New Feature: Profiles and Results

There is a new feature on our site based on the unbelievably successful profile thread:
2008 Physics Applicant Profiles & Admission Results (view)

The new feature makes it possible for users to input their profile and results information via their "user control panel" by editing their "profile". This information is viewable by all. The collective results of users entering this information can be explored via the following url:
results.php
Be sure to click on the links to the schools results summaries like for example:
results.php?school=ucsb

As people input their information this new system will start to take shape. Click the "user control panel link" and then click "profile" and the rest is straight forward.

This feature is not intended to replace current or future profile and results threads like the one mentioned above as hopefully this new feature will serve to enhance future threads of that nature.

This system will grow and evolve over the years. As we get more data we can develop various search options, graphs, etc. Your feedback will help to shape the growth of this feature.

Looks pretty good, Grant. A couple suggestions for additions:
1) A place to list the specific field you apply in, if more specific than Theory/Experiment.
2) The option to list whether an offer of acceptance was declined or accepted.

Can you be a bit more specific with your requests?

I believe with #1 you are suggesting that I put in one box probably right under the theory/experiment box where applicants can elaborate more on the field they are applying to. I imagine this should be a simple text box as opposed to a drop down so that students can describe things a bit especially if they are applying to different fields to different schools.

I am not sure exactly what you are asking with #2. Do you want me to add another option (or two options) to the drop down menu for each school like maybe "matriculated" and "waitlisted then matriculated"?

Note: One comment I would like to make is that the notes for each school are a great place to elaborate on things like financial packages offered, when you were notified, how you were notified, if you were invited to an open house, etc.

Yeah, I think a blank input for field would work well.

I hadn't thought through my second suggestion too thoroughly, but adding "matriculated" makes sense. One thing that can happen in the profile thread right now is that some people are noting when they turn down a school. But I guess in the long term that information is redundant.

Oh god Grant, you gotta change a way to input the schools. It takes forever to find the schools. Can you just have school #1 (with a drop down box), with a status drop down box too? Up until school #15 or so?

I just added a text box for physics field(s). I don't have it showing anywhere yet except on the user profile page but it is good information to gather for later use as we develop more search and display tools for this data. Thanks.

I agree about the redundant aspect of structuring our results system to find the one bit of data about where an applicant decided to attend. I think people will get more out of talking about the accepting and declining of offers in the forums. If people want then they can include this information in the notes.

It might help if I mention that schools are sorted alphabetically based on the primary URL for the university. For example The University of California at Santa Barbara has the primary domain ucsb.edu and so it is sorted based on "ucsb". Similarly berkeley.edu is sorted based on "berkeley". It may seem strange but with this method there is no confusion once things are properly specified. If you have a list of schools sorted alphabetically by the primary domain you should be able to march down the list and enter things quite rapidly. There are 200+ schools so it will take some time to find the handful that you are looking for.

Note: There are also some limitations with the way can go about things as I modified the existing software's custom field capabilities to create this admissions results system.

Ok. Thanks for all the work you're putting into this.

Can you put in Yale as well?

Ooops, yes I'll add Yale. Give me 15 minutes and it will be done

Just use your browser's find function to find your school. It takes no time at all.

Let me just say that using school .edu addresses as shorthand names for schools was a clever choice. With find it's also not very hard to find schools, though in some ideal sense it's a bit lacking.

Also, if you can link school profile threads into the results page they might actually get some use. But you're doing a great job here. Kudos to you.

I'm surprised you've taken off all the ads on these pages -- is this a charity project for you?

You are one step ahead of my progress


There are things I can do to help. At some point I plan to include a more formal school name on the school page instead of the current system of "Physics at ucsd.edu Application Results". I will probably do this at the same time I link the school threads to the profile threads


You are two steps ahead of me now. I took all ads down from this site during the forum transition and haven't bothered to put them back up primarily because it is more important for me to focus on other tasks related to this site. I'll be giving monetization some attention in a few months. However, it is worth mentioning that the plan is to make it so that people who are logged will continue to have an ad free (or nearly ad free) experience on this site (i.e. if logged in then don't show ad).

@ hpharty
Are you going to NYU??....If not plzz let them know....Thanks in advance....

multigoal,

This is a strange thread for you to call me out on this, considering I have never posted here before. I am actually leaving tonight to check out the department tomorrow. I will do my best to make a decision next week.

Hey Grant,

I just noticed, Yale doesn't show up in the results section? Any reason for this?

My mistake. It should be working now. I had made it so people could add data for Yale but forgot to make it so Yale results were displayed.

Can we add some big international schools? I'm applying to Vancouver, so that one is the most important to me, but the big schools in Europe, Japan, and China would also make sense. Also the big national fellowships, like Hertz, DOE, and NSF.

Edit: Also, thinking about later when we can run some statistics on schools, wouldn't it be nice to have a drop-down menu to specify the number of months involved in full-time research, as well as number of peer-reviewed publications & conference proceedings? I imagine this information has a lot to do with where you get in.

first of all, this is great and will add a lot of value to this site. but,

am I missing something, or is the only way to determine if they applied to 'applied physics departments' is if they mentioned it in the notes?

also, if more ppl want to see this, including an additional field for raw score on physics gre might be helpful. although, is this even reported by ETS?

also, it would be AWESOME!!! to have something that automatically analyzed the data according to tags choosen by the user. For example, calculating average pgre scores accepted at cornell for domestic, female, physics majors with gpa > 3.5 applying to applied physics dept. between years 2009-10. haha. i think that the hardest part about doing this would be organizing and tagging data properly; which is whats being done now. After that, writing the application might not be too challenging.

So it just occurred to me that this should probably be a sticky if possible.

It's listed under "other special features" on the right side of the forum banner.