Yeah I don't buy this. I've always felt very comfortable around black folks even though I'm white. I think it more has to do with life experiences.
Agreed. It depends on what type of people you have around.
Sometimes, your stereotypes will be confirmed when meeting someone, while people from different backgrounds often become the best friends together due to, say, similar values.
Privelege is typically referring to something given, not earned, right? As in a priveleged class in society.
I think that if I had multiple acceptances due to high gpa/mcat, I would not feel priveleged to have them.
I understand your point.
High GPA/MCAT and other credentials are earned through many hours of hard work, so consequently multiple acceptances are justified and should not be considered as a privilege, since that person is by no means taking those acceptances for granted and deserves them due to his or her credentials. In short, this individual's ability to ignore schools that would otherwise send an acceptance letter, or the ability to place more weights on other factors like the location or ranking without compromising the overall chances to get eventually accepted compared to other applicants, is not a privilege.
Aside from extreme cases like having no choice but to attend a religious school despite being non-religious, I think this logic presumes that credentials like high GPA/MCAT can be entirely "earned." It is very true to certain extent, I do not disagree with that. However, sometimes there are other factors beyond our control that affect the quality of our quantitative and qualitative credentials. For instance, with family issues, financial concerns, and the relatively late realization of medical interests, some outstanding applicants might not have been able to get credentials as great as they could have. If their circumstances become unfavorable enough, they might not have the ability to ignore schools that would otherwise send an acceptance letter.
In short, exceptional credentials, to some extent, cannot be justified simply as something we can "earn" entirely with enough individual efforts. Sometimes, there are other behind-the-scene "privileges" being involved that often facilitate us in achieving the outstanding credentials. For example, if I had to work 2-3 multiple jobs to support my family and education, I probably would not have the same credentials I have today, probably having take (multiple) gap years and even considering different careers other than medicine.
Because of this, I would safely say that having multiple acceptances, let alone multiple interviews, is
in part a privilege, although people with multiple interviews and acceptances usually feel that they "earned" them.
