Conducting admissions interviews at regional campuses influences applicants’ preferred campus assignment in a statewide system of distributed medical education

Abstract

There was a strong statistical association between interviewing at the Northwest campus and matriculating at the Northwest campus. This was accompanied by a 22% increase in the number of matriculants who ranked the Northwest campus as their 1st or 2nd choice, as compared to previous years when everyone interviewed at the Indianapolis campus. This suggests that interviewing onsite may have fostered positive attitudes about the Northwest campus. The evidence for Muncie is less compelling. Although there was a statistical association between interviewing and matriculating at the Muncie campus, the percentage of matriculants who highly-ranked the Muncie campus actually dropped by 11% compared to previous years (but not statistically significant).