5427 applicants to British medical schools indicated the importance of
each of 22 specific reasons for applying to the five choices they had
put on their medical school application. The 24852 applications were
aggregated by medical school, and the profile of reasons analysed for
each school. Factor analysis showed four clear dimensions, labelled as
'Reputation', 'Personal contact', 'Location' and 'Prospectus'; scores
and rank order for each school on each factor are reported. Scrutiny
of the pattern of ratings of individual schools suggested that althoug
h many of the applicants' perceptions were probably valid, there were
some perceptions which appeared inconsistent with other evidence. Clus
ter analysis showed that in general the London schools clustered toget
her as did the provincial schools of England and Wales, and the Scotti
sh schools; Oxbridge and Belfast were perceived as very separate from
the other schools.