The common use of unstructured interviews in UK admissions is proven to be time consuming and costly for both the course and the applicant. Research shows non-standardised reviews are often unreliable, invalid, and lacks psychometric precision that admissions professionals need to make fair and ethical decisions.
For over 20 years, Altus has been working with medical education admissions teams to create a world served by exceptional professionals. We partner with over 480 courses globally and help them improve their processes and better understand applicants through a true holistic approach.
To better understand applicants and help admissions teams make informed decisions, our structured one-way interview tool probes an applicant’s communication skills, self-reflection, and motivation. It presents applicants with three standardised interview questions, which they record their 2 minute responses. Courses can use these recordings, alongside Casper to:
- Supplement some existing processes, such as personal statements and reference letters, to evaluate applicants’ soft skills and professionalism
- Leverage the Casper score and Snapshot responses as a screening tool to interview a smaller yet stronger pool of applicants
- Use Snapshot to help “tie break” when deciding between a small group of applicants for the final spots on your course
Snapshot offers many benefits for courses including prioritising the health and safety of applicants and admissions teams during the ongoing pandemic, flexible scheduling, lower costs, improved experience for applicants and admissions teams, and direct applicant comparison. This article digs into three additional benefits Snapshot has to enhance your UK admissions process:
Get to know the applicant
The stress of face-to-face interviews on the applicant can affect their performance, giving the appearance they’re not a good fit for your course. When it may be the opposite. Whereas, one-way interviews allow the applicant to practice before recording their answers. Therefore, reducing the impact of any stress they may feel to better evaluate their communication skills, self-reflection, and motivation for the profession.
Covid-19 presented universities with numerous challenges, turning the world of high education on its head. Universities had to quickly adapt to using ‘virtual’ interviews or pre-recorded responses. Research found Covid highlighted “the need to quickly embrace technology, learn new skills, and left educators in the position of ‘learners’ too.”
Snapshot gives you the use of insights early in your admissions process and helps with decision making through the continued use of the responses. Georgia Southern University Physical Therapy in Statesboro, GA found Snapshot to be a more robust process to adequately consider applicants’ soft skills, as well as cognitive abilities, in their decisions. All the while, applicants liked their Snapshot experience.
Use a standardised interview tool
Face-to-face interviews can easily veer off topic, making it difficult to compare applicants and make decisions. By using Altus’ pre-selected interview questions, you can ensure your admissions process is fair and consistent. Standardised questions also make it easier to compare applicants, like for like.
With Snapshot, all applicants answer three standardised interview questions, which is best practice in one-way interviewing have influenced its development. Applicants complete one set of recordings which are then sent out to all universities using Snapshot within their admissions process, and this ensures their responses are authentic. You can then use a standardised rating scale to evaluate communication, self-reflection, and motivation.
Reduce bias
All Snapshot reviewers complete reviewer training, including implicit bias training, thereby reducing bias. Courses can also use multiple reviewers to further reduce bias and increase reliability.
By focusing on the individual applicant, courses can reduce implicit bias. When using Snapshot, make sure you focus on what each person is telling you about their unique journey. For example, if you’re screening applicants for a medical course, don’t make an assumption that a lack of clinical shadowing indicates a lack of interest as it could be a lack of opportunity.
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