[Project] Excel Planner for Med School Application

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Omni

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Hey everyone. Some of you may remember me from 2009 mcat real deal vs. Aamc practice, while most others may remember me from [Resource] UNDERGRAD GPA CALCULATOR.

Due to the success of the the GPA calculator, I've decided to work on an Excel planner that will help students organize themselves for the whole application process. I know things can get messy, but I find having a master sheet that is like my "to do list" really helps me out in tough times like that, so maybe it may help others out too.
Before I start working on it, this is what my initial draft of it is. As in this is how it is going to look like:

-Sheet 1 is going to have the master list. It will contain a section for recommendation letters, to whom the requests were sent, when it was sent, when the requested deadline was set, when the rec letter was received/completed.

-Sheet 1 will also have a section for the personal statement. When it was started, when the first draft was completed, edited, 2nd draft, edited, final copy, edit, final modifications.

-Sheet 1 will have the third section with the list of schools one is applying to. This will just have the names of those schools.

-This is where the remaining bulk of the excel file will be.
For each school that is listed in Sheet 1, there will be one sheet for it. For example, if you've listed the following schools under the master list:
-JHU
-Mayo
-Harvard
-UMich
the Excel file will create 4 sheets, one for each of the school

Under each sheet, you will have the following:
-Date the school received your app:
-A section for the secondaries (similar to the PS in the first sheet)
-Outcome
-Interview date, etc.

And of course, like the GPA calculator, I will try to make this thing as appealing as possible.
If I get feedback here, expect the first version to be released towards the end of September to a small group of people for testing, and then to all of SDN by the end October.

Now this is what I need from you all. To those of you who are applying, have applied, or will be applying, please tell me what I'm missing from here. What would you say should be added on in order for you to get use out of this? What should be removed from what I've listed? What would have made your process of applying easier?

(also, I will try to put in on the master list a section for reminders, approaching deadlines, etc.)

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Progress:
08/12/2009
Collecting info and will start working on first draft later.
 
Hey can you come over and install my cable? I've been trying to watch Entourage for weeks.
 
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Thank you, Omni! You are doing a great service to SDN.
 
Keep this up man. Your GPA calculator was great stuff👍
 
You are gonna be the MAN once you make this. Good luck with everything and thanks for this, Omni.

Also, as a feature suggestion, might be too complicated but how about some sort of integration with the LizzyM formula spreadsheet so you can see the chances you have of getting into the schools you are applying to?
 
You are gonna be the MAN once you make this. Good luck with everything and thanks for this, Omni.

Also, as a feature suggestion, might be too complicated but how about some sort of integration with the LizzyM formula spreadsheet so you can see the chances you have of getting into the schools you are applying to?
I will look into that. I was thinking about it but didn't know how useful it would be. Also, there probably would be a whole barrage of permissions and everything I'd have to get before using that.
 
the truly ballering way to upgrade this would be to have embedded all the various deadlines and requirements so that if you choose Harvard, JHU, etc as your targets, the generated sheets contain this data
 
the truly ballering way to upgrade this would be to have embedded all the various deadlines and requirements so that if you choose Harvard, JHU, etc as your targets, the generated sheets contain this data
I wanted to make just one version and leave it alone after that so that I or someone else wouldn't need to update it constantly. I was just going to leave a blank spot for that and if someone was applying to that school, I'd assume they would have done the research all ready. 😛
 
I wanted to make just one version and leave it alone after that so that I or someone else wouldn't need to update it constantly. I was just going to leave a blank spot for that and if someone was applying to that school, I'd assume they would have done the research all ready. 😛

i'm certain someone on SDN would gladly update the sheet once a year, considering the MSAR essentially in its entirety gets uploaded here each year
 
only concern I have is giving people the wrong info. What are the chances of a deadline being set up and then being changed later?
 
i'm sure as long as the MSAR is used for the data, it should be no problem. in fact, as long as the MSAR spreadsheet remains constant, you can even make the data be pulled from that sheet automatically if the person downloads both.
 
Right now, I'm still worrying about the MCAT over anything else.
You can expect to see the first version of this out by the end of sept. or beginning of oct.
 
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Dude! I've seen your other calculators and stuff and i just want to say..keep up the good work 🙂
 
Ommu and Omni join forces to make this thread confusing

j/k
 
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