Identifying Professionalism at Scale: TouroCOM’s Approach with Casper
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM) attracts one of the largest applicant pools in the US, receiving applications from nearly half of all aspiring Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine each year. The program prioritizes compassion, ethics, professionalism, and a commitment to underserved communities. To support these goals, TouroCOM sought a more reliable way to assess non-academic qualities that traditional admissions tools often struggle to measure. By integrating Casper, the program gained data-driven insight into how non-cognitive skills relate to performance in interviews and throughout medical training.
Challenge
Fairly identifying applicants with strong professionalism and humanistic qualities within a large, highly competitive pool
Solution
Results
Predictive validity, deeper insight into non-academic performance, and clearer signals for interview and selection decisions
PROGRAM TYPE
Osteopathic Medicine
PROGRAM SIZE
Approximately 270 matriculants per cohort
REGION
North America – USA
Challenge
Medical education demands more than academic strength. Students must demonstrate professionalism, ethical reasoning, empathy, and the ability to build strong patient relationships. Traditional admissions tools offered limited visibility into these attributes, especially across an applicant pool of this size.
Admissions leaders at TouroCOM faced several challenges:
- The program needed a more consistent way to evaluate professionalism and personal characteristics aligned with its mission
- Academic metrics and MCAT scores did not consistently reflect humanistic qualities
- Personal statements and references were highly polished and subjective
- Interviews required significant faculty time and still assessed both cognitive and non-cognitive skills together
Solution
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine adopted Casper as part of a three-year research study to strengthen its holistic admissions process and better understand how non-academic skills relate to performance in medical training.
This enabled the program to enhance admissions decision-making in the following ways:
Standardizing assessment of non-academic skills
- Uses profession-relevant scenarios to evaluate ethical reasoning, professionalism, and interpersonal judgment consistently across applicants
- Captures how candidates respond to complex situations in real time, beyond polished written materials
Generating evidence of predictive validity
- Examines correlations between Casper scores and performance in non-cognitive interview components
- Analyzes relationships between Casper results, OSCE performance, and community service engagement during training
Supporting research-informed interview decisions
- Provides structured insight following secondary applications to help identify applicants best suited for interviews
- Offers clearer signals around motivation for primary care and service-oriented practice
Complementing comprehensive review without replacing judgment
- Adds objective insight alongside academic metrics, interviews, and faculty evaluation
- Strengthens fairness and consistency while preserving the program’s mission-driven admissions philosophy
Results
By incorporating Casper into its research-driven admissions strategy, TouroCOM gained meaningful evidence on how non-academic skills relate to success in medical training.
The program observed several key outcomes:
- Positive correlation between Casper scores and performance in the non-cognitive portion of admissions interviews
- Strong predictive relationship between Casper scores and second-year OSCE performance
- Clear association between Casper results and community service engagement
- Greater clarity around applicants’ motivation for primary care and service-oriented practice
For Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, this research strengthened confidence in how humanistic qualities are identified during admissions. Casper offered consistent insight into the professionalism and ethical judgment that align with the school’s mission and the realities of osteopathic practice.