Influence of Medical Student Age and Experience on Clinical Rotations and Specialty Choice

Background: Historically, most medical students began medical school right after completing their undergraduate degree. However, over the past 4 years, the average age of medical student matriculation was 24 years. Many students are taking a few years to pursue other opportunities before entering medical school, which has been shown to help in the transition to the clinical years of medical school. Methods: An anonymous online quantitative survey was sent from June 2017 through March 2018 to medical students enrolled in clinical rotations at four large medical schools representing different regions of the US. In this study, students 25 years or older were considered non-traditional, while students under the age of 25 were considered traditional. Survey questions were adapted from a qualitative study on the experiences of mature-aged medical students. Results: A total of 195 medical students responded to the survey, which was about a 14% participation rate. The average age upon entering medical school was 24.1 years. Compared with traditional students, non-traditional students indicated that life experience (p < 0.001), previous work experience (p < 0.001), and age (p < 0.001) had a stronger impact on their clinical rotations. Additionally, non-traditional students reported a stronger influence of work experience (p < 0.004) and age (p < 0.001) on specialty choice than traditional-aged students. Conclusion: These findings support the idea that non-traditional students gain valuable experience from the time between obtaining their undergraduate degree and starting medical school, which is a significant factor in determining specialty choice and residency locations