General Surgery
Five years of broad operative training that is as much perioperative decision-making as it is time in the operating room, and the gateway to most surgical fellowships.
- Training
- 5 years
- Entry
- Direct from medical school
- Apply through
- ERAS
- Match through
- NRMP Main Match
- Accredited programs
- 367
Among the 31 specialties
What sets General Surgery apart most is programs: 367, more than 28 of 31.
Every rail is one dot per specialty, ordered lowest to highest, so all six read as one profile. Dots stack where specialties share a value. General Surgery’s is the coloured dot — point anywhere along a rail to name the others.
one specialtymiddle halfmedian
- Programs
- Programs: 367. More than 28 of the 31 specialties reporting; fewer than 2. Reported range across specialties: 5 to 820.
- Training length
- Training length: 5 years. Longer than 22 of the 31 specialties reporting; shorter than 3. Reported range across specialties: 2 years to 7 years.
- Interviews per position
- Interviews per position: 2.7×. More than 6 of the 28 specialties reporting; fewer than 21. Reported range across specialties: 1.0× to 5.0×.
- Residents in training
- Residents in training: 11,759. More than 27 of the 30 specialties reporting; fewer than 2. Reported range across specialties: 99 to 40,131.
- States and territories
- States and territories: 48. More than 26 of the 31 specialties reporting; fewer than 4. Reported range across specialties: 4 to 52.
- First-year resident pay
- First-year resident pay: $67K. Higher than 9 of the 28 specialties reporting; lower than 17. Reported range across specialties: $60K to $73K.
Programs ranges from 5 to 820 across 31 specialties. The middle half sit between 82 and 210.
Training length ranges from 2 years to 7 years across 31 specialties. The middle half sit between 3 years and 5 years.
Interviews per position ranges from 1.0× to 5.0× across 28 specialties. The middle half sit between 2.7× and 3.5×.
Residents in training ranges from 99 to 40,131 across 30 specialties. The middle half sit between 718 and 6,616.
States and territories ranges from 4 to 52 across 31 specialties. The middle half sit between 35 and 46.
First-year resident pay ranges from $60K to $73K across 28 specialties. The middle half sit between $67K and $69K.
Every accredited program
Grouped by state, alphabetical within each. We don’t rank programs. Open any row for its deadlines, salary, visas, and reported outcomes.
367 across 48 states
Alabama4
Arizona7
Arkansas1
California27
Colorado5
Connecticut6
Delaware2
District of Columbia3
Florida29
Georgia7
Hawaii2
Illinois13
Indiana3
Iowa3
Kansas3
Kentucky3
Louisiana6
Maine1
Maryland9
Massachusetts10
Michigan24
Minnesota3
Mississippi2
Missouri6
Nebraska2
Nevada3
New Hampshire1
New Jersey15
New Mexico1
New York40
North Carolina9
North Dakota1
Ohio19
Oklahoma3
Oregon2
Pennsylvania23
Puerto Rico3
Rhode Island1
South Carolina6
South Dakota1
Tennessee7
Texas27
Utah2
Vermont1
Virginia8
Washington5
West Virginia4
Wisconsin4
What the sources report
Published by the bodies that collect them. Each figure carries the year it describes, which is not always the year it was published.
Most recent reported
- General Surgery program signals availableApplicants to participating General Surgery residency programs in the 2027 MyERAS season
- 15signalsAAMC, 2027 ERAS season
- ACGME accredited program countAll programs on the official ACGME Surgery roster
- 367programsACGME, 2026-2027
- Categorical General Surgery tracksSurgery-General categorical tracks
- 397tracksNRMP, 2026-2027
- NRMP live directory track countSurgery-General categorical and preliminary tracks
- 681tracksNRMP, 2026-2027
- Preliminary General Surgery tracksSurgery-General preliminary tracks
- 284tracksNRMP, 2026-2027
- Applicants ranking at least one categorical Surgery programAll applicants who ranked at least one Surgery (Categorical) program in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 3,478applicantsNRMP, 2026
- Categorical Surgery position fill rateSurgery (Categorical) PGY-1 positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 99.8%NRMP, 2026
- Categorical Surgery positions filledSurgery (Categorical) PGY-1 positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 1,804positionsNRMP, 2026
- Categorical Surgery positions offeredSurgery (Categorical) PGY-1 positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 1,807positionsNRMP, 2026
- Categorical Surgery positions unfilled after the matching algorithmSurgery (Categorical) PGY-1 positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 3positionsNRMP, 2026
- Categorical Surgery programs participating in the 2026 MatchSurgery (Categorical) programs in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 383programsNRMP, 2026
- Preliminary Surgery position fill rateSurgery-Preliminary (PGY-1 Only) positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 55%NRMP, 2026
- Preliminary Surgery positions filledSurgery-Preliminary (PGY-1 Only) positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 664positionsNRMP, 2026
- Preliminary Surgery positions offeredSurgery-Preliminary (PGY-1 Only) positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 1,207positionsNRMP, 2026
- Preliminary Surgery programs participating in the 2026 MatchSurgery-Preliminary (PGY-1 Only) programs in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 265programsNRMP, 2026
- USMLE Step 2 CK mean for U.S. MD seniors matched to preferred General Surgery specialtyConsenting U.S. MD seniors matched to preferred General Surgery specialty (n=858)
- 253pointsNRMP, 2024
- USMLE Step 2 CK mean for U.S. MD seniors not matched to preferred General Surgery specialtyConsenting U.S. MD seniors not matched to preferred General Surgery specialty (n=181)
- 238pointsNRMP, 2024
Specialties that measure like this one
Nearest on the six measures above — length, competitiveness, scale, geography, pay. Not a claim that the work is similar, and not a recommendation.
- PsychiatryDiagnosis and treatment of mental illness through pharmacology and psychotherapy, weighted toward outpatient practice after training.
- Orthopaedic SurgeryRestoring the musculoskeletal system, from arthroplasty to trauma, with a heavily operative week and near-universal subspecialty fellowship.
- Obstetrics & GynecologySurgical and primary care for one population, combining continuity clinic, operative gynecology, and the unpredictability of labor and delivery.
- NeurologyLocalizing lesions by examination and then managing chronic disease — stroke, epilepsy, and neurodegeneration — across inpatient and clinic settings.
How each measure is made
- Training length
- How many years the accredited residency itself runs. Specialties you enter at PGY-2 need a separately matched preliminary or transitional year before this clock starts, and any fellowship comes after it.Accredited length across programs in this specialty. A few specialties run both lengths — Emergency Medicine has three-year and four-year programs — and are shown as a range.
- Residents in training
- How many residents the specialty holds at once, counting every training year at every program. It is a measure of the field’s size rather than of its annual intake — divide by the training length for a rough sense of how many start each year.Total approved positions across all training years, summed across programs.
- Programs
- How many separately accredited residency programs the specialty has. Each one is its own application, its own interview, and its own line on your rank list.Accredited programs currently published in our directory.
- States and territories
- How many states and territories have at least one program. This is the geography question: a specialty with 400 programs across 20 states is far more concentrated than one with 100 spread across 45.Distinct states with at least one published program.
- First-year resident pay
- What you are paid during your first year of training, before any of it becomes an attending salary. The spread across specialties is narrow — this is not the number that separates them.Median PGY-1 stipend across programs — what you are paid during residency, not what the specialty earns afterwards.
- Interviews per position
- How many applicants a program interviews for each position it offers — at 4×, a program with ten spots interviews about forty people. It is a read on how far the field narrows at the interview stage, not on how many applied.Median interviews a program conducts for each position it offers.