Family Medicine Specialty Choice at Matriculation and Graduation

Most allopathic medical students change their specialty choice during medical school. The historic concern about students being talked out of family medicine during medical school is still partially valid, yet the data reported here show that the majority of students entering family medicine at graduation had reported a different specialty when they entered medical school. While increasing family medicine recruitment into medical school is crucial, these data also show the critical importance of family medicine departments helping recruit and support medical students' family medicine choice during medical school.