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<p>Regarding the premed track, your university actually matters tremendously because of the grade inflation, which, for the premed process, has less to do with earning good grades than it is about avoiding bad grades. Let’s face it: at schools such as HYPS and many other top private schools (but notably not schools such as MIT or Caltech), as long as you put in a bare modicum of effort, it’s practically impossible to earn a truly terrible grade. Granted, you probably won’t get straight A’s. But you won’t get any truly terrible grades either. But at many lower-ranked schools, terrible grades are a real danger. The top private schools are therefore the ‘safer’ premed choice in that they eliminate the long-tail risk to your GPA.</p>