Sorry but I will never be convinced that on average someone who received their undergraduate degree from Harvard will have the same life experiences than someone who went to a state school. For one, state schools usually have a much larger student body. Hence, statistically, your odds of interacting with individuals of different socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and interests are inevitably higher. Cultural competence and social awareness, two very important qualities in physicians, come from these sort of interactions. The more exposed you are to such individuals, the more likely you will be to relate to/with them. That is specifically why it's highly valued for applicants to have some foreign life experience; by living or spending time in other countries, it obviously shows that you can appreciate differences; hence, you gain cultural competence.
