PreDents.com: Update from PDizzle

[PDizzle]

Wow!! I certainly did not expect this kind of feedback and praise for my work....thank you all!

I can not possibly respond to all my emails, private messages and posts to my original thread so I made this new one to give you guys a little better idea of where I am going with PreDents.com and try to answer some of the questions and requests you guys have.

First off I'd like to say thanks to all of you guys for your great suggestions and positive comments.

1) Spelling: As I mentioned earlier some where, I suck at spelling. Keep those corrections coming!!!!

2) Separating the application cycles. My original plan was to purge (erase) the entire data base every June 1st and start fresh every year. I was planning on putting the current cycle prominently on the website, like " Class beginning 2006" or something.

Some of you however have made some comments that the data of past applicants might be useful for trend comparisons. Although this would be nice it adds a bit if complications (nothing I can't overcome of course ). The thing is that I would need to retain all records indefinitely. Not a huge problem but if my adoring public wants it, I will make the necessary data structure changes to keep this option open for next year.

3) GPA: The field for GPA doesn't specify if its AADSAS, with or without quality, or directly from your transcripts. I will let the individual choose which ones he wants to display (usually the higher of the three )

4) Is that a picture of me in the top left? Only my fellow UCSF buddies will know that one!!!!

5) General improvements: Guys, you haven’t seen anything yet!!!!!!!!!! I did what I thought would be a bare minimum website just for a beta launch. I didn't want to put more work into it until I found out if the community would like it and use it. Well, from the over 30 emails I got in the last 24 hours, I'd say you like it!!

It's going to be off the hook but here are a few addition that will definitely be in:

1) Pop up stats: When you hover over a user name a small window will pop-up with the condensed stats (I.E. GPA/SCI and AA/TS/PAT). This way you can weed out the "studs" you want to go insane about!

2) Trend charts: I plan on making a horizontal bar chart displaying the number of interviews and acceptances over the cycle year. You can easily see when each schools gives out invitations for interviews and when the accept, all nice in a colored graph.

3) Much more data on each school. I don't want to step on the toes of ADEA and totally rip off their book, but the stats that people want will be entered into my database and will be completely searchable. Once my 44th edition gets here I will enter the data in.

4) Anything else you guys want. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for a while and as of yet, there isn't anything I couldn't do so if you can think of a cool way to display data that a predent might want to know, give me a holla back!


The last thing I want to stress is that PreDents.com is in BETA. If you don't know what that means, then just think of it as broken, but I don't know how it's broken! I need you guys to tell me. If we can get this puppy working good enough for it to be useful for this cycles predents, great. But don't count on it. The next cycle predents will get the real pay off.

And very lastly, if you like my website and want to support it, put a link to the website in your signature somewhere!

Thanks guys!

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[sumozmom]

Wow!! I certainly did not expect this kind of feedback and praise for my work....thank you all!

I can not possibly respond to all my emails, private messages and posts to my original thread so I made this new one to give you guys a little better idea of where I am going with PreDents.com and try to answer some of the questions and requests you guys have.

First off I'd like to say thanks to all of you guys for your great suggestions and positive comments.

1) Spelling: As I mentioned earlier some where, I suck at spelling. Keep those corrections coming!!!!

2) Separating the application cycles. My original plan was to purge (erase) the entire data base every June 1st and start fresh every year. I was planning on putting the current cycle prominently on the website, like " Class beginning 2006" or something.

Some of you however have made some comments that the data of past applicants might be useful for trend comparisons. Although this would be nice it adds a bit if complications (nothing I can't overcome of course ). The thing is that I would need to retain all records indefinitely. Not a huge problem but if my adoring public wants it, I will make the necessary data structure changes to keep this option open for next year.

3) GPA: The field for GPA doesn't specify if its AADSAS, with or without quality, or directly from your transcripts. I will let the individual choose which ones he wants to display (usually the higher of the three )

4) Is that a picture of me in the top left? Only my fellow UCSF buddies will know that one!!!!

5) General improvements: Guys, you haven’t seen anything yet!!!!!!!!!! I did what I thought would be a bare minimum website just for a beta launch. I didn't want to put more work into it until I found out if the community would like it and use it. Well, from the over 30 emails I got in the last 24 hours, I'd say you like it!!

It's going to be off the hook but here are a few addition that will definitely be in:

1) Pop up stats: When you hover over a user name a small window will pop-up with the condensed stats (I.E. GPA/SCI and AA/TS/PAT). This way you can weed out the "studs" you want to go insane about!

