Background
Offering intimate class sizes and a condensed three-year schedule, students at Arizona Veterinary Medicine experience a hands-on approach to learning that also saves them tuition costs. Compared to other large veterinary programs with on-campus clinics, Arizona Vet Med relies on its 250 clinical partners across the country to place final-year students in rotational positions, teaching them the inner workings of a vet office and giving them a better perspective on their future careers.
Challenge
Reviving an MMI that fell flat on Zoom
When Arizona needed to transition their admission process online, recreating the MMI on Zoom proved to be more challenging than they had thought. In order to minimize technical challenges and link juggling, the admissions team simplified the process, assigning one reviewer to an applicant for all 3 questions. This new format not only failed to deliver the applicant experience Arizona Vet Med wanted — making the MMI’s feeling more like one long traditional interview — but with only one reviewer per applicant, the admissions team was worried about the potential impact of bias.
"For something that could be very difficult to do and very time-consuming, Kira made it easy.”
- Katie Beringson, Director of Student Affairs and AdmissionsSolution
Building an effective experience with Kira
“We’re an office of three people, so we needed a process which would enable us to get to know the applicant beyond their paper application, but wouldn’t overwhelm our small team," shared Katie Beringson, Director of Student Affairs and Admissions and Arizona’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Arizona Vet Med added an Asynchronous Assessment in Kira to their initial application, which allows them to efficiently assess the applicants' soft skills and select top candidates to invite to a six-station MMI delivered by Kira's Live Interviewing tool. Automatically moving applicants through the stations according to a set schedule, Live Interviewing mirrors Arizona's traditional MMI process and allows applicants to be independently assessed by several reviewers, helping mitigate the potential impact of bias.
Results
Supporting a seamless process
The new process has helped Arizona Vet Med's small admissions team manage a 300% increase in applications and efficiently identify top candidates from over 1500 applications. Relying on Kira’s 24/7 support, Arizona’s reviewers and applicants can get assistance with any technical issues without needing to engage the busy admissions team. The ease and efficiency of this process have allowed Arizona Vet Med to adopt a rolling admissions schedule, helping them engage and enroll eager applicants earlier.
