Should I build GPA/GRE - accepted/rejected system?

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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Grant
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Should I build GPA/GRE - accepted/rejected system?

Post by Grant » Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:18 am

I have been thinking about programming a system where forum members can list GPA, Physics GRE, and General GRE scores and then indicate schools that accepted and rejected them. What are your thoughts on this system like this? What features would you like? Can you think of ways to graphically represent this data in a meaningful manner (i.e. a graph for each school)? What other fields might be worthwhile (gender, country/state of residency, etc.)?

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grae313
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Post by grae313 » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:45 pm

There are actually two or three websites like this already up and running. I don't know the urls, but they have been linked to from this forum.

vicente
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Post by vicente » Thu Nov 08, 2007 2:43 pm

I think this is a great idea

You could have the following data fields:
- U.S. Citizen / permanent resident? (Yes/ No)
- GPA
- Rank / Class average
- GRE scores and percentile
- research experience
- awards earned
- publications
- schools applied for
- schools that accepted

I know a general site like this called "applycorner.com". I think your site could possibly top that one considering the broken English it is full of.

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quizivex
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Post by quizivex » Thu Nov 08, 2007 3:24 pm

Yeah if it just had GPA/GRE scores it probably wouldn't be very useful. The worth of the GPA depends heavily on the school it came from and what the student took. And the GRE's worth is different depending whether the student is domestic or international. Nevertheless, I still think there are similar websites, as vicente mentioned, already up and running.

But thanks Grant, and if you can could you please try to remove posts that people have put up with real GRE problems? Thanks.

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will
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Post by will » Thu Nov 08, 2007 3:31 pm

There are actually two or three websites like this already up and running. I don't know the urls, but they have been linked to from this forum.
I've been to the ones that have been linked from here but was really unable to get any useful information out of them, so if it can be done better, by all means get to it! :)

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twistor
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Post by twistor » Thu Nov 08, 2007 3:46 pm

In addition to the information vincente mentioned, I recommend:

Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Subjective quality of undergraduate education ( e.g. 5 = best, 1 = worst)
Satisfaction with program (same type of scale)
general GRE scores

Also, it might be useful to have a system where you can display information by school, for instance

GPA scores for for people who were accepted at school X, or GRE scores for school X, etc

And it might be fun to see some additional plots, like GPA vs. GRE score, # schools applied to vs. # schools accepted at, scores vs. gender, quality of education vs. GRE, etc.

I would use the plots at http://www.studentsreview.com as a guide.

This is a unique opportunity to get a lot of information for the member base of this forum. Plus I think it would be cool to see where correlations are. This would allow to REALLY see where the biases are.

doom
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Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:42 pm

Great idea

Post by doom » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:39 pm

I think this is a great idea. I was thinking of starting just such a thread on this forum, but I think that a site devoted to that would be most useful. I know I would definitely post my information.

You should be able to sort by school, intended field, and by GRE scores and GPA.
I have checked out the other websites that are supposed to do the same thing, but I think they are all pretty useless. It's a great idea that just hasn't been executed well.



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