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It appears to me that, the factors like “born, raised, and has family in this area” will become more and more important as a person gets closer and closer to be a practicing doctor, that is, when to get into a residency program and when to get hired after residency. I once read somewhere that, in some area, which church you have been affiliated with for how long could be a factor in some cases too. I think DS once heard from somewhere that when a person gets to the residency stage, the area the residency program is in becomes more important. This is because he or she needs to start to build up the network with the practitioners in the medical community where he or she will eventually practice.</p>
<p>Maybe after about the second year in med school (MS2), getting extremely good grades (still need to be good enough) in the traditional sense in the academic setting you have been in in your whole life all of a sudden becomes less important and “something else” becomes more important. It seems that many non-gunners become better than those gunners in MS3/4 and beyond.</p>