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The purpose of the present research was to examine the predicative ability of both the unique and combined components of grit, trait self-control, and conscientiousness in the context of academic goal pursuit. Participants (n1=163, n2=551) were asked to complete assessments of each self-regulatory trait. They also identified three goals that they planned to pursue over the next year and rated their motivation for pursuing them, of which we retained only academic goals. Together, grit, trait self-control, and conscientiousness explained 9.9% of the variance in academic goal motivation across both samples. Using commonality analysis, we found that the overlapping components of grit, trait self-control, and conscientiousness accounted for 49.6% of the explained variance (4.9% of the total variance), with the individual components each accounting for less than 20% (2% of the total variance). Implications and suggestions for subsequent research on self-regulatory traits are discussed.

Introduction Students from low‐income backgrounds (LIB) have been under‐represented in Canadian medical schools for over fifty years. Despite our awareness of this problem, little is known about the experiences of aspiring physicians from LIB in Canada who are working towards medical school admission. Consequently, we have little insight into the barriers and facilitators that may be used to increase the representation of students from LIB in Canadian medical schools. Methods This paper describes a qualitative description interview study aimed at understanding the experiences of aspiring physicians from LIB as they attempt to gain entry to medical school. We conducted semi‐structured interviews with 21 participants at different stages of their undergraduate, master's, and non‐medical professional education, and used the theories of intersectionality and identity capital as a theoretical framework for identifying barriers and facilitators to a career in medicine. Results Participants experienced social, identity‐related, economic, structural and informational barriers to a career in medicine. Intrinsic facilitators included motivation, self‐confidence, attitude, strategy, information‐seeking and sorting, and financial literacy and increasing income. Extrinsic facilitators were social, informational, financial and institutional in nature. Conclusion This study fills existing knowledge gaps in the literature by identifying the pre‐admissions barriers and facilitators encountered by aspiring physicians from LIB in Canada. The barriers and facilitators outlined in this study offer a framework for identifying target areas in developing support for admitting medical students from LIB. Given that medical students from LIB are more likely to serve underserved populations, our study is relevant to Canadian medical schools’ social accountability commitment to producing physicians that meet the health needs of marginalised and vulnerable patients.