Abstract: Objective To understand the influence of COVID-19 on high school students' willingness to apply for medical education. Methods A self-administered online questionnaire was used to investigate the students from senior one to senior three at 25 key high schools in 10 provinces. Results Totally 51 147 valid questionnaires were collected. The results showed that 33.9%(17 327/51 147) of the high school students had the intention to apply for entrance into medical schools and to be medical specialties. Among them 34.3%(5 942/17 327)of the students' willingness to learn medicine were not affected by the pandemic and even 39.1%(6 778/17 327) of them were more determined to learn medicine. There are 24.5%(4 238/17 327) of respondents who were not willing to learning medicine before the pandemic shifted their willing to medical education after the pandemic. Only 2.1% (369/17 327)of the students had the intention of learning medicine originally but plan to give up after the pandemic. Conclusions The overall willingness to apply for medical education and to be medical specialties in high school students is high. Public health and preventive medicine has been better understood by public because of COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is still a long way to go to help high school students to truly recognize and choose it.

Key words: COVID-19, National college entrance examination, High school students, Willingness to apply for medical specialties