A comparison of medical students from medical and nonmedical families.

A total of 1,195 students from 11 classes at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine was studied. Of these, 162 were from medical and 1,033 from nonmedical families. Those from medical families were insignificantly different from their classmates on premedical scholastic achievement and Medical College Admission Test scores, but they were slightly younger and attended more prestigious undergraduate colleges. Academic and clinical performance in medical school was equivalent for the two groups. However, long-range consequences in regard to choice of specialty were observable. Psysicians from medical families were more likely than their peers to be in ophthalmology and otorhinolarngoloy, dermatology, and surgery and less likely to be in psychiatry, pediatrics, and obstericsgynecology.