Thanks for your questions:
See the AAFP site, they have a section just for medical students:
http://www.aafp.org
1. I really enjoy FP -- lots of diversity and flexibility
2. I work in private practice, cost-sharing with 3 other FP physicians. I read a lot of journals, including AFP, Medical Letter, JAMA. I also listen to AudioDigest CDs in the car. I also usually go to one major conference every 3-4 months.
3. FP physicians can go to any conferences they like. Because of our broad knowlege base, FPs get invited to everything ( I throw away about 10 CME invitations a day -- no joke ).
4. I don't know what the current acceptance stats are for California. However, as a former chief resident, I can tell you that we often looked at the whole application, and not just people's numbers. At UCI, we rarely prescreened based on USMLE or GPA (unless the numbers were especially bad).