Choosing a Medical Specialty

Most first-year students have at least some idea of what they’d like to specialize in after they graduate. Some don’t have a clue because they’ve not been exposed enough to different fields of medicine to know. In general, medical students choose a specialty based on several factors:

1. Their background and personality type and how well their personality fits the lifestyle of the specialty.

2. Their background and their interests.

3. Their natural abilities and talents.

4. Where they would like to live.

5. Whether they would like to do research in their field of specialty.

6. How much time they are willing to spend in the office seeing patients or in a hospital setting.

7. How many years they’ll have to spend in a residency program.

8. How much compensation they will get in the specialty.

Sometimes an individual would like to do it all: seeing patients, teaching, and doing research at a teaching hospital. A good way to match a particular specialty with your abilities, interests, values, and personality is to take the Specialty Quiz on the Student Doctor Network at http://schools.studentdoctor.net/selector. Completing the quiz won’t tell you which specialty you should pursue, but it will give you an idea of how you match up, given your answers.

When doctors were asked how they finally decided on their specialty, many of them said they made their choices based mainly on their experiences in clinical rotations. Sometimes medical students think they might be interested in a particular specialty until they experience it firsthand. Another common answer was the amount of time they would spend in either an office or a hospital or clinical setting.

From: The New Medical School Preparation & Admissions Guide, 2025, 5th Edition