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Medical Student Selection – Engaging Faculty and Community Members Across 
Regions in a Holistic, Mission-Aligned Process 
Leila Harrison, PhD, MA, Med; Radha Nandagopal, MD 

z.umn.edu/JRMC
All work in JRMC is licensed under CC BY-NC 



 

Leila Harrison, PhD, MA, Med; Associate Dean for Admissions, Recruitment, and Inclusion; Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, 
Washington State University leila.harrison@wsu.edu 
Radha Nandagopal, MD; Admissions Committee Chair, Clinical Education Director for the Art and Practice of Medicine; Elson S. 
Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University radha@wsu.edu 
 
All work in JRMC is licensed under CC BY-NC  

Volume 2, Issue 3 (2019)             Journal of Regional Medical Campuses         Abstract 

Medical Student Selection – Engaging Faculty and 
Community Members Across Regions in a 
Holistic, Mission-Aligned Process 
Leila Harrison, PhD, MA, Med; Radha Nandagopal, MD 
 
Topic: 
 
It is widely acknowledged that serving on a medical school Admissions Committee, participating as an interviewer, and/or 
contributing as a screener in the selection process is a considerable investment of time and resources, both on the part of the 
individual and institution. Many medical schools rely solely on their Admissions Committee members or core faculty for all aspects of 
the admissions process. In a distributed campus model, engaging those on other campuses in the medical student selection process 
can be particularly difficult and resource-intensive. However, involving stakeholders from different contexts and campuses can help 
medical schools diversify the participants in each step of the admissions process, from recruitment, to screening, to interviewing, 
and to selection. Moreover, engaging stakeholders on other campuses and within the community allows for a much broader 
contribution to the selection of future physicians serving, in our case, the population of Washington state. Using the regional 
campus structure poses an advantage to embed multiple constituents, including faculty, staff, and community members, into the 
entire process supporting collective input in training future physicians for those communities. Involving local communities in the 
admissions process provides the opportunity for more people to become aware of institutional missions and to become invested in 
the holistic review framework used for candidate selection. This is especially critical when the admissions process is blinded to 
metrics from secondary application onward, and the focus is on a candidate’s attributes and experiences and fit with the 
institutional mission. In sum, the effort of including faculty, staff, and community members across regional campuses contributes to 
an inclusive and collaborative effort which supports upholding school mission. 
 
Short Description: 
 
Many medical schools rely solely on their Admissions Committee members or core faculty for all aspects of the admissions process. 
In a distributed campus model, involving stakeholders from different contexts and campuses, can help medical schools diversify the 
participants in each step of the admissions process, from recruitment, to screening, to interviewing, to selection. Using the regional 
campus structure poses an advantage to embed multiple constituents, including faculty, staff, and community members, into the 
entire process supporting collective input in training future physicians for those communities and provides the opportunity for more 
people to become aware of institutional missions and to become invested in the holistic review framework used for candidate 
selection. 
 
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. This work does require human subjects review. 
 
Four questions that were posed to/considered by session participants: 
 

1) What are your barriers to including faculty and community members at all regional campuses in your admissions process? 
2) Who do you want to attract to your College/School of Medicine and to your state/region? 
3) What does the mission of your College/School of Medicine mean to you? 
4) What are the goals of your College/School of Medicine? 

 
Three take home points from our session: 
 

1) Regional campus participation on the admissions committee (AC) and interviews allows for broad representation of the 
communities the College serves. Diverse voices such as non-physicians, varied specialties and practice environments, and 
unique personal backgrounds help in the selection of students who fit the mission. 



 

 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/jrmc.ADDHERE                                        Journal of Regional Medical Campuses, Vol. 2, Issue 3 

Abstract 

2) Involving members across distributed campuses in admissions means budget allocation for travel for in-person retreats 
necessary for trust-building. Dependable information technology services for videoconferencing during selection meetings is 
an absolute requirement.  

3) Barriers to participation on the AC include faculty workload models that may not support service and potential reluctance to 
embrace holistic review processes. Overcoming these barriers requires stressing the mission-alignment of AC work, working 
with faculty to showcase service, and transparently discussing holistic review with prospective members.