The results, presented above, of the study carried out in 1966 among the first year students of the Medical Academy in Warsaw threw some light on their motivation to study medicine and their notions of the profession they would perform in the future. It would be worth while to reconsider some of the results. It seems that the informants' attitude towards their studies and their professional future is influenced both by social and environmental background and their sex. Influences of this kind can be noticed especially clearly in the motivation to study medicine and to choose a particular type of health service institution or place of habitation. The motivation is quite different for the informants coming from different socio-occupational groups. For the students from medical families the profession of the parents was very often the decisive factor. For persons from other white-collar workers' families the interest in medical science and biology was such a factor. In the case of the informants from manual workers' and peasants' families the humanitarian elements connected with the medical profession were of greatest importance. It does not mean that these elements were alien to the rest of the informants, they were simply less popular among them. This altruistic attitude, quite popular among the informants, is especially worth stressing now, in the present phase of the discussion about contemporary young people, who are often described as being cynical. As far as the informants' notions of their future professional work are concerned, usually they are similar to the common opinion on the subject. We notice the tendency to get a post in a big city above all (50 per cent of the total sample) we can add here that the bigger the town the informant comes from, the bigger the town he would like to work in in the future. This urge to get a job in a big city is characteristic of many countries; the problem of the lack of doctors in the country and in small towns is not specifically Polish. The tendency to work in hospital service, mainly in university hospitals, institutes and big hospitals is equally popular. In this respect, too, there exist differences resulting from the social background of the informants. In spite of the already mentioned general tendency to get a job in hospital service, there exists the division into small hospitals and big university hospitals. The former are popular among the students from manual workers' and peasants' families rather than among the informants from intelligentsia families (doctors included), who in turn see their proper place in university hospitals and research institutes. This tendency to work in the hospital service so popular among the first year student is probably connected with the notion of the medical profession they possess when starting their university education. Their “Vision” includes usually a doctor in a white coat, leaning over the bed of a patient, or working in an operating theatre. An industry medical officer controlling the sanitary conditions of a factory, for example, appears in this imaginary vision rarely, though most probably many of the informants are destined for the latter type of career. It is worth while to take particular notice of the students' tendency to work, in the future, in particular specializations. Only 4·2 per cent of the total sample do not know whether they will work in any particular specialization in the future. Surgery is the most popular field among the informants. The attitude of the informants to wages is an interesting phenomenon we can observe in the data gathered. The answers reveal that the future doctors do not think about financially profitable careers and think them unimportant. The salaries the majority of the informants expect in the future are not too high. Many students mention even that “salary is not important”. The tendency to work, in the future, in small towns, where the possibility to “make a fortune” exists according to the common opinion, is rather unpopular. Only two persons mention private practice as the goal they have in view. It is worth while to notice the interdependence between the sex of the informants and their expectations concerning their wages in the future. The expectations of the women are more modest than those of the men. The results presented above are characteristic of wishes rather than definite plans. Many of the informants are aware that the policy of employment will be worked out according to the “market” laws of “supply and demand”. This concerns future work in particular health service institutions, especially. To repeat the survey among the same sample, a few years later, before their graduation, would be an interesting complement to the present study.