A few more are from rural backgrounds and have rural spouses, but the differences are small. Higher percentages of whites and females are rural-interested when compared to the group as a whole. Lower percentages of Hispanics and Asians show rural interest. Higher percentages are interested among those who are from public medical schools. Fewer are interested in research, but when interested, they are interested in researching health care delivery or social science.
Family practice is by far the preferred specialty.
Primary care components guided their career choice. This is not just a group committed by scholarships as this was three times the number of NHSC folks who responded. Twice as many rural-interested took rural and international electives. Twice as many did volunteer work at public health clinics and serving the underserved and community medicine electives. Graduates preferred the west and avoided the midwest in eventual state location plans.