would you just give it away for free without a second thought?

I understand that the process is expensive. It only gets more expensive from here on out. I wish things could be cheaper. But they're not charging you money just because they love money. People put time and effort into creating these services, AAMC employees, people who get paid for their work just like you and me. As with everything in capitalism, you pay for goods and services, and AAMC provides the services you need to utilize in order to apply to medical school.
 
Ismet said:
I understand that the process is expensive. It only gets more expensive from here on out. I wish things could be cheaper. But they're not charging you money just because they love money. People put time and effort into creating these services, AAMC employees, people who get paid for their work just like you and me. As with everything in capitalism, you pay for goods and services, and AAMC provides the services you need to utilize in order to apply to medical school.
Click to expand...

This. AAMC has a fee assistance program (FAP) that considerably reduces the expenses of applying to medical school. If you don't qualify for FAP because your income is above 300% federal poverty guideline levels, then there is a very likely chance that you can afford MSAR (and the application process itself).

You know, the 10th-90th percentile data is almost impossible to find on medical schools' websites. I figure that AAMC has some "special" access to it, or schools are actually willing to give AAMC that data. Regardless, there is no reason for anyone to expect that they have a "right" to this data, let alone for free. I hate entitlement.
 
Heday said:
This. AAMC has a fee assistance program (FAP) that considerably reduces the expenses of applying to medical school. If you don't qualify for FAP because your income is above 300% federal poverty guideline levels, then there is a very likely chance that you can afford MSAR (and the application process itself).

You know, the 10th-90th percentile data is almost impossible to find on medical schools' websites. I figure that AAMC has some "special" access to it, or schools are actually willing to give AAMC that data. Regardless, there is no reason for anyone to expect that they have a "right" to this data, let alone for free. I hate entitlement.
Click to expand...

Well the AAMC has the GPA and MCAT from all the students... and knows where they matriculate. So it really is their data, which the school could also release if they want.
 
jonnythan said:
Well the AAMC has the GPA and MCAT from all the students... and knows where they matriculate. So it really is their data, which the school could also release if they want.
Click to expand...

That's true, I'm sure each school reports which applicants they accepted. Make sense when you consider that May 15th deadline.
 
To play devil's advocate, I do find it a little strange that AAMC charges money for something that could/should be arguably available to the general public. I don't imagine this information is expensive to compile since much of the data is self-reported by the schools to the AAMC anyway.

That said I did wind up paying for a subscription for it because the information was in fact quite valuable for the application process.
 
Heday said:
This. AAMC has a fee assistance program (FAP) that considerably reduces the expenses of applying to medical school. If you don't qualify for FAP because your income is above 300% federal poverty guideline levels, then there is a very likely chance that you can afford MSAR (and the application process itself).
Click to expand...

I have a problem with FAP at the age of 29 I am still expected to input my parents income information. This is ridiculous, while I understand there is needs to be some way to make sure people aren't getting FAP while also getting significant support from family. But at some point my parents income needs to become irrelevent, they way it reads now an applicant at the age of 40 (or even older) would still need to input their parents income (including social security/diability income).
 
People on here are so cheap. Literally the most important medical resource for US MD applicants is $25. Dude, thats a pair of jeans, a bottle of wine, or a entree at TGIF. If there is one thing I was excited to pay for in the application process was that.
 
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