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<p>There are feelings, and then there’s reality. After three years, I’d say I know my classmates reasonably well, and while I’m sure I know more chemistry than my HuMed classmates do, there’s no reason to think that they are any less academically capable than those of us who got in the regular way. The only difference between them and us is that they decided that they had better things to do in college than take orgo and physics, and Sinai agreed with them.</p>
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<p>Past performance can be used to predict future performance, so high school is not a completely inconsequential part of someone’s educational background. People who are good at writing generally communicate well with patients. That’s a critically important skill. As for artistic ability, an eye for detail, color, texture, and shape are pretty relevant for physical diagnosis, reading radiographs and slides, autopsy and surgery, just to name a few things off the top of my head.</p>
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<p>While it’s absolutely true that the program now heavily recruits Ivy League students, this hardly counts as providing an easy road to acceptance for the offspring of rich, well-connected physician-parents.</p>