SAN DIEGO -- A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association said more future doctors are choosing specialties with a set schedule because they want a family life. However, many medical students at UCSD School of Medicine seem to be bucking the trend.

"We had 61 students go into primary care related fields which are, by definition, uncontrollable. We had 30 go into surgery or surgical sub-specialties," UCSD Medical School Vice Dean Maria Savoia said.

"I love surgery. I think it's really challenging and fun and I can see myself doing it 10 to 15 years down the line," UCSD medical student Kelly Hodgkiss said.

Hodgkiss is single now, but said she will deal with the demands of being surgeon and having a family when the time comes.

"For me, it wasn't a question of lifestyle. Certainly, the fact that I would want someday to have a family and be married plays into that, but I don't feel like I should make decisions around my future based on some probability," Hodgkiss said.

Christian Hamlet is a fourth-year medical student at UCSD School of Medicine. He said he has been torn between becoming a surgeon, which has unpredictable hours, and an emergency room doctor.

"I have literally gone back and forth for the last year," he said. "Lifestyle has definitely been the factor that above all seems to be if not guiding at least causing the most problems for people when it comes to deciding what you are going to be doing for the rest of your life."

Oscar Casillas is also a fourth-year medical student.

Casillas said he loves being a doctor, but as a married father of two young children, he is picking a specialty, emergency medicine.

He said it will give him more time with his family. "It's just night and day really as far as the time you have playing with the kids or go for a walk, go to see a movie," Casillas said.

Some say if future doctors continue to choose specialties with a predictable schedule, it could create a shortage of family practice physicians.