Most aspiring physicians are well-aware that character traits, such as a capacity for improvement, an ability to empathize, and a sense of ethical responsibility, are key to success in their chosen field. This year, a new format for that ever-important day in the life of a medical school applicant – the interview day – is designed to give applicants to the University of Vermont College of Medicine even more opportunity to showcase their readiness for medical school as related to these and other key competencies.

Called Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI), the new interview format includes a series of six-minute interviews with nine different people drawn from the ranks of faculty, residents and current students. Applicants rotate through the stations, which each focus on a different scenario. Interviewers score applicants, and those results are compiled – along with other data from the day – and submitted to the Admissions Committee for consideration as they make their final decisions at the end of the interview season.

Although the old format – a 45-minute interview with one person – consistently resulted in outstanding classes, Medical Student Admissions Director Cary Jewkes says that the MMI format gives the committee a broader range of observations and opinions.

“Everybody brings a different viewpoint,” she says, adding that the interviewees – all of whom go through training specific to the interview process – do not review an applicants’ files prior to meeting them. This means feedback and scores are focused solely on how the applicant handles the questions raised through the scenarios.

The goal, says UVM College of Medicine Associate Dean of Admissions Jan Gallant, M.D., is to assess a student’s readiness for medical school through the lens of the core personal competencies identified by the Association for American Medical Colleges (AAMC). These competencies include ethical responsibility, a capacity for improvement, cultural competence and adaptability.

The admissions team tells applicants that the MMIs give them the opportunity to “show us the strengths you have in as many areas as possible,” Gallant says. And feedback so far has been positive.

“[Applicants] are telling us that they show more of themselves than they ever could” in one interview, says Gallant.

Also new this year: A teamwork activity (applicants are asked to keep the specific activity confidential for the benefit of future interviewees) where students are assessed on their ability to work in groups to accomplish a goal. This means communication, teamwork and social skills – again all AAMC core competencies – are important for success.

The College typically interviews between 600 to 650 applicants (about ten percent of the applicant pool), and this year is no different, says Jewkes. But to keep the schedule manageable for the interview teams, with a total of 18 people set up at two locations, they’ve scheduled 12 interview days, as opposed to 52 in past years.

Students play an important role in many aspects of the admissions process, says Jewkes. A team of about 20 student ambassadors take turns serving as hosts for small groups of about eight or nine applicants on interview days. The medical students lead a tour, meet their group for lunch, and answer questions throughout the day. Students have always been involved, Gallant says, but this year with a larger group visiting on any given day, the ambassadors are key to creating a sense of community. They also spend more time with applicants than in years past, and as such serve as vitally important frontline representatives of the College. In addition to the ambassadors, students also interview applicants, review applications, and sit on the admissions committee that makes final decisions.

“They have added so much positivity to the discussions at every level,” says Gallant.

The UVM College of Medicine isn’t the first to switch to the MMI format: Jewkes estimates that roughly one-quarter of medical schools in the country are now using it. Based on this first season’s experience, the admissions staff plans to gather data to both tweak the process for next year and report their experiences at national meetings and potentially for publication.