"What are my chances" sub-forum NEEDED

[Moe Lester]

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I believe there is a need for a sub-forum in pre-dental forum for "what are my chances" threads.

Not only do the premed forums have what are my chances subforum, they also have a School-Specific Discussions subforum!!!

IMO, predental forum has enough traffic to be worthy of having at least ONE new sub-forum.

 

[BaylorDDS]

Second that!

 

[NyCzPeter]

+1

 

[Vicviper]

I agree that there's a need for this. 👍 Though maybe we wouldn't need a school specific one.

 

[Albuterol]

I agree...especially since everyday there is a new "what are my chances thread" ...could really condense the thread traffic.

 

[adizzle87]

Great Idea!

I think it should go a little something like this

Academic Profile
1) Your university, sGPA/cGPA
2) DATs AA/TS/PAT, indicate sections 16 or less
3) How much time spent at JC
4) State Residency

ECs/Shadowing
1) List Activites, position, and hours spent

 

[doc3232]

Not school-specific though.
medical forum has one.

 

[somethinpositiv]

Great Idea!

I think it should go a little something like this

Academic Profile
1) Your university, sGPA/cGPA
2) DATs AA/TS/PAT, indicate sections 16 or less
3) How much time spent at JC
4) State Residency

ECs/Shadowing
1) List Activites, position, and hours spent

As well as how much time spent with JC. Loma Linda, anyone?

 

[NyCzPeter]

Hey comon everyone who wants the subforum should speak up. We need to unite our voices in order to be heard.

 

[iwannabadentist]

Hey comon everyone who wants the subforum should speak up. We need to unite our voices in order to be heard.

i think it would be a great addition to SDN!

 

[longhornpride]

all for it 👍

 

[30isthenew20]

totally agree. Can we ask those posting in the sub forum to put some stars in the subject line? Anything more descriptive than "help" in it's various spelling forms.

 

[30isthenew20]

Sorry. Stats not stars^

 

[SolitaireAddikt]

👍

 

[whoaaitzkyle]

word 👍

besides, it'd be nice to look at the predental forum and not have to weed through all the "what are my chances" threads

 

[30isthenew20]

Especially when no one here is an admission expert. We may know more than the general public but we're not adcoms!

 

[ChrisM07]

I believe I suggested this a good while ago, but there was some reason that it hasn't happened yet or won't for that matter. I can't remember what that is though but one of the admins gave a reason.

Oh, BTW, I second the idea. Again.

 

[bjhath]

yes, please.

 

[aphistis]

I agree that this is potentially a great idea. I'm presenting it to the site administrators for discussion. Thanks to the OP for the suggestion, and to everyone who has posted to voice their support. 👍

I will update you when a decision has been made. Since the discussion will probably occur over several days, I ask you to be patient in the meantime. Thanks!

 

[doc3232]

I agree that this is potentially a great idea. I'm presenting it to the site administrators for discussion. Thanks to the OP for the suggestion, and to everyone who has posted to voice their support. 👍

I will update you when a decision has been made. Since the discussion will probably occur over several days, I ask you to be patient in the meantime. Thanks!

Great, thanks aphistis.

 

[Hysteria24]

Here's a thread from a year ago discussing this same issue:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=552746


Some excerpts:

Wouldn't matter anyway, people would still post chances threads in the main forum when they invariably got no responses in a sub-forum almost no one would read.

this idea has been tossed around before and usually rejected for the reason armorshell metioned. besides, the majority of these threads only happen during a few months of the year, so while it may be annoying, it usually clears up toward the end of the cycle.

 

[Moe Lester]

besides, the majority of these threads only happen during a few months of the year, so while it may be annoying, it usually clears up toward the end of the cycle.

In defense:
Yes, these threads are started during the few months of the year when people have IMPORTANT questions regarding the application procedure, LOR, personal statement letters, etc.

But these important questions get hidden in the pile of garbage started by students who are incapable of looking up stats from ADEA for comparison or who have self-esteem issues and need a boost of confidence.

Who benefits from reading threads about how many schools a student with AA22 3.90 GPA will get interviews from? ONE.....the person who started the thread.

Who benefits from reading threads about application procedures, shadowing hours, required pre-req courses, etc.? EVERY STUDENT who applies to dental school!!!

