The purpose of the present study was to examine elementary school teacher candidates' motivations for choosing the teaching profession, beliefs about teaching, and satisfaction with the choice. Data were collected from 176 freshman elementary school teacher candidates at two public universities in Turkey. Results showed that the decision to choose the teaching profession was most influenced by the social utility values that elementary school teacher candidates held; however, elementary school teacher candidates did not choose the teaching profession as a last-resort career. While significant differences were found between future female and male elementary school teachers' scores for most of the motivation factors to becoming teachers, no significant differences were found across socioeconomic backgrounds. Results were discussed on the basis of these findings.