Integrate Results With Profiles

[Guest GuestLoser]

if possible integrating the results section with a "profiles section" with stats etc would be a really helpful tool in letting us no "what" got in "where", one that would set this site above anything else....unless its already here and I missed it and in that case I am an idiot

[meridionale]

I really really like your idea! Believe me there are tons of things I'd love to do, but I am by no means a pro at php, sql, or anything other than knowing a little html. I am learning php as I go, but it takes me a while to do something like that as a result. Last night for instance, I spent 3 hours doing 45 pages (pages as in msword) of coding to have subforums, and when I am finally done and try to implement it --- nothing. The forum went blank! :shock: Would you believe that in undergrad I was a history major and a sorority girl? The only related thing I've done is make my sorority website using an HTML book I bought at Books-A-Million. Most people email me thinking I am a guy going into EEM or Computer Science! Luckily, my sorority bought me a copy of Photoshop when I was making the website, so that's fun.

I have a Statistics test tomorrow, so let me study today and go take that test tomorrow, and I will work on it when I get some more free time. I love messing with this site and learning new things, so if I start now, I will never get around to studying! Which I should be doing right now...and now I am rambling to procrastinate.

Good lord, apparently this was my "getting to know the admin" session. I love how we each have our own lives and backgrounds, but to everyone else we're just words. I've gotten to know several people over aim as a result of applyingtograd on LJ and this site though.

stop.typing. Okay, I'm done.

[Guest]

I don't know if that's a good idea? Already there's been a small controversy on the sciences board, where a guy posted so much information it revealed his identity, and it had to be erased. People say a lot of stuff revealing stuff in the boards, and it might be a little too much if it's linked with submissions as well.

I know I'd feel more confident about submitting results anonymously if I know there's even less chance it'll be linked to me. But... it's your site. And I guess I'd be fine with it if there was a check mark that said, "log to profile".

By the way, what do grad departments think of thegradcafe? Annoying? Illegal? What's the deal with "staying up until at least April"? Has anyone complained?

Thanks for the site!

--Guest

[meridionale]

I don't know if that's a good idea? Already there's been a small controversy on the sciences board, where a guy posted so much information it revealed his identity, and it had to be erased. People say a lot of stuff revealing stuff in the boards, and it might be a little too much if it's linked with submissions as well.

I know I'd feel more confident about submitting results anonymously if I know there's even less chance it'll be linked to me. But... it's your site. And I guess I'd be fine with it if there was a check mark that said, "log to profile".

By the way, what do grad departments think of thegradcafe? Annoying? Illegal? What's the deal with "staying up until at least April"? Has anyone complained?

Thanks for the site!

--Guest

I think you misinterpreted the suggestion. It would be a members only section that you can register if you want, and not register if you don't want. If you do register, then you can create your own profile - it would be completely seperate from the results in the survey and have nothing to do with them.

Example -

You sign up for a member's section.

There, you can create a profile of where you applied and where you have been accepted.

You can edit/delete/etc. and view other member's profile if they choose to sign up and do the same.

Meanwhile, the survey remains as is. It doesn't connect you to your profile if you choose to have one, so for all I know you can submit to the survey that you've been rejected to a program, but then in your member profile put you were accepted. Of course this is silly, but I am just trying to show you that it will be unrelated. Think of it this way, the people who register to this forum are in no way connected to their results unless they make a thread posting about them. The same would hold with a membership area: completely seperate from what you submit to the results.

As for the staying up part, on the front page it says until at least August. I am by no means going into a field where websites and code are important, and I will be entering a work intensive graduate program as well come August. I will decide then if I have time to devote to this website to make sure everything is running smoothly. If not, I have been in contact with a few other graduate school forums that I feel are reputable. If I get too busy come August, then I will work out something with one of them and give them the database without the user number refrences. In other words, regardless if I keep this website going or not when I begin my program, I would never let the results just disappear. I know the old archive.org site for whogotin.com has been useful to some people, so I would want the same to be said for these thousands of admission results.

Don't be taken aback as these types of sites come and go. It was more of my commitment to you that this site will be here until many of us begin programs in August at least. I could keep it for longer, but also as part of that commitment, I will give the database to someone so all is not lost and redirect the domain there.

This site is definitly not illegal as it is an anonymous collection of honor-system results. I don't claim that they are correct or 100% true. No schools have emailed me, and I imagine it can be seen as two different ways.

1.) Annoying. It could lead to more people calling after seeing someone has been notified. I doubt it is making that much of an impact because though the survey is popular, and I doubt the majority of people applying to graduate school have ever even heard of this site. In my field, there are like 10 or 12 Public Admin Masters submissions. This is a very small fraction of the actual truth.

2.) Interesting in a novelty way. Of course it can't be taken as 100% truth, but regardless of who you are, it's just an interesting survey in general. When I had to print two copies of the most recent database to mail in with my copyright registration, it was neat to see 100 pages (then, now it's more) binded like a notebook that you could flip through. It's a really great concept as a whole regardless of who is giving the survey.

I hope that answers some of your worries or concerns! Long story short, any personal information contained on this website will come from you, and if it doesn't come from you, then I will delete it (like I did in the physics thread). I have my email on the front page and a new AOL IM link to contact me with problems. The results will be here until you start a graduate program, and past that if they aren't here, they will be somewhere else. And lastly, I would like to think that it is only annoying to the programs that reject me or someone else I like (just kidding). :wink:

[jennesy]

I think I read an article in the NY Times a while back that referenced this (and other sites, like the LJ applying to grad community)