 

[doc toothache]

The sub forum should include the following categories:

Cat. 1- "I am still in hs. What are my chances?"
Cat. 2- "I am in college but have not taken any science courses. What are my chances"
Cat. 3. "I have just finished general chemistry with grade A, B, C, D, F. What are my chances?"
Cat. 4. "I have finished all my science requirements. What are my chances?"
Cat. 5. "I have finished all my science requirements and my science gpa is..What are my chances?"
Cat. 6. "I have finished all my science requirements and my sci and overall gpa is.. What are my chances?"
Cat. 7. As above and my DAT scores are:.. What are my chances?"
Cat. 8. "My dat scores are... What are my chances?
Cat. 9. "My dat scores are 17/17/17. Do I have a chances of being accepted to Harvard?"
Cat. 10 "I have not done any shadowing and I am not sure what I want to study but just in case dentistry should be one of them What are my chances?"
Cat. 11. My sci/overall gpa/DAT scores and my major is...What are my chances?

 

[PDizzle]

I was thinking the other day about this and an idea popped into my head and as quickly as it entered, I dismissed it. Only later I realized that maybe it could be done.

People want to know their chances, right? Well, if we could agree that LOR's, extracurricular,and shadowing takes a huge back seat to GPA and DAT, my website might be able to give them the quantitative answer they are looking for.

There will be a page called, "My chances" or something like that. You enter all info (DAT, GPA, AADSAS comp data), if it isn't in already, and it will compare your stats with the people who were accepted at every school. It will output a percentage chance of getting an interview and getting accepted. State residence and international status will be taken into the calculation as well.

Now, before you say this will not accurately give you your actual chance....I agree! It won't..but neither can a bunch of replys on a forum. At least there will be numbers behind the result and I think that might be good enough for these people.

This is an enormous amount of work so if you don't think it would be usable or worthwhile, let me know. I have many other web projects going (one that especially all the peeps at SDN are gonna love...might be bigger than PreDents.com 😀)


....discuss

 

[NyCzPeter]

The sub forum should include the following categories:

Cat. 1- "I am still in hs. What are my chances?"
Cat. 2- "I am in college but have not taken any science courses. What are my chances"
Cat. 3. "I have just finished general chemistry with grade A, B, C, D, F. What are my chances?"
Cat. 4. "I have finished all my science requirements. What are my chances?"
Cat. 5. "I have finished all my science requirements and my science gpa is..What are my chances?"
Cat. 6. "I have finished all my science requirements and my sci and overall gpa is.. What are my chances?"
Cat. 7. As above and my DAT scores are:.. What are my chances?"
Cat. 8. "My dat scores are... What are my chances?
Cat. 9. "My dat scores are 17/17/17. Do I have a chances of being accepted to Harvard?"
Cat. 10 "I have not done any shadowing and I am not sure what I want to study but just in case dentistry should be one of them What are my chances?"
Cat. 11. My sci/overall gpa/DAT scores and my major is...What are my chances?

Always count on Doc toothache for the sarcasm.

Anyhow, I don't think what armorshell said is really a reason at all. pre-meds have this feature and it seems to work pretty well. So I don't think the one or two ocasional idiots who will post in the main forum anyway is a good enough reason, especially since the SDN pre-dent community is all for it.

 

[NyCzPeter]

I was thinking the other day about this and an idea popped into my head and as quickly as it entered, I dismissed it. Only later I realized that maybe it could be done.

People want to know their chances, right? Well, if we could agree that LOR's, extracurricular,and shadowing takes a huge back seat to GPA and DAT, my website might be able to give them the quantitative answer they are looking for.

There will be a page called, "My chances" or something like that. You enter all info (DAT, GPA, AADSAS comp data), if it isn't in already, and it will compare your stats with the people who were accepted at every school. It will output a percentage chance of getting an interview and getting accepted. State residence and international status will be taken into the calculation as well.

Now, before you say this will not accurately give you your actual chance....I agree! It won't..but neither can a bunch of replys on a forum. At least there will be numbers behind the result and I think that might be good enough for these people.

