CycleTrack is a medical school application tracking system available publicly and for free here. We aim to fulfill the following objectives:
- Provide an organizational tool for keeping track of the status of each application.
- Allow applicants to easily visualize their own application cycle through graphs and maps that they can also download and share with friends. This is an expansion of our previous project, CycleVis.
- Increase transparency of the medical school application process by crowdsourcing data and displaying it publicly in an easy-to-digest manner.
- As future data is collected, use this data to help applicants generate school lists calibrated to their individual characteristics and needs.
The functional unit of our application tracking system is a cycle. Inside the dashboard, applicants can add a new application cycle based on the year they plan to matriculate. Each cycle includes a settings page where statistics (e.g. GPA, MCAT) and demographics (e.g. gender, residence) can be optionally added. Additionally, each cycle contains a school list. New MD and DO schools can be added manually through the school selection menu or imported from an existing excel or google spreadsheet. As the cycle progresses, the school list can be edited to insert the date of admissions actions such as the date an application was completed, interview was received, etc. The school list is displayed as a table for easy access to all schools and judgement of to-do items.
CycleTrack contains a number of options for visualizing application cycles that have been logged in the system. Visualizations are generated from data inserted into the school list. Current visualization options include:
Line Graph: The line graph displays the running total of each admission action over time.
Timeline Graph: The timeline graph shows the current admissions status for each school throughout the cycle.
Bar Graph: The bar graph also displays running totals of admission actions over time, but makes it easier to visualize what proportion of all actions each action makes up.
Map: The map shows the current admission status of each school along with the location of each school on a map of the United States.
Dot Plot: The dot plot shows what admission actions have occurred for each school over time.
Sankey Diagram: The sankey diagram shows the flow of admissions actions from one status to the other at the current time point in the application cycle.
Data collected from school lists is displayed via the school explorer. The main page displays all schools for which data has been tracked along with basic information about them. Clicking a school within the explorer will display an individual school page. Each school page presents more detailed information about the school such as the state of admissions actions over the current application cycle as well as historic information about applicants interviewed/accepted to that particular school. We recognize that there is likely additional information about schools that you may like displayed. If so, please contact us and if feasible, we will work to add this in.
This project is licensed under the CycleTrack License Agreement. By accessing, viewing, or contributing to this code, you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the LICENSE file.
- Viewing: You can view the source code for personal, educational, or informational purposes.
- Contributing: Contributions are welcome, but by submitting, you assign all rights to Daniel Amusin (RunningMSN) and Isabelle Hua (ijhua).
- Restrictions: You are not allowed to reproduce, distribute, or use the code for commercial purposes without prior written consent.
For more details, please read the LICENSE file.