the criteria of choosing a right partner from the point of view of unmarried students of semnan university of medical sciences

background regarding the process of increasing the divorce rate in recent years and youth population, the awareness among the youth, especially the university students, about marriage and criteria of choosing a right partner for proper planning to preserve family is of great importance. objectives the aim of this study was to investigate the viewpoint of unmarried students of semnan university of medical sciences about the criteria of choosing the right partner. materials and methods this cross-sectional study was conducted on 271 unmarried students at semnan university of medical sciences in the academic year of 2011. a researcher-made questionnaire containing demographic data (10 questions), the criteria for choosing a partner (36 questions) and 5 open questions were handed out among the students. the questionnaires were collected and the data were analyzed using ks test, t, mann-whitney and kruskal-wallis tests. results from the point of view of the students, the criteria such as loyalty, commitment to the ethics, personality traits, compatibility and ethical understanding are of top 5 priorities for choosing right partner, respectively. there was a significant relationship between the significance level of some criteria and gender so that the psychological and social criteria (commitment to the ethical principles and accountability) and aesthetic or physical criteria (beauty and good-looking appearance) were so important for girls and boys, respectively. conclusions the results of the study showed that, from the point of view of the student, the sustainable and fundamental criteria for choosing the right partner are of great importance. accordingly, it is recommended that, by considering the cultural, religious and social criteria, the opportunities for shaping the positive personality, psychological and social traits and institutionalizing the ethics in society should be provided. public education plans, especially training the families can play an important role in this regard.