This is an enormous amount of work so if you don't think it would be usable or worthwhile, let me know. I have many other web projects going (one that especially all the peeps at SDN are gonna love...might be bigger than PreDents.com 😀)


....discuss

LOL that would be ridiculously GODLY. That would be a lot of algorithm though if you're gonna include stuff like residence. Think you can handel it Pdizzle?

 

[DiscoBalls]

People should be able to figure this out on their own using predents as it is currently.

 

[bjhath]

I was thinking the other day about this and an idea popped into my head and as quickly as it entered, I dismissed it. Only later I realized that maybe it could be done.

People want to know their chances, right? Well, if we could agree that LOR's, extracurricular,and shadowing takes a huge back seat to GPA and DAT, my website might be able to give them the quantitative answer they are looking for.

There will be a page called, "My chances" or something like that. You enter all info (DAT, GPA, AADSAS comp data), if it isn't in already, and it will compare your stats with the people who were accepted at every school. It will output a percentage chance of getting an interview and getting accepted. State residence and international status will be taken into the calculation as well.

Now, before you say this will not accurately give you your actual chance....I agree! It won't..but neither can a bunch of replys on a forum. At least there will be numbers behind the result and I think that might be good enough for these people.

This is an enormous amount of work so if you don't think it would be usable or worthwhile, let me know. I have many other web projects going (one that especially all the peeps at SDN are gonna love...might be bigger than PreDents.com 😀)


....discuss

I like the idea. I think using the pre-med school selector spread sheet as a basis would be a good start.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=527971

Adapting it for for dental school is on my 'theoretical' things-to-do-when-I-want-to-geek-out-during-my-free-time-in-june list. No promises, but I will take a look at it.

 

[iwannabadentist]

I was thinking the other day about this and an idea popped into my head and as quickly as it entered, I dismissed it. Only later I realized that maybe it could be done.

People want to know their chances, right? Well, if we could agree that LOR's, extracurricular,and shadowing takes a huge back seat to GPA and DAT, my website might be able to give them the quantitative answer they are looking for.

There will be a page called, "My chances" or something like that. You enter all info (DAT, GPA, AADSAS comp data), if it isn't in already, and it will compare your stats with the people who were accepted at every school. It will output a percentage chance of getting an interview and getting accepted. State residence and international status will be taken into the calculation as well.

Now, before you say this will not accurately give you your actual chance....I agree! It won't..but neither can a bunch of replys on a forum. At least there will be numbers behind the result and I think that might be good enough for these people.

This is an enormous amount of work so if you don't think it would be usable or worthwhile, let me know. I have many other web projects going (one that especially all the peeps at SDN are gonna love...might be bigger than PreDents.com 😀)


....discuss

this sounds like a great idea! Also, like you said, EC, Shadowing, LORs etc. play a huge role. Maybe what you could do is add another category that allows users to enter what they think (objectively) that their stuff is worth. They can rank everything based on a ranking scale of 1-10 for everything combined or for every category separately. Maybe there should be guidelines for this saying, if you have 25-50 shadowing hours, give yourself a rank of '6' or whatever. This can put everyone on the same page so when someone thinks they have ECs worth "7" points, those same amount of ECs might be worth 5 points to someone else. But since this is just to get an idea of where you are compared to everyone else, it could work. 👍

 

[PDizzle]

this sounds like a great idea! Also, like you said, EC, Shadowing, LORs etc. play a huge role. Maybe what you could do is add another category that allows users to enter what they think (objectively) that their stuff is worth. They can rank everything based on a ranking scale of 1-10 for everything combined or for every category separately. Maybe there should be guidelines for this saying, if you have 25-50 shadowing hours, give yourself a rank of '6' or whatever. This can put everyone on the same page so when someone thinks they have ECs worth "7" points, those same amount of ECs might be worth 5 points to someone else. But since this is just to get an idea of where you are compared to everyone else, it could work. 👍

Good suggestion. I would hate to lose LOR's and EC's because they do play a role. Military service, being multilingual and major volunteer work abroad also are huge bonuses to your app. The problem is how can I quantify those things? I think it would be too arbitrary so I like your idea of rating yourself. But!.......if someone needs a website algorithm calculator to tell them their chances, how can they rate themselves on LOR's and EC's?

If as a community (plus someone really good in statistical analysis) we can agree on an algorithm, maybe this can be done.

