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LETTERS: J Pip Fisher Lessons in medical school access from America BMJ 2008; 336: 1264-b [Full text]

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Proposed criteria are unfair

James A Scott-Brown   (10 June 2008)

Proposed criteria are unfair 10 June 2008
James A Scott-Brown, Student - Send response to journal: Re: Proposed criteria are unfair	It is not quite correct to say that "An admissions policy that requires students to be in the top X% of their year treats all students uniformly". Many independent schools use admissions tests and so only select pupils with high academic ability, while most state schools are not selective in their admissions. The proposed criteria is unfair for those in selective schools, as their year will include fewer people of low ability. Further, the policy would impose an arbitrary limit on the number of pupils from any one school who can become doctors. To deny people the opportunity to train in their first choice of career - for which they may be ideally suited - simply because they happened to go to the same school as several other highly intelligent people seems grossly unfair. Competing interests: I am a pupil at an academically selective independent school