WHOQOL-bref scoring was used in this cross-sectional study to assess the influence of sex, form of admission, year of graduation, economic class and the presence of referred chronic morbidity (RCM) on the quality of life (QOL) of 394 medical students from UERJ (72% of 545 enrolled in 2010, margin of error 6.5%). The statistical analysis was performed in SPSS v17 using chi-squared tests, Bonferroni post-hoc ANOVA (pvalue=5%) and odds ratio (OR) with corresponding confidence intervals (CI 95%). Mean age was 23 years, with 61% women, 43% admitted under positive discrimination ethnic quotas (64% women) and 20% referred chronic disease. From 0 to 100, the average referred QOL was 66 and satisfaction with health was 62. The lowest QOL scores were observed among 3rd and 6th year students who were women, with RCM, who had been admitted via reserved university places and belonged to economic class C. The results indicate the need for qualitative studies to improve our understanding of the QOL of UERJ students.