In Colombia there are currently few quotas to perform a surgical specialization, in comparison with the number of medical graduates.A descriptive study whose objective was to conduct a sociodemographic and academic-investigative characterization of students admitted to medical-surgical specializations at the University of Cartagena in 2016.Enrolled a total of 1420 doctors who competed for 55 quotas available in twelve medical-surgical specializations.Evaluated scores on the test of knowledge, resume and interview of the admitted 55 (3.8% of the total) and was also carried out a survey which included socio-demographic aspects.The maximum score of the knowledge test was 61 (of 80 possible) which represents 76.25% of the total.With regard to the rating of the resume were admitted with scores of 1.3 points, the average resumes was 4.79.The interview scores were higher with an average of 9.39 (of 10 possible).The most preferred medical specialty was internal medicine (21.8%) 12.74% compared to 9.06% in men and women respectively, followed by pediatrics (14.5%), women were inclined for Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and did not enroll in any specialty of Neurosurgery, Orthopedics and traumatology and General Surgery.In general, those admitted come from different regions of Colombia but most are from the Atlantic coast.