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An entering class of medical students is compared with an entering class of law students on attitudes toward self-responsibility for health and reported health behaviors. Students' health behavior patterns are contrasted with those of practicing physicians and lawyers. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaires. Results indicated that medical students were stronger on self-responsibility and also reported more often engaging in health promoting behavior than law students. The same pattern of differences was reported for practicing physicians and lawyers. (Am J Public Health 1982; 72:725-727.) This paper reports a comparison of a class of first year medical students with a class of first year law students on attitudes toward self-responsibility for health and reported health-promoting behavior. The study was suggested by a published report that compared health-promoting behaviors of samples of practicing physicians and lawyers.' Materials and MethodsData were collected by means of self-administered questionnaires during the first week of class for first year medical students and first year law students in the same midwestern, private university. Usable questionnaires were returned from 217 freshman law students (100 per cent) and 152 freshman medical students (98 per cent).The questionnaires were identical in questions asking for demographic information (age, sex, race, social class), opinions on health issues, a six-item index to assess attitude toward self-responsibility for health, a measure of personality type, and reported health behaviors. Questions which measured perspective on their profession differed only in the referent, i.e., questions referring to medicine or physicians were asked of medical students and questions about law and lawyers were asked of law students. Data were analyzed by chi square and correlational techniques.