Investing in Medical Students: Which Ones Are Worth a Surgeon's Time?

Background Little information exists on which third-year medical students will become worthy protégés. Methods Performance and encounter metrics for 4 classes of medical students were correlated with the students who matched into a surgery residency. Results Overall, 68 of 422 (16%) graduating seniors matched into a surgery residency. Male students were twice as likely as female students to match in surgery were, and most (81%) matching students took their general surgery rotation at the university hospital. Students who took certain elective rotations (eg, urology and orthopedics) tended to enter those surgical professions. Grades, test scores, clinical performance, oral presentation skills, and encounter data were not predictive of which students would enter the surgical profession. Conclusion For surgeons who are willing to mentor medical students, our data suggest that currently, the selection of medical students worthy of surgeon–mentor's time will remain an art.