<p>^ I believe the program you have described is JAMP. They likely recruit students from a particular segment of society, e.g.,for students from some tier-3 or tier-4 colleges mostly in some rural/poor community. If you are a typical student from a flagship state college, you may not be qualified for such a program. This is because such a program does not exist in a “good” college.</p>
<p>A fact is that there are just not enough MDs who are willing to serve these communities. So, there is such a program. Spin this from another point of view: the poor community only deserves doctors whose education background before medical schools may be inferior. Is this a quote from “animal farm”: Some animals are more equal than others. (animals = patients here.) But if we look at this from a more positive point of view, we at least give (or try to give) these communities some doctors rather than none at all.</p>
<p>This kind of program (i.e., JAMP) is very very different from the humanity program from Mt. Sinai for their purposes. The latter just recognizes the value of the education other than just sciences, sciences and more sciences. After all, a doctor works in the service industry who needs to interact with human beings on a daily basis, and it is hard to say whether a science nerd is always a better candidate for a caring doctor.</p>
<p>ctxmike, Although I sympothized with you because you now need to compete against a crowd that are more academically qualified in a nationally recognized university, I think it is likely adcoms will give you some break if you are from that community or a disadvantaged grow-up environment. They will likely recignize the value of your more rigorous education (hopefully you are not an ORM or a majority though.)</p>