The table below displays the number and percentage of U.S. MD students who provided a specialty preference on the 2021 Medical School Graduation Questionnaire (GQ) and also participated in the Matriculating Student Questionnaire (MSQ), which matriculants are invited to complete during the summer before the first year of medical school. Data from students who indicated their specialty preferences in the 2021 GQ are compared with their previous responses on the MSQ. For example, 12.4% of those who indicated a specialty preference of Anesthesiology on the 2021 GQ had selected the same specialty on the MSQ when they started medical school; 60.4% had selected a different specialty on the MSQ; 17.8% were undecided; and 9.4% had not responded to the question on the MSQ. Please contact residentreport@aamc.org with any comments or questions.
Selected Finding: Over the course of medical school, most medical students change their intended area of practice. Specifically, just over a quarter (27.0%) of 2021 respondents to the GQ indicated the same specialty preference as they had indicated was their intended area of practice on the MSQ.