Multiple Mini Interviews vs Traditional Interviews: Investigating Racial and Socioeconomic Differences in Interview...

Area of Science:

• Medical education research
• Admissions processes

Background:

• Medical school admissions committees are reevaluating interview formats following the end of race-conscious admissions.
• Unstructured traditional interviews showed inconsistencies in scoring and content.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the reliability of traditional interviews versus Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs) in evaluating medical school applicants.
• To assess potential biases in admissions processes across racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from 5799 interviewees across six admissions cycles (2018-2022).
• Spearman correlation to assess relationships between Casper scores and interview outcomes.
• T-tests and Cohen's d to evaluate demographic differences in interview and academic metrics.

Main Results:

• Both MMIs and traditional interviews demonstrated similar effectiveness in reducing group differences (URM, African American, Hispanic, disadvantaged vs. non-URM).
• MMIs showed a slight decrease in demographic differences for African-American candidates compared to traditional interviews.
• The effect size of MMIs on reducing demographic differences was small for most groups.

Conclusions:

• MMIs and traditional interviews exhibit comparable reliability in mitigating group disparities in medical school admissions.
• Further research is needed to fully assess MMI utility and its correlation with clinical performance and standardized assessments.