In a thread about med school advice, Josh, a med student at the University of Toronto, asserted that "wanting to help people is not a good enough reason for medical school."

He asks you to think of the reason why you want to get into medicine, saying personal reasons aren't always the best motivators. He offers the suggestion to reflect on why medicine really interests you and says, "it's not a matter of whether you want to help people. The bigger question is to ask yourself how you want to help people because we all help people in our own but often different ways."

He admits that it's a difficult question to answer, but he thinks it's "one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself before dedicating yourself to medicine." If you're pre-med and interested in continuing into med school, for example, "you need to ask yourself 'how do doctors specifically help people, and do I want to help people that way?'"

After self-reflection, there's still plenty of stuff you need to know.

The basics

Planning for med school should begin as early as your first year of university. Josh explains that med schools don't look at your undergrad degree or the school you attended, but are more interested in your GPA and if you've taken the necessary courses and prerequisites.

Ian Wong, author of Pre Med 101, agrees and has provided suggestions for you while in university. Below is a list of things for you to do as a pre-med to increase your chances of getting in, (as told by Josh and Ian).

1. Get good grades and a high MCAT (Medical College Admission Test)
2. Become involved in your school or community, particularly anything that has you in a leadership role, because "it allows you to develop and demonstrate key qualities attractive to med school admissions committees," Joshexplains.
3. Get stellar reference letters and write a stand-out essay.
4. Hone your interview skills, (and remember to answer that "why" question).

Here are some myths and further information when applying to med school.

What to expect if (and when) you do get in 

The number one thing that you must prepare yourself for when going into med school is studying—lots and lots of studying.

Dr. Lisabetta Divita differentiates between two types of schools: allopathic medical schools, which offer doctorate medicine degrees (MDs), and osteopathic medical schools, which offer doctorate osteopathy degrees (DOs). Osteopathy differs in the belief that the body heals itself with the use of hands-on diagnosis and healing methods, rather than medicinal.

Classes, described by Dr. Divita, are a combination of lectures and modules, or problem-based learning, as well as lab or clinical work. Your first year will consist mostly of basic science courses that require a lot of memorization. Year two is clinical-based, when you learn about specific diseases, whereas third year is comprised of clinical rotations, integrating you as a part of a medical team that explores various avenues of medicine. Your last year (in a three- or four-year program, depending on the school) is composed of more specialized clinical rotations.

The price of med schools differs for each institution, and so do prerequisites and enrolment numbers. Click here for a list of the top-ranked med schools, or view thisdetailed chart of med schools and their stats. Also take a look at the tuition fees from the 2012­–2013 academic year of Canadian med schools.

It's competitive

Josh says that the best time to apply to med school is the fall semester of your third or fourth year, but you'll also be competing with master's and PhD students, as well as people in the working world.

"There is NO magic formula to get you into medical school," Josh says simply.

A Canadian doctor who calls himself Medaholic advises, "a much better strategy for getting into medical school is to not stand out in the wrong way." A member of the reviewing and application committee of his med school, he provides insight on how they select applicants. Essentially, applicants who pose red flags are eliminated. "Letting in people that will cause them headaches in the future," as Medaholic summarizes. Applicants with lower grades and low MCAT scores are eliminated first, then applicants who have questionable references or essays are also removed—someone who is unethical or lying, for example. Medaholic advises to "realize that medical schools are looking more for people without any major flaws than the perfect applicant."

The reality is that there are more applicants for med school than there are seats. "Because of caps set by the government, med school seats are extremely limited, despite the shortage of doctors across the country," writes Jenny Mitchell in the Globe and Mail. Scott Dobson-Mitchell also notes the fact that "Ontario has more med schools than any other province. But it has the lowest applicant success rate in the country, at 19 per cent."

However, it is not as simple as increasing the number of seats to increase applicant success rates, but also having to take into account a school's capacity and physical limits, like lab space and classroom size, coupled with the need to increase the amount of teachers, as Jenny Mitchell's article notes.

Med school abroad?

Of course, you are not restricted to studying in Canada for med school. CaRMS, the Canadian Resident Matching Service, is described by Mary C. Sheppard of CBC News as "the not-for-profit organization that matches medical graduates with a postgraduate training position or residency in Canada. Without such training, the candidates cannot practice as doctors in the Canadian healthcare system."

In fact, many foreign med schools are targeting their efforts to North American students because, as CaRMS found, "students opt to study overseas because they have decided they would not be accepted into medical school in Canada, or would rather not wait several years through repeated attempts. It is not uncommon in Canada to apply to medical school two or three times before being admitted. The acceptance rate for first-time applicants in Canada is under 30 per cent."

CaRMS reported in 2011 that "90 per cent of the students who go abroad would like to return to Canada." However, as Josh Dehaas of Maclean's reports, they are considered IMGs (international medical graduates) and they are not guaranteed postgraduate residency positions back in Canada, or in other countries. "The number of residency positions is decided by each province. More than half of residency positions for international students are in Ontario. International medical graduates are a combination of Canadians studying abroad and immigrants wanting to practice in Canada." A postgrad residency is a certification of your med school skills in your specific area of interest, whether it is as a family physician, anesthesiologist or surgeon, or physiotherapist.

The best thing to do with such a challenging reality is to keep applying. As Josh summarizes, "if you have a pretty good GPA, MCAT, and extracurricular activities, and some luck, you have a pretty good chance of getting into med school, even if it takes a few tries."

Photo: Hongqi Zhang/Thinkstock