In this baseline study, the authors analyze in detail many of the factors that influenced the research career intentions of the 1994 US graduates of MD-only programs. Studies of the research interests of the nation's medical school graduates are important because MD-PhD programs do not produce sufficient numbers of physician-scientists, and the remainder must come from the regular population of medical graduates. Data on school characteristics and medical students' demographics, research career intentions, and educational experiences were derived from the AAMC's Institutional Profile System (IPS), Student Application and Information Management System (SAIMS), Matriculating Student Questionnaire (MSQ), and Medical School Graduation Questionnaire (GQ). The 1994 GQ was used as the index instrument to make the correlations reported in this article.