Offering an integrative curriculum that seamlessly combines foundational sciences with practical clinical training, the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) allows its students to gain early hands-on experience, equipping them with the skills and expertise needed for thriving careers in veterinary medicine. 

“We have a futuristic curriculum,” shared Dr. Jacque Pelzer, Associate Professor of Practice & Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions at the College of Veterinary Medicine. “We teach basic sciences and clinical sciences side by side for the first two years, giving our students early access to clinical faculty, and early entry to clinical rotations in our teaching hospital.” 

“We are committed to diversifying the veterinary profession,” Pelzer continued. “We’re looking for applicants who come from underserved communities and intend to return to those communities to establish veterinary practices.”

“We’re very mindful of the costs associated with applying to veterinary school, and we’re passionate about reducing those barriers and setting a new, more equitable status quo for veterinary school admissions processes,” she explained. “With Kira Talent, we’ve been able to interview more applicants, expanding access and opportunities for a wider pool of candidates.”

Opening the doors to a new generation of medicine 

“With Kira, we have been able to interview 30% more applicants than in previous years,” shared Pelzer. “Nationwide, the applicant pool for DVM programs has remained the same for 5 years. Underrepresented minority students are often missing from that applicant pool, but we’ve made great strides at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in recruiting and retaining them.” 

“With Kira, we’ve seen a 16% increase in diverse applicants enrolling in the DVM program,” she continued.

“Kira has been instrumental in this effort, allowing us to cast a wider net and attract a more diverse range of applicants.” 

Using Kira’s Asynchronous Assessment, the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine delivers an on-demand station-based interview experience similar to the Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs) used by medical schools. 

“Candidates are still meeting all the benchmarks to get an interview,” shared Pelzer. “We conduct a holistic review of applicants’ written application and grades, before inviting them to complete a Kira assessment. Once they reach that stage, their pre-interview scores are reset to zero and no longer factor into our final decision-making process.”

“The idea is that everyone we invite to interview has the academic foundation to be successful in our program,” she explained. “With Kira, we are looking for the traits and soft skills that make for successful DVM students, and ultimately, practising veterinarians.”

Keeping bias at bay with horizontal review

“We brought Kira Talent into our admissions process with two goals in mind,” shared Pelzer. “The first was increasing access to our program and reducing cost barriers in admissions, and the second was identifying tools that will help us deliver a transparent and reliable admissions process.” 

"When we held in-person interviews, each room had a reviewer equipped with a script designed to ensure a fair process," Pelzer shared. "Unfortunately, this approach often fell short in practice."

“It’s hard to control what goes on in a room,” she explained. “While some reviewers stuck to the script, others did not.” 

"With Kira, we not only ensure a consistent interview experience for all applicants, but also actively reduce bias in the review process."

Discover the nine most common forms of bias in admissions and how Kira helps mitigate them

“Applicants see recorded videos of our staff and faculty asking them questions, so they are truly all receiving the same experience,” Pelzer continued. “Once the assessment is completed, we conduct a Horizontal Review.” 

“In this process, our reviewers evaluate a single station across all applicants, concentrating on one specific competency to ensure consistent and focused evaluations,” she shared. “Each station is scored by two independent reviewers.”

“We’ve seen that reviewers use the rubric in Kira more accurately than they did in person.”  

“With Kira, we had the opportunity to design a custom rubric that allowed us to pinpoint the competencies we were looking for,” Pelzer explained. “All together, since transitioning to Kira, we’ve seen significant improvement in our scoring reliability and we’re observing less bias.” 

Learn more about the benefits of Horizontal Review in Kira Talent

Feedback that fuels future veterinarians

“We’ve received really positive feedback from applicants,” shared Pelzer. “They really appreciated the practice scenarios on the Kira platform, and the information sessions we held beforehand helped them feel prepared and confident going into their Kira assessment.” 

“By the time they recorded their responses, they were at ease and ready to participate.”

“We are committed to delivering a fair and transparent admissions process from start to finish,” she continued. “With that in mind, we offer feedback sessions for our applicants. With Kira, we’re able to give them direct and transparent feedback because we’re not relying on interviewers’ notes. When I show them why a reviewer gave them a certain score, 95% of the time they say 'yes, I remember saying that' and 'yeah, that makes total sense.'” 

“That’s been really phenomenal for us, because it gives us the opportunity to support their growth and help them improve,” Pelzer explained. “We want them to go to vet school, and Kira helps us, help them do that.”