The VITA interviews will be used as a supplement to our usual interview day evaluations. Given that our interview day interactions will be virtual this year, we felt this would be an additional way for us to get to know and learn more about an applicant. You have to understand that on a traditional, in-person interview day (back in the pre-COVID days), our admissions team members would spend almost the entire day with our applicants. Also, med students spent portions of the day with our applicants. All of these formal and informal interactions are important to us. We know that we're not going to be able to replicate all of these interactions by virtual means and we don't want to try and replicate an 8 hour interview day via Zoom. That would be painful for both of us. Additionally, we recognize that there may be students that may not have access to the reliable internet for the entirety of our virtual interview day agenda and we may need to conduct phone interviews, if necessary, with applicants with limited tech resources. VITA would provide us an additional resource to "meet" and hear from the applicant.
I can't say if we will be using it for future cycles because we haven't yet used the tool. I'm sorry that you see it as another "hoop." We get it. These are not easy times and we're all dealing with new changes. Please assume good intentions from us just as we assume good intentions from you.