factors contributing to students’ choice of field of study in

c hoosing s tudy f ield s atifaction w ith s tudy f ield given the costs of training a doctor in terms of time and energy and money this shows that much should be done to help high school graduates to have an informed image of health care professions. of a total of 386 students 369(95%) completed and returned the questionnaire. of all students 117(31.7%) stated that they had good information about their choice of study when they chose their study field 168(45.5%) said that they had little information and 84(22.8%) said that they had no information. compared with male students female students choice were more affected by their gender (27.9% versus 19% p=0.045) education of other members of the family (46.7% versus 29.8% p=0.003) distance of the university to their home town (50.5% versus 37.9% p=0.033). of all respondent 151(40.9%) said they were highly satisfied with their field of study 146(39.6%) said that they were mildly satisfied and 70(19%) were not satisfied at all. in this cross sectional study students of kurdistan university of medical sciences who were studying in the first semester of 2005 6 academic year were selected randomly from each program proportionate to sex ratio and comparative number of students studying in each program. a self administered questionnaire with questions on possible factors contributing to their choice of their study field and extent of satisfaction with the program was used.data extracted from questionnaire and tested by t test using spss software. choosing the field of study is considered an important choice in one’s life so careful consideration of possible options is critical to make the right decision. this study is an attempt to identify contributing factors to students’ choosing their field of study