title: Informed choice of entering medical school and academic success in Iranian medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One of the challenges medical education policy-makers confront is matriculants' informed choice of entering medicine. However, students' reasons for choosing medicine do not seem rational.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We compared students who made an informed choice about entering medicine with those who did not, in terms of academic success.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was carried out with a self-administered questionnaire on 220 final-year medical students randomly selected from six Iranian medical schools. Depending on their informed choice of entering medicine or not at the time of application, they were divided into two groups. We compared these two groups' academic achievement as well as their satisfaction with medicine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The students who had not made an informed choice had a higher tendency not to choose medicine if they were to start over (p value ≤0.001). The pre-admission scores of students who had made an informed choice of medicine were worse than the other group (p = 0.03). However, their final year scores as well as their satisfaction with medicine were higher than the other group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Idealistic views of medicine should be replaced by rational and logical ones to help students select the careers best suited to their abilities and talents.
authors: Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Iran.
authors: Yasin
authors: Y
authors: Farrokhi-Khajeh-Pasha
authors: Saharnaz
authors: S
authors: Nedjat
authors: Aeen
authors: A
authors: Mohammadi
authors: Elaheh
authors: E
authors: Malakan Rad
authors: Reza
authors: R
authors: Majdzadeh
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003099:College Admission Test; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011897:Random Allocation; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*