Introduction: Career selection and decision to pursue a medical career is a multi factorial process. It is influenced by the personal capabilities and the available resources as well as the social, educational, economical and cultural factors. Sudan is one of the African countries with a high number of medical colleges and an increasing number of Sudanese students are joining the medical colleges each year. Aim and objectives: The aims of the present study were to study and compare the motives and reasons for joining a medical college and pursuing a medical career, among the newly admitted Sudanese medical students. Methods: A cross sectional survey was implemented, in eight medical colleges (four private and four public colleges) in Khartoum. A semi structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the subjects to investigate and compare the reasons and motives for choosing a medical career. Results: 1556 students responded to the questionnaire (86%). 50.9% of them were admitted on private account; and 63.7% students were from public colleges; and 61.8% were female. The highest ranked reason for choosing a medical career was the altruistic reason (78.1%) and the lowest reason was the personal ambition (17.9%). 71.2% of the students were influenced by the family to joining a medical college. 11.9% of the students joined the medical colleges against their desire. There were differences between the publicly admitted and privately admitted students. Discussion: The reasons and motives of the Sudanese medical students, for selecting a medical career, are comparable to other international studies.