 

[Aceofspades]

Good suggestion. I would hate to lose LOR's and EC's because they do play a role. Military service, being multilingual and major volunteer work abroad also are huge bonuses to your app. The problem is how can I quantify those things? I think it would be too arbitrary so I like your idea of rating yourself. But!.......if someone needs a website algorithm calculator to tell them their chances, how can they rate themselves on LOR's and EC's?

If as a community (plus someone really good in statistical analysis) we can agree on an algorithm, maybe this can be done.

Hahahahaha, I have to say you're dead on with that one! You would have to make another system where they allow other people to rate their EC's so your calculation can rate their chances. And another system to rate the rating of their EC's. And another system to rate the rating of... you get the point.

If you did that you would also have to implement an accuracy measuring system. For example take the people that your system rated had a 50% chance to get into dental school. If 75% of those people got in the you know your system is innacurate.

Also, people often want to know the chance of getting into ANY dental school, ONE of say 5 dental schools, ONE of 10 dental schools, or ONE of the ambigious TOP TEN schools (and they don't even know which 10 they are talking about and want you to define it for them). Also, people who are scheduled to interview or have already interviewed would ask "Given that I have an interview, what are my chances..."

And if you managed to do all of this I bet people would STILL post "What are my chances" threads. Or better yet, "What are the chances that PDizzle's calculations are correct". Not to mention many of these chances threads are started by members who haven't searched much or are unaware of predents.

 

[PDizzle]

Hahahahaha, I have to say you're dead on with that one! You would have to make another system where they allow other people to rate their EC's so your calculation can rate their chances. And another system to rate the rating of their EC's. And another system to rate the rating of... you get the point.

If you did that you would also have to implement an accuracy measuring system. For example take the people that your system rated had a 50% chance to get into dental school. If 75% of those people got in the you know your system is innacurate.

Also, people often want to know the chance of getting into ANY dental school, ONE of say 5 dental schools, ONE of 10 dental schools, or ONE of the ambigious TOP TEN schools (and they don't even know which 10 they are talking about and want you to define it for them). Also, people who are scheduled to interview or have already interviewed would ask "Given that I have an interview, what are my chances..."

And if you managed to do all of this I bet people would STILL post "What are my chances" threads. Or better yet, "What are the chances that PDizzle's calculations are correct". Not to mention many of these chances threads are started by members who haven't searched much or are unaware of predents.

Awesome insight into the inherent problems of such a, "calculator". I think I'll let this one pass unless someone can come up with a system that can be fairly accurate and most would agree is a fair measuring stick.

Bolded paragraph is main reason why I prob won't do this. You just saved me about 60-80 hours of research/programming. 😀

 

[Moe Lester]

Are you kidding me with this!!! Now there are what are my chances threads in the DAT discussion forum! WTH

It's like a virus that keeps spreading, next thing we know it'll be in the NBDE Exams & Licensure Exams forum.

 

[peterngu]

This thread is a great idea, although I'm guilty of starting one of these myself. Would it difficult to make a sticky thread at the top of this subforum with (PLEASE READ HERE FIRST) to catch the newcomers attention? Then we can let the heathens fend for themselves!

 

[Vicviper]

Awesome insight into the inherent problems of such a, "calculator". I think I'll let this one pass unless someone can come up with a system that can be fairly accurate and most would agree is a fair measuring stick.

Bolded paragraph is main reason why I prob won't do this. You just saved me about 60-80 hours of research/programming. 😀

I agree that if you wanted to try to come up with an extremely accurate system that takes into account LOR's EC, research, etc, it would be incredibly difficult and very subjective, but how about just something that runs with the assumption that you will have a hypothetical "standard" LOR, EC, etc. Granted it wouldn't be 100% spot on accurate because it would be leaving our factors which could make or break your admissions, but the GPA/DAT is really the only quantifiable data that could both be easily collected about the students applying as well as the students who are being accepted. As you said before you could also take into account instate / out of state since the data is provided every year by the ADEA.

I think even with the assumptions that the system would be making, it would go a long way towards helping people consider what schools to apply to. I know when I was applying the main factors I was looking at were GPA, DAT, and instate / out of state ratios.

Well, I was just reading the thread and thought I'd throw that idea out there, keep up the good work P!