Success Story Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University

St. Louis, Missouri

Products
StandOut® Asynchronous Video Interviewing

Why StandOut?

“StandOut actually brought the interviewing process back to being more student focused.” — Andrea Hitsman, Director of Visit Admission Events

Benefits

• Eliminates time and location constraints

• Reduces administrative time and costs

• Endless scalability

• Easy to use for students and alumni

• Convenient for interviewers and candidates

• Multiple uses, from Admissions to Hiring and Career Development

St. Louis University (SLU) enjoyed a time-honored tradition of welcoming scholarship applicants to campus for in-person interviews. For years, the University hosted close to 500 incoming freshmen and their parents during two annual weekend events that included one-on-one and group interviews conducted by SLU alumni volunteers. The gatherings also provided opportunities for students to meet their cohorts and explore their university. These events were not only an ideal method for welcoming and vetting scholarship candidates, but also an excellent opportunity for SLU alumni to stay involved in campus life.

Then the COVID pandemic happened. The University needed to quickly find a way to continue offering each scholarship candidate a personal interview—and maintain the popular tradition of alumni participation—without bringing anyone to campus. With close to 500 interviews to schedule and conduct, SLU Admissions recognized the solution was beyond the capabilities of standard Zoom-style interviews. According to Andrea Hitsman, Director of Visit Admission Events at SLU, “It would have been impossible to set up that many Zoom interviews. We needed a way to do interviews asynchronously while enabling our alumni to continue participating.”

St. Louis University Admissions explored several video interviewing platforms, but none offered the flexibility and conveniences available in the StandOut video interviewing system. With StandOut’s unlimited scalability, preserving that one-on-one interviewing experience for all 500 scholarship applicants was no problem. And, because the system enables asynchronous interaction, alumni interviewers immediately discovered they could initiate conversations and review applicants’ responses on their own schedules, and without having to adjust for differing time zones. Students appreciated the convenience, as well. The transition to virtual interviews went so smoothly, in fact, and offered so many advantages—including substantial cost savings—over the University’s weekend campus gatherings, that while normal campus life resumed in the waning days of the pandemic, the once-beloved scholarships events began to feel obsolete. According to Hitsman, “We tried to go back to in-person interviews for two years, but we realized StandOut works so well for us, there was no reason to do it the old way anymore. The students prefer the flexibility of asynchronous interviews. And we can get a lot more alumni volunteers because they can be anywhere in the world—not just here in Missouri.”

Thanks to the convenience and scalability of the StandOut system, SLU can assign several individual evaluators to each student interview. Every candidate is now evaluated on multiple factors by at least one faculty member, one alum, and one current student. Each reviewer can access the recorded interviews at their convenience and take the time to give each interview thoughtful consideration. Before the team implemented StandOut interviewing, interviewers lacked the luxury of time, having to render evaluations on the spot.

Reflecting on her years of managing the on-campus interviews, which included greeting, housing, and feeding 500 students and their parents over two three-day weekends, Hitsman now recognizes that, not only were the events a challenge to plan and host, but they had actually become less about the students’ accomplishments and more about managing an event. “StandOut actually brought the interviewing process back to being more student focused,” she said. “We also recognized that, for many of our students, the in-person interview process caused a lot of worry and anxiety that carried over into their entire weekend. These days, all our scholarship applicants are still invited to come visit our campus, but now they are much more relaxed, and they can enjoy their visits because their interviews are already done.”

It turns out that at SLU, StandOut interviewing is not just for scholarship candidates. It has also made student employee hiring much more efficient. The University uses StandOut to interview candidates for 45-60 undergrad employee positions each year. Seniors graduating out of their campus jobs can participate in interviewing their replacements, creating a paraprofessional experience for both candidate and student interviewer, while Admissions counselors participate as mentors. “This has been such a successful program for us,” Hitsman said. “StandOut is so easy to use, students master it quickly and can manage the process on their own. It's a great learning experience for both the candidate and student interviewer. And it cuts way down on administrative time.”

About Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University is a private Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1818, it is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River and one of the oldest Jesuit universities in the United States. The University offers 91 bachelor’s degree and 125 master’s and doctoral degree programs to a student body of just over 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students. SLU was the first Jesuit university to receive the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award. The University is also nationally recognized for its academic excellence, historic buildings, and commitment to sustainability.

Saint Louis University Transforms Campus Interviewing with StandOut®

Saint Louis University

The Challenge

The Solution

More Thorough and Equitable Evaluations

Lessons Learned

StandOut Proves Ideal for Student

Hiring, Too

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