Also, when people hear you go to a school like Yale or MIT, they assume you are somehow privileged. (The odds on that are 2:1 if you go by percentage of students who are paying full price).
Not privileged. Mom is a secretary. Dad is dead. Went to public high school in a rural community with an average SAT score of 900-something (out of 1600) and only 33% pursue a bachelor's degree upon graduation. Most everyone else goes to help on the family farm. My mom never once asked to see a report card growing up (I'm grateful she wasn't a helicopter parent). I worked hard to get out and never to return. I was the first student ever in my high school to attend MIT and since then two others have been recruited! If you mean privileged in that I happened to be relatively smart, then yes I am lucky. If you mean privileged in that mine had the privilege of being more or less randomly selected from a giant pool of qualified college applications, then sure. If you think I am from a wealthy background or got some elite secondary education, I'm not and I didn't. I simply decided at age 14 that I wanted to get an excellent and free college education so that I would be able to escape my town forever. So I made a four year plan to do that, carried it out, and had a lot of fun along the way. And it worked.
I agree, the pros of attending a school like MIT or Yale outweigh the drawbacks by a lot. I assumed that was a given on this board. But there are negative aspects many do not realize, and Inycepoo's post reminded me of a somewhat recent experience.
Regarding your question about institutional bias in interviews (I am not an interviewer but an interviewee but I'll share my thoughts anyway, so n=2): I took the entirety of my pre-reqs (except physics) at a public university with a rather poor reputation, and I took all of my biology coursework (26 credits) at a community college. And my MIT GPA was awful, so I'm sure that did not reassure them. Even so, no one has brought it up and I was fortunate enough to land an acceptance right away. If your MCAT rocks, no one will care what school your GPA is from.
Hence why I used the disclaimer that my post was clearly not aimed at you as an individual, but at the attitude in general (and the way some people talk, I don't know if we can take anything for granted on these forums). If you take a population level look at those attending college, much less the most elite universities, they are privileged (if not just because they have the opportunity to have gotten lucky because somebody told them to fill out an application). I don't argue on an individual basis because how could I possibly know you? Honestly, being in the position to take advantage of opportunities is not something that needs to be defended, awareness is useful all. With that in mind, I didn't need your story because 1) I wasn't speaking about you as an individual (which I made clear in my post) and 2) because even if you were the most privileged person in the world there is no reason to feel the need to defend your situation - just take advantage of what you can and improve the world, your state, community, family, etc to the best of your ability. I do appreciate you sharing though, always good to get perspective about the diversity of all institutions.
And could we comment against the general attitude that everyone at an elite institution is automatically somehow more privileged than the rest of SDN? In the friendliest way possible, srsly.
I'm not that privileged. Sure, my parents weren't crackheads and actually realized the importance of education, but I grew up pretty close to the ghetto and still have that drawl of an inflection in my NY accent (e.g., "why you gotta go and 'tuoalk' to me like that?"). So privileged to have that going for me, but definitely not otherwise. I don't pay a single cent for all four years due to full financial aid based on need. I'm not that different than most people on these forums in terms of family background.
It's not privilege, but sheer dumb luck. That's just what I ran into in the admissions process. It's time people realize this more. This ain't the pearly white gates of the 1950s anymore, kids.
No one said that it sucks to go to an Ivy. We know it's a privilege, which is inherently different than being privileged, but I only brought it up after seeing yeahhhhboi's post, which reminded me of this slight annoyance, yes, and wanted to respond to say that we don't try to hide our school sometimes because we're douchey. That's all.
I think I miscommunicated my point, which was just that on this forum and in other venues, people seem not to realize how privileged they are to have the opportunity to be contemplating medical school at all, instead focusing on things like being annoyed that people assume they're smart. No comments on my end were intended for individuals, rather they were simply meant to be aimed at broad attitudes held on this forum and in other areas. I do apologize if I implied that anybody as an individual was privileged - one last time, I don't know your situation so I am not commenting directly at you or anybody else, but I do know that on average, it is safe to say those going to college, and those going to top colleges, are on average at the population level, privileged.
We can disagree on the difference between "being privileged" and on it being "a privilege," and clearly we're all guilty of oversimplifying privilege in this discussion (this is SDN after all, not sociology, so who can blame us, though I love having the chat if anybody is ever up for it
🙂 ) As you indirectly pointed out, privilege is all relative anyway.
Look at us talking social issues! And they say those going into medicine aren't interested enough in social contexts.
One night stand? Sure no problem. But if you fall in love afterward, he is still not likely to commit to that four-year long-term relationship you want so bad. What a heart-breaker.
