Career, research involvement, and research fellowship plans of potential psychiatrists

For this investigation, we used Association of American Medical Colleges survey data to compare the career, research involvement, and research fellowship plans of 532 senior medical students in 1985 intending to specialize in psychiatry with plans of 10,516 students designating other specialty preferences, and discriminant analyses to identify factors associated with psychiatry students' career, research, and fellowship plans. Although a higher percentage of the psychiatry students planned academic or research careers than did their classmates in the other specialties (34.6% vs 27.8%), a lower percentage expected to take a research fellowship (15.4% vs 20.7%). In the multivariate analysis, medical school experience variables such as research, publication, and exposure to a research-oriented environment all were associated with plans for a career in academic medicine or research, exclusive or significant research involvement, and plans to complete a research fellowship.