Does the Medical College of Wisconsin Require CASPer? (MCW CASPer Requirements Explained)

Medical College of Wisconsin Overview

The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) is a private academic institution, operating in multiple locations, such as Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Central Wisconsin. Its mission statement states that they desire to bring science, medicine, education and community engagement together to solve problems in health and society.

MCW is unique in its strong clinical training across multiple campuses, which helps to expose the students to diverse clinical experiences. The Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network helps to expose the students to a large health system at 10 hospital locations and more than 45 health centers and clinics. This vast variety of hospitals allows the medical students at MCW to gain wide exposure to different types of hospital systems and patient populations. For example, at the Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, they operate the only adult Level I Trauma Center in eastern Wisconsin, helping the medical students there to gain valuable insight and experience into the healthcare scenarios.

This wide range of hospitals in which the medical students could gain experience in also shows the strong emphasis MCW places in health equity within communities. Just last year, MCW created a new program entitled “Health Equity Scholars Program” that would focus on training students to combat health disparities and physician shortages among the under-served regions in Milwaukee.    

In addition, other locations, such as MCW-Central Wisconsin have a strong emphasis on community engagement and service. At MCW-Central Wisconsin, students will have the opportunity to participate in the Physician in the Community Scholarly Concentration, which helps connect the students’ medical education with local clinic resources and the needs of their local communities. 

Thorough concentrations like the Physician in the Community Scholarly Concentration, MCW is committed to serving Wisconsin and its surrounding regions, by giving medical students the opportunity to collaborate with community mentors to discover the needs of the community and implement a community-engaged scholarly project, which will be exhibited at the MCW-Central Wisconsin Student Concentrations Project Showcase.

Some examples of community projects from 2024 include:

• Stop the Bleed: Enhancing Emergency Preparedness in Central Wisconsin by Megan Schleusner: A project centered around increasing the preparedness of emergency rooms in rural areas within Central Wisconsin by increasing the number of individuals trained in bleeding control techniques.
• Addressing Barriers to Advance Care Planning Within the Hispanic Population at the Wausau Free Clinic by Grace Wittenberg: A project discussing the need for increased education about advance care planning (ACP) at Wausau Free Clinic where more than half of the population research identified as Hispanic.
• Period Poverty Within John Muir Middle School byPaige Boruch & Erin Gruber: A project assessing the need for female period products within the bathrooms of John Wuir Middle School through an installation of containers with free products as a pilot program.
• Assessing the Health Needs of Northcentral Wisconsin’s LGBTQ+ Population by Liane Kee: A project committed to finding the health needs of LGBTQ+ (particularly transgender) individuals and discussing solutions to disparities in healthcare systems.
• Importance of Mental Health in Teenagers by Alec Hafferman: A project centering around collected data on high school students’ perspectives on relationships and the impact of a workshop regarding mental health.

In a college so dedicated to the continued health and prosperity of their community both local and global, the CASPer exam, that helps to provide many resources in learning how to ethically reason and communicate one’s ideas in a calm and respectful way, is so crucial for increasing the quality for community engagement. By having the foundation to be able to speak clearly and concisely through taking CASPer, one can use the skills that they learned to effectively benefit and build trust within the community engagement projects of their schools.

MCW’s strong commitment to its surrounding community as well as to the larger health system show a need for its students to be caring, collaborative, and respectful. These values are essential for the continued community health and with CASPer that assesses human characteristics like empathy, communication, and teamwork, MCW will be able to identify applicants who could bring MCW’s mission of promoting health in society to life.

Medical College of Wisconsin Scholarly Concentrations

Within MCW, there is a variety of scholarly concentrations that prospective students can choose from. However, depending on the campus, there is a difference in the types of concentrations that are available to be selected.

At MCW Green Bay and Central Wisconsin:

• Physician in the Community Concentration:

This concentration links the physician education that students will receive on campus with the resources of the local communities in order to create new solutions and promote the health needs of Northern Wisconsin.

At MCW Milwaukee:

• Basic to Translational Research Concentration:

This concentration provides research skills that are within basic science research individually and/or with a team. By participating in scientific research, prospective students are able to gain transferable skills such as communication, time management, and critical thinking

• Bioethics and Medical Humanities Concentration

This concentration focuses on learning about the implementations of bioethics and medical humanities within their careers as future physicians, strengthening professionalism, communication, and empathy.

• Clinical to Translational Research Concentration

This concentration is intended for those who wish to become clinician-scientists and will focus on sessions in which students will begin to understand how clinical research can improve patient care as well as a mentored research project.

• Clinician Educator Concentration

This concentration centers around teaching within the medical field and students will learn how to teach in a clinic setting, use educational principles, and develop a scholarly educational product.

• Global Health Concentration

This concentration is designed for students who desire to understand and combat health disparities of communities with limited health resources. Students in this pathway strive to understand the healthcare needs of all around the world, patients, families, and communities alike.

• Health Systems Management and Policy Concentration

This concentration is for students who look into the business and economics side of medicine, providing education for students on the structure and policies of healthcare systems, preparing them for administrative and leadership roles in the future.

• Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Concentration

This concentration helps students to understand the systems-based aspects of patient care and has the students work in improving quality and enhancing patient safety in all aspects of healthcare to provide the best health outcomes.

• Urban and Community Health Concentration

This concentration centers around connecting education with community needs that prepare students for urban settings, increasing community health, and decreasing health disparities.

Medical College of Wisconsin Admissions Overview

The Medical College of Wisconsin requires a bachelor’s degree or a minimum of 90 earned postsecondary credits (excluding AP, IB, CLEP or similar credits) at an institute within the United States or Canada, as well as completion of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). There are several prerequisite courses that are also required for completion, such as Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math, English, and Social Science, as well as 2 undergraduate academic letters of recommendation and optional additional professional letters of recommendation.

Additionally, the Medical College of Wisconsin CASPer requirement is enforced and the application package will not be considered finished without it.

The primary application is completed through American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). The secondary application will be sent to all eligible applicants with a space to designate a campus preference. Please keep in mind that there is only one secondary application, regardless of campus preferences.

There are 3 MD campuses that one can pick from. Applicants may pick multiple campuses if they are interested in more than one. Each campus has their own unique specialties and opportunities that should be viewed:

1. MCW (Milwaukee) The Milwaukee campus is the main campus, specializes in a broad range of healthcare with a large academic medical center, and is primarily taught at the Froedtert Hospital. Early clinical exposure and as well as the opportunity to select a Scholarly Pathway. In addition, the 4-year Discovery curriculum helps students explore a variety of medical specializations with multiple rotations and internships.

2. MCW (Green Bay) The Green Bay campus is more regional than the Milwaukee campus with a 3-year MD program centered around personalized education with one-on-one attention. This campus is also more focused on students who desire to pursue a community-based education.

3. MCW (Central Wisconsin) The Central Wisconsin campus contains a 3-year MD program with a community-focused design with small, personal class sizes and the opportunity to interact and work with many of the local physicians and community organizations within the area.

All interview invitations will be sent via email throughout September to March. These interview spaces are limited and are taken on a first-come, first-serve basis and each interview invite will also have the campus that the applicant is being invited to interview at. Should admission be offered, it will be at that campus and it is not transferable.

Medical College of Wisconsin CASPer Requirements: What Applicants Need to Know

The Medical College of Wisconsin CASPer is required for all applicants to complete. However, the full Altus Suite is not. While it may prompt the applicant to complete both CASPer and Duet, only the CASPer exam is required for the Medical College of Wisconsin CASPer requirement.

CASPer is administered in two sections, video-based scenarios and typed responses. The first section, which consists of 4 scenarios with 2 open-ended questions with each scenario, asks the applicant to record a 1-minute video for each response. Afterwards, there is an optional 10 minute break in between the video-based scenarios and the typed responses. The second section details 7 scenarios with 2 open-ended questions for each scenario. For this section, there is a time limit of 3.5 minutes for one scenario (about 1.75 minutes for each question). There is also an optional 5 minute break in the middle of this typed section.

After the completion of the test, it will take about a few weeks for the CASPer exam to be sent automatically to the programs that were selected for the distribution. Therefore, completion of the Medical College of Wisconsin CASPer is recommended to be rather early in the application cycle, keeping in mind that it takes about 4 weeks to be received by the MCW.

How the Medical College of Wisconsin Uses CASPer Scores in Admissions

• MCW’s holistic review philosophy
• How CASPer is considered relative to:
  • GPA
  • MCAT
  • Clinical exposure and service
• What strong CASPer performance signals to MCW admissions
•  Common misconceptions about “passing” CASPer
•  Required citations:
  • MCW admissions website
  • Official statements
  • Clearly list sources used

What Kind of CASPer Answers Fit MCW’s Mission?

It may be helpful to keep MCW’s mission statement in mind while answering CASPer. The traits that MCW values are ethical reasoning across the various populations within the MCW health network, professionalism, and team-based decision-making in collaborations to solve problems in health and society within local communities, and respect for the diverse patient populations they serve.

As an assessment that is trying to assess an applicant’s responses to human and complex situations, there are no real “perfect answers” for CASPer. Instead, by focusing on the reasoning behind all the decisions that were made throughout the scenarios as well as reflecting on the actions that were hypothetically taken, an applicant will be able to show their ability in communication, reasoning, and deeper human characteristics.
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How to Prepare for CASPer Using CASPer Edge If You’re Applying to MCW

Check out CASPer Edge!

Final Takeaway: Should You Worry About CASPer for the Medical College of Wisconsin?

While there is a Medical College of Wisconsin CASPer requirement, MCW utilizes a holistic approach to admissions where CASPer is not the one thing that can automatically eliminate an applicant. However, a good CASPer score could only serve to benefit you in this upcoming application season. Therefore, by being prepared and professional through preparation with CASPer Edge, every applicant can complete the CASPer exam to the best of their ability.

By utilizing the free CASPer practice problems, applicants can familiarize themselves with the testing style and time management that would help them immensely when it comes time to take the CASPer test for the upcoming application cycle.

Good Luck!