Right, I guess I still haven't been clear.
No, you're being clear. Where we differ, I think, is that I would say performance is not equally flexible in all intellectual classes. I probably should clarify that yes, everyone has a limit. What will differ by intellectual class is both the height of this limit and it's distance from one's default intellect.
People have a limit, and how far towards that limit they get to develop towards is heavily dependent on environment.
I don't have data for this first point, but I have seen the "average" college student (at my school anyway) swing from a 3.0-3.5 or so. Their performance is going to rely fairly heavily on a mix of time management, study methods, effort, and of course intellect. For the super-genius kids (of which I've only met a couple), they can sleep in class, put in minimal effort, etc., and still pull a 100% out of their ass. Now, you could argue that they would perform better if they put in more effort, but they are already at the ceiling, so the outcome is the same; visa-versa for dumb-dumbs. The more extreme one's intellect is, the more it is going to drown out other factors.
For middle class and above people develop very near their limits.
What makes you say this? While there is certainly a correlation between performance in high school and performance in college, it is not 1:1. Again, I knew plenty of kids that, with little-to-no effort, were in the top 5% of their respective high schools, yet merely average (B-) in college. Once they started seeing tutors, developed better time management skills and so on, they were able to rise to the top 1/4 of the class. Obviously one's access to these resources is going to vary based on $$$ available.
I believe extreme poverty among other things (like substance abuse) can very much hold people back from developing fully.
I agree.
I do not believe wealth can allow anyone to overcome having a very average limit however.
Well if we are talking about a 100 IQ matriculating into HMS (barring veterans and the like,) then I would say that's probably true. The gap is simply too wide.
If someone who lived a decent middle class life was a B student and got a 20 on the MCAT, I don't think having them instead grow up in the upper class would produce a strong candidate.
I agree. Again, this would be a rather extreme case. The gulf is too wide.
So if someone says the process can be bought I disagree. Some money may very well be necessary for a lot of people. For nobody is a pile of cash going to be sufficient.
We are essentially saying the same thing, I think.