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Is there usually that much inbreeding at HMS?
Absolutely, just look at their historical match lists. Especially for IM. This isn't new.
Obviously, it demonstrates that Harvard has strong confidence in their own students. The way I see it, that reflects well on both the hospital system and the school.
I would hope all schools have strong confidence in their students. If they don't then there clearly needs to be a rapid reassessment of educational priorities. Lack of people staying at their home institution can also be a very telling indicator.
This. I do not think that keeping their own students reflects well in their hospital system nor the school. There is a lot to be gained by working with other bright students that have been exposed to different perspectives, have different strengths and have trained at other schools. Personally, I would find it extremely boring if had to spent 4 years of medical school and 3-4 years of residency with the same people........but that is just me....
Again, I don't have an issue with programs giving favor to their own students, but only to a point. Once you (consistently) start compiling >25% of your class from your own medical school is where I think it starts to become detrimental. And I'm not just talking about a single year. Yes, the Match is unpredictable and it's possible that it just works out that you end up with 30% of your own students one year. Just like rolling admissions for medical schools, they just reevaluate how they compiled that rank list, and compensate for it the following year.
Otherwise you're spot-on with what I was getting at.
I just think it's an entirely different set of lenses and you don't have the same biases and etc. What is the point at applying to residencies if schools just take tons of their own students?
Exactly. Fellowship programs are frequently faced with this problem. Often there are more home applicants than there are spots, and if you take all of them then outside applicants are going to stop applying. It's not worth their time/money applying and traveling to a program where they already start out as second tier candidates.