Background: The factors medical students use to choose emergency medicine (EM) as a career path have not been well studied. The role of a 3rd year clerkship in EM in a student's choice of EM residency is not known.

Purpose: The purpose of this survey was to determine whether a 3rd year clerkship in EM is correlated with a student's choosing EM as a career choice, as evidenced by the number of students who apply for or matching in EM in medical schools in the United States.

Methods: The deans of American medical schools were surveyed by mail, using a seven-part questionnaire inquiring as to type of exposure, number of students, length of the exposure, number of students applying for and matching in EM in the past 3 years. The data was analyzed using SPSS software.

Results: The survey was returned by 71 of the 125 medical schools (56.8 percent) in the country. The average class size was 129.9 students. Over one half of the medical schools (58.8 percent) provided EM exposure in the 3rd year; in 38.7 percent it was a required clerkship. The number of students applying for or matching in EM was not correlated with a required or elective rotation in EM, departmental status, percentage of board certified emergency physicians, emergency department volume, or a residency training program in EM (p >. 05).

Conclusions: This study did not demonstrate a correlation of a 3rd year rotation in EM with the number of students applying or matching in EM.