Spreadsheets?

[MissC]

Anyone out there creating spreadsheets to analyze and compare offers?

 

I am contemplating putting one together and have a basic list of what I want to include and how I will weight each category and sub category.  Is this insane? Could it be a good way to compare schools?

 

I am visiting my options next week and want to put my table together to include both person reactions/feelings to the visits as well as basic facts about location, cost of living, reputation, placement, and so on.

 

Tell me I am not the only one and also let me know if it was/is helpful or not.

 

 

 

[wanderingalbatross]

I made a spreadsheet -- not to quantify pros and cons, but to have all the information in front of me at once. Even just being able to compare the basic picture of each school is helpful. Putting gut feelings on there is definitely a good idea!

[katieliz456]

Oh gosh, I had a whole set of Google Docs created back in, like, August! I had one table showing how much money I'd spent applying to each school (GRE, transcripts, application fee, visits, etc.), another table to use as a checklist for ensuring materials had been sent&received, and a third for decisions  

[zabius]

I haven't done a spreadsheet, but I do have a chart that I'm filling out. For me, there are two schools at the top of the list that I'm trying decide between. I've visited one already and am going to visit the second this weekend, so my chart isn't complete yet. But these are the categories that I have so far:

1. Research fit
2. Funding (amount; assistantships vs. fellowships)
3. Cost of living
4. Impressions of my POI (personality compatibility, mentoring style)
5. Impressions of the lab (what the labmates are like, how full it is, will I compete for space and equipment?)
6. Department (size, available resources, is it specialized in my field or a more general department?)
7. The people (impressions of the faculty, current students, and potential future cohort. Do we get along? Is it congenial, or are the various labs very insular?)
8. Courses (required courses, available courses that might be helpful, are there interesting seminars?)
9. Location (public transportation system, food/shopping, political-social environment, size, pet friendliness, housing environment, etc.)
10. Travel (how easy would it be for me to go home for the holidays?)
11. Job Placement

I may add other categories to it later, but I think that it's relatively thorough at the moment. Once I fill out the chart, I'm thinking of sending it to a few close friends and asking for their opinions.

 

So, you're not the only one, even though you may be a little more organized. It's definitely helpful to have all of this information there in front of you, especially if you're torn between several enticing offers!

Edited March 6, 2013 by zabius

[wabisabi]

I have a ridiculous spreadsheet. Advisor h-index (adjusted for years since PhD!), air quality and crime rates in different cities, university and department rankings . . . you name it, it's in there. I felt like the process of making it helped me think things through. 

[MissC]

I'm so glad I found this forum!!! My boyfriend laughed so hard when I emailed him my basic template.  It's not that he isn't supportive of the process (and he appreicated that I gave 3 points for his job viability) but our brains just work differently and I knew I couldn't be the only one out there doing this.

 

Thanks for sharing what you've included as well- there are a couple zabius shared that I hadn't included yet.

 

You guys rock!

[Grev]

I'll own up to having made a spreadsheet to compare the cost of attending each of my schools with and without likely levels of financial aid/TA-ships.  It's nice to have all the info right in front of you.

[TeaGirl]

Ohhh yes. Multiple spreadsheets, with colorful plots and graphs, columns, and equations.

 

I got so confused and obsessed at one point I actually tracked down the raw data from the NRC rankings and made my own ranking systems with weights and averages based on my own priorities. I've added things like funding offers, advisor impression, general impressions of the school from different student reviews, scores of POI's on ratemyprofessor.com, different ranking sources, living index, h-index of both the department in the area I want and of the professor, career services, companies that come recruiting, placement data of both the school and the particular lab I want to join, weather, public transport, safety, clubs and activities available, etc. I even disliked the ranking "interval" of NRC and wanted a solid hierarchy, so I got the raw data and computed the weighted average from those 500 simulations (because just adding the outside intervals and dividing by 2 wasn't accurate enough). I gave them all a score out of ten (or proportioned the data accordingly) to get a final score for each school. I even made small variations in weights and data to check how solid my end results were.

 

I realized two things while doing all of this. 1- I probably would've made a great choice had I majored in statistics and 2- I may have gone a teensy bit overboard ! I'm not crazy I promise!!

 

I can however say it did help quite a lot in getting me to get all the needed info. The funny part is in the end, once I had all the information, my "gut" sort of made the decision.

Edited March 6, 2013 by TeaGirl

[wabisabi]

O

M

G

 

TeaGirl, I thought I was peculiarly obsessive, but you may actually be slightly worse! I also disliked the NRC ranking interval, but it never occurred to me to get the raw data. I am fighting the temptation to do so now.

[pears]

i have a spreadsheet, too! my considerations include all the basics: fit, location, cost of tuition/fees, cost of housing, cost of travel, financial aid options (work study, TA/RA spots, etc.), lab and research facilities, research interests, courses (variety, number required), and job placement (and connections with federal agencies, as that's where i will hopefully be headed). i have them weighted separately, and sifted into general categories that i weighted, too.

 

i tried to leave the more subjective things out, like proximity to my S.O., proximity to my family, availability of outdoor stuff, how well i mesh with students and professors, and so on. proximity to my family is a non-issue, as my parents' gift to me was to cover my travel costs whenever i see them; proximity to my S.O. is a mess, as it matters more to me, and he's bouncing around a lot for work. outdoor resources are a nice bonus. if i don't mesh at all with students or professors, the rest doesn't matter; i don't think i could be somewhere i felt totally out of place. it's hard to rank things like that!

 

actually sitting down and looking at my spreadsheet has pretty much made my top 2 programs switch places, largely because of a huge cost difference (like.. at least $9000 a year kind of huge difference). now the issue is convincing my family that it's not because of its proximity (for now) to my S.O. 

[ShortLong]

It sounds like you guys need some engineering wisdom. I learned about the Analytically Hierarchy Process (see links below) in my systems engineering class, and a friend of mine has actually started a chart to use it to decide on his grad schools. It is a real thing to use to numbers to help compare between hard to quantify things, and the math isn't hard. 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_hierarchy_process

 

http://www.boku.ac.at/mi/ahp/ahptutorial.pdf

 

On that note, I started a spreadsheet when researching grad schools and it has grown into this ridiculous document with multiple pages, like info on the school, application process, results, and all that jazz. For the most part, it is to have all the information in one place and not so much to help me decide. I have been able to narrow it down to two places fairly easily. I might need it for the final decision though.

[ion_exchanger]

I haven't done a spreadsheet, but I do have a chart that I'm filling out. For me, there are two schools at the top of the list that I'm trying decide between. I've visited one already and am going to visit the second this weekend, so my chart isn't complete yet. But these are the categories that I have so far:

1. Research fit
2. Funding (amount; assistantships vs. fellowships)
3. Cost of living
4. Impressions of my POI (personality compatibility, mentoring style)
5. Impressions of the lab (what the labmates are like, how full it is, will I compete for space and equipment?)
6. Department (size, available resources, is it specialized in my field or a more general department?)
7. The people (impressions of the faculty, current students, and potential future cohort. Do we get along? Is it congenial, or are the various labs very insular?)
8. Courses (required courses, available courses that might be helpful, are there interesting seminars?)
9. Location (public transportation system, food/shopping, political-social environment, size, pet friendliness, housing environment, etc.)
10. Travel (how easy would it be for me to go home for the holidays?)
11. Job Placement

 

This looks very similar to my own spreadsheet/chart. Mine also includes TA requirement, publishing paper requirement, availability of summer rotation, and average graduation rate. It really has helped me just get a quick visual reference of how my schools look side by side. It has helped me make a more informed decision.