title: Should I apply to medical school? High school students and barriers to application.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A major goal of the Faculty of Medicine at the Memorial University of Newfoundland is to produce physicians who will return to rural areas that are currently underserviced. Research shows that the strongest indicator of practice in a rural area is a rural background, and thus it is important that rural students apply to medical school. We investigated what high school students believe to be preventing them from pursuing medical education.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between September 2013 and June 2014, we administered a paper survey to high school students in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 665 participants completed the survey. We found that fewer rural students (75.6%) than urban students (98.6%) believed that they could gain admission to medical school (p < 0.01) and that medicine was promoted as a career choice in fewer rural schools (55.7%) than urban schools (69.7%). Also, 55.4% of urban students, but only 44.4% of rural students, believed that rural students were disadvantaged when applying to medical school.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our study, rural students believed they were less likely to be accepted into medical school than urban students, and fewer rural students felt that medicine was promoted as a potential career choice. Our results may be explained by a lack of role models or perhaps by financial barriers, although further research is needed.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL.
authors.forename: Desmond
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Whalen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL.
authors.forename: Chelsea
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Harty
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Greene
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Faour
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL.
authors.forename: Kalen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.affiliation: Rural Medicine Education Network, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ravalia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002170:Canada; D002321:Career Choice; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D019035:Rural Health Services; D012424:Rural Population; D012649:Self Concept; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult