Pathology
The diagnosis behind the diagnosis, split between surgical specimens and the clinical laboratory, with almost no direct patient contact.
- Training
- 4 years
- Entry
- Direct from medical school
- Apply through
- ERAS
- Match through
- NRMP Main Match
- Accredited programs
- 143
Among the 31 specialties
What sets Pathology apart most is first-year resident pay: $70K, higher than 25 of 28.
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. Pathology’s is the coloured dot — point anywhere along a rail to name the others.
- Programs
- Programs: 143. More than 17 of the 31 specialties reporting; fewer than 13. Reported range across specialties: 5 to 820.
- Training length
- Training length: 4 years. Longer than 13 of the 31 specialties reporting; shorter than 9. Reported range across specialties: 2 years to 7 years.
- Interviews per position
- Interviews per position: 3.2×. More than 13 of the 28 specialties reporting; fewer than 14. Reported range across specialties: 1.0× to 5.0×.
- Residents in training
- Residents in training: 2,694. More than 18 of the 30 specialties reporting; fewer than 11. Reported range across specialties: 99 to 40,131.
- States and territories
- States and territories: 44. More than 18 of the 31 specialties reporting; fewer than 11. Reported range across specialties: 4 to 52.
- First-year resident pay
- First-year resident pay: $70K. Higher than 25 of the 28 specialties reporting; lower than 2. 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.
143 across 44 states
Alabama2
Arizona2
Arkansas1
California10
Colorado2
Connecticut4
District of Columbia3
Florida9
Georgia2
Hawaii1
Illinois6
Indiana1
Iowa1
Kansas1
Kentucky2
Louisiana3
Maryland4
Massachusetts6
Michigan5
Minnesota2
Mississippi1
Missouri3
Nebraska2
New Hampshire1
New Jersey5
New Mexico1
New York17
North Carolina4
Ohio7
Oklahoma1
Oregon1
Pennsylvania7
Puerto Rico1
Rhode Island1
South Carolina1
South Dakota1
Tennessee4
Texas10
Utah1
Vermont1
Virginia2
Washington1
West Virginia1
Wisconsin2
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
- ACGME Pathology residency training lengthACGME-accredited Anatomic Pathology and Clinical Pathology residency programs
- 48monthsACGME, Requirements effective 2026-07-01
- Pathology program signals availableApplicants to participating Pathology residency programs in the 2027 MyERAS season
- 5signalsAAMC, 2027 ERAS season
- ACGME accredited program countAll programs on the official ACGME Pathology-Anatomic and Clinical roster
- 143programsACGME, 2026-2027
- Categorical Pathology tracksPathology-Anatomic and Clinical categorical tracks
- 189tracksNRMP, 2026-2027
- NRMP live directory track countPathology-Anatomic and Clinical tracks linked to the current ACGME roster
- 189tracksNRMP, 2026-2027
- Applicants ranking at least one Pathology PGY-1 programApplicants who ranked at least one Pathology PGY-1 program in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 1,049applicantsNRMP, 2026
- Pathology PGY-1 programs participating in the 2026 MatchPathology PGY-1 programs in the 2026 Main Residency Match
- 174programsNRMP, 2026
- Consenting U.S. MD seniors matched to preferred Pathology specialtyConsenting U.S. MD seniors matched to preferred Pathology specialty
- 213applicantsNRMP, 2024
- Consenting U.S. MD seniors not matched to preferred Pathology specialtyConsenting U.S. MD seniors not matched to preferred Pathology specialty
- 11applicantsNRMP, 2024
- USMLE Step 2 CK mean for U.S. MD seniors matched to preferred Pathology specialtyConsenting U.S. MD seniors matched to preferred Pathology specialty (n=213)
- 247pointsNRMP, 2024
- USMLE Step 2 CK mean for U.S. MD seniors not matched to preferred Pathology specialtyConsenting U.S. MD seniors not matched to preferred Pathology specialty (n=11)
- 232pointsNRMP, 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.
- AnesthesiologyPhysiology in real time: airway, hemodynamics, and analgesia managed minute to minute, almost entirely in the operating room and on procedural floors.
- OphthalmologyHigh-volume microsurgery and clinic in roughly equal measure, matched a year early through SF Match rather than the NRMP.
- UrologySurgical and medical care of the urinary tract, heavily endoscopic and robotic, matched early through the AUA rather than the NRMP.
- OtolaryngologyHead and neck surgery spanning oncology, airway, otology, and endocrine work — broad operative range in a small, tightly-knit field.
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.