Founded in 2009, the Central Michigan University (CMU) College of Medicine is a relatively new player in the field of medical education. Rather than comparing themselves against the many historic medical schools in the state, CMU has leaned into its strengths as a brand new college and distinguished itself in the eyes of applicants by bringing a fresh approach to the traditional discipline.
"We don't have the constraints of status quo, which allows us to quickly adapt and evolve our college to meet the needs and expectations of today's medical students," explained Ray Wilson, the Associate Director of Admissions & Financial Aid at CMU College of Medicine. "As a result, CMU has moved away from the competitive nature of traditional medical schools by forgoing rankings and grading students on a pass-fail system."
"In the healthcare field you're never going to be doing something by yourself, you're always going to have a team of individuals around you," Wilson continued. "At CMU, we start fostering that collaborative mindset on day one."
To mirror their innovative approach to medical education, CMU College of Medicine has built an equally intentional admissions process with Kira Talent.
Eliminating tech troubles
"When we first moved our interviews online, we faced a lot of challenges on the technical front,” shared Wilson. “We found that we were spending a significant amount of time troubleshooting tech issues with applicants.”
“We wanted to create a process that let our team focus on the quality of applicants and not be distracted by handling various tech issues."
"Kira’s 24/7 applicant support and 99.9% platform uptime immediately caught our attention when we began looking for a more reliable solution,” Wilson continued. “As we got to know more about the platform and discovered more features, like how applicants can test their audio and video in advance of entering the interview room, it became clear that Kira would eliminate many of those technical challenges we were experiencing."
Having a dedicated Client Success Manager also helped CMU College of Medicine feel confident that their applicants would be well taken care of while taking the burden off of their staff and faculty.
"Kira’s Live Interviewing support has been a game changer for me and my team,” Wilson explained. “They know the platform inside and out, so they’re able to help the applicants get things sorted quickly and get them back on track for their interview while my team can stay focused on our own tasks.”
Saving time with dedicated support
“Knowing that you have a dedicated support team working behind the scenes to help deliver a smooth and efficient admissions process makes all the difference,” shared Wilson. “The first time I built out our interview schedule in Kira, I emailed our Client Success Manager and they double checked everything for me to ensure it all worked seamlessly.”
“As they say, many hands make light work,” shared Wilson. “Kira has reduced my workload by at least one to two hours each interview day.”
“With 14 days of interviews each cycle that’s nearly 30 hours of time saved. We're talking about nearly a week's worth of work Kira saves us each year.”
“From a technical standpoint, Kira’s automations have also helped reduce the workload,” added Wilson. “With the AMP integration we didn’t have to learn a new way of scheduling applicants or add any extra steps. Data transfers seamlessly between AMP and Kira and with no delay.”
“Given all of the scheduling that we do throughout the interview cycle, this has truly been outstanding,” he continued. “If we have a cancellation, I can make that change very quickly, taking one applicant out and scheduling another one in. It’s all very intuitive.”
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Reducing barriers for applicants in healthcare
“The consensus amongst medical schools in Michigan is that virtual interviewing is here to stay.”
“We continue to see evidence of how virtual interviews benefit our students," Wilson continued. “First and foremost, it eliminates cost barriers.”
"Prior to Kira, I talked to applicants about the importance of budget planning during the medical school application process,” he explained. “If you’re lucky enough to get several interviews, you could be looking at spending upwards of $5,000 just to apply to medical school."
“Kira opens us up to interview more students from different locations and demographics,” he added. “In many cases, we’ve had applicants interview with us in the morning and then go to class or work in the afternoon.”
“We’ve been able to replicate all the things we loved about our in-person interview days, now in an accessible, virtual setting,” Wilson explained. “We’re able to gather everyone in a Forum Session before they jump into their interview rooms, which helps set a welcoming, friendly tone and mirrors how we gathered in-person. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from both sides, so it's nice to see that we've been able to replicate that offline feeling."
A helping hand at every step of the process
"When we first met with Kira, the team's meticulous approach stood out from the start, creating a personal touch that felt genuine,” shared Wilson.
“There was no hard sell, just a collaborative effort to find the right solution.”
“We have continued to be impressed with the outstanding support from the Kira team,” Wilson continued. “The collaborative culture that we have here at CMU College of Medicine has been mirrored in our experience with Kira. Everyone we’ve worked with has been eager and happy to help.”
