A longitudinal study of medical specialty choice and certainty level

Two successive classes of entering medical students at the University of Colorado participated in a longitudinal study on the development of medical specialty choice. Students indicated specialty choices and their degree of certainty about them in the freshman, sophomore, and senior years. Results indicated that students were highly uncertain of their choices at the beginning of medical school but became very certain by graduation. Nearly three-fourths switched specialties between freshman and senior years. In general, there was no relationship between degree of certainty and switching. The exception occurred in family practice. The least specialty switching occurred with internal medicine and the most with psychiatry. Increasing numbers of students chose internal medicine over the four years.