2) Trend charts: I plan on making a horizontal bar chart displaying the number of interviews and acceptances over the cycle year. You can easily see when each schools gives out invitations for interviews and when the accept, all nice in a colored graph.

3) Much more data on each school. I don't want to step on the toes of ADEA and totally rip off their book, but the stats that people want will be entered into my database and will be completely searchable. Once my 44th edition gets here I will enter the data in.

4) Anything else you guys want. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for a while and as of yet, there isn't anything I couldn't do so if you can think of a cool way to display data that a predent might want to know, give me a holla back!


The last thing I want to stress is that PreDents.com is in BETA. If you don't know what that means, then just think of it as broken, but I don't know how it's broken! I need you guys to tell me. If we can get this puppy working good enough for it to be useful for this cycles predents, great. But don't count on it. The next cycle predents will get the real pay off.

And very lastly, if you like my website and want to support it, put a link to the website in your signature somewhere!

Thanks guys!

wow ---u gooooo BOY!

 

[berryfremont]

good job..but, if you are going to purge the records every year..you need to make a bold note that only people applying this year should post their stats...the whole website is flawed if only one person from a previous year does not understand this and posts their stats...which has already been done alot from the sn's i've seen on here and on predents.com..i know this is a huuuge thing to correct..but, i think this should be the main focus for awhile on trying to figure this out..b.c, w/o doing this the website's aim is going to be waay off....again, you rock..just constructive criticisms..i couldn't do any of that programming so i bow down to you

 

[Utes]

Could you add a section of the profile that will list the state in which you have residency?

For someone like me with no state school, it would have done a lot of good to find out what kinds of stats out of state applicants needed at particular state schools.


Thanks,
Utes

 

[PDizzle]

Could you add a section of the profile that will list the state in which you have residency?

For someone like me with no state school, it would have done a lot of good to find out what kinds of stats out of state applicants needed at particular state schools.


Thanks,
Utes

Definitely. Good suggestion. It will go in.

 

[PDizzle]

good job..but, if you are going to purge the records every year..you need to make a bold note that only people applying this year should post their stats...the whole website is flawed if only one person from a previous year does not understand this and posts their stats...which has already been done alot from the sn's i've seen on here and on predents.com..i know this is a huuuge thing to correct..but, i think this should be the main focus for awhile on trying to figure this out..b.c, w/o doing this the website's aim is going to be waay off....again, you rock..just constructive criticisms..i couldn't do any of that programming so i bow down to you

Good point. Remember that this is a BETA website at this point and is not meant to help anyone right now. In fact, you guys are helping me! I might have to purge the whole database at any time (but probably not).

As far as "fixing" the current data, I have the dates of all these records and can simply do a search and delete for all records of previous years. Or just simply dispaly this years records.

But, your suggestion is valid. I will make it crystal clear what cycae we are talking about.

 

[Beleza]

Hey Pdizzle,

Your website is genius. Thanks again for your hard work. I was doing the same thing while I was in the SDN forums. I am always interested in checking out the competition that I am going up against and what I need to have in order to get in to dental school. I don't think that you should delete the entries for every year. Just have a tab for people to go to that specifies the year they applied. There will still be valuable info for applicants from previous year comments about the schools they are interested in, which will help applicants decide whether or not they want to apply to a specific school or not. For instance, I probably would not have applied to Colorado if I had known that they don't accept hardly any out of state residents or those that don't reside in a specific state. I also like Utes idea about the residency tab.

You da man,

Rob (heyrob on your site)

 

[PDizzle]

Hey Pdizzle,

Your website is genius. Thanks again for your hard work. I was doing the same thing while I was in the SDN forums. I am always interested in checking out the competition that I am going up against and what I need to have in order to get in to dental school. I don't think that you should delete the entries for every year. Just have a tab for people to go to that specifies the year they applied. There will still be valuable info for applicants from previous year comments about the schools they are interested in, which will help applicants decide whether or not they want to apply to a specific school or not. For instance, I probably would not have applied to Colorado if I had known that they don't accept hardly any out of state residents or those that don't reside in a specific state. I also like Utes idea about the residency tab.

You da man,

Rob (heyrob on your site)

I am now modifying the data to retain between cycles, as it has been requested 100 times! I do agree it would be nice for comparison. It is in the works. It will be painfully clear what cycle you are entering data for. It will even have a color theme to it (I.E. This year = purple, next year = green, etc) so there will be no mistaking it.

 

[berryfremont]

haha dang skippy...now i will have to officially say that your website will be kickn some major butt after this...seems like it will have the whole shibang after about a good couple of months of beta testing

 

[samwY]

you da man, i think you know that by now though