Anesthesiology
Perioperative medicine, airway management, and procedural sedation.
Anesthesiologists keep patients alive and stable through surgery, in ICUs, and in chronic-pain clinics. The work is heavily procedural (airway, regional blocks, vascular access, neuraxial) paired with continuous real-time physiology management. You work alongside surgeons but answer to your own attending. Acuity is high and decisions are fast.
Lifestyle & practice
Roughly 55 to 65 hours per week as a resident, 50 to 60 as an attending, often shift-based after training. Most attendings practice in hospital groups or academic departments. Compensation runs $400k to $500k median for general practice with ranges much higher for cardiac, pain, or critical care.
Common fellowship paths
- Residency length
- 4 years (PGY1 + 3)
- Median attending comp
- $400k to $500k
- Board pass (ABA Basic)
- ~88% first-time
High-signal external links curated for residents and applicants.
- American Society of Anesthesiologists ↗
Specialty society. Guidelines, education, advocacy, ITE prep.
- ACCRAC podcast ↗
Anesthesia and Critical Care Reviews. Popular with residents.
- OpenAnesthesia ↗
Free educational content, written and audio.
- PedsAnesthesia.net ↗
Pediatric anesthesia reviews and case discussions.
- Anesthesiology forum (SDN) ↗
Long-running medical career forum with active specialty subforums.
Positions
2135
All applicants
2933
Seats / app
0.73
From NRMP Charting Outcomes 2024 (most recent biennial publication). Source PDFs: MD Seniors / DO Seniors / IMG. NRMP publishes Charting Outcomes every other year, so this should refresh in early 2026 with the 2025 cycle data.
| Pool | Step 1 | Step 2 | Pubs | Research | AOA % | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MD_seniors | 234 | 252 | 9.0 | 3.8 | 14.4 | 1136 |
| DO_seniors | 223 | 251 | 4.9 | 3.2 | — | 252 |
| US_IMG | 232 | 248 | 5.9 | 2.4 | — | 68 |
| Non_US_IMG | 239 | 248 | 12.0 | 3.6 | — | 77 |
Per-applicant-type match rates and mean Step scores published by NRMP every two years. Each row is one applicant pool in one cycle. Step scores reflect what matched applicants in that cycle achieved, not what programs require today.
| Year | Type | Match rate | Matched (n) | Step 1 | Step 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | MD_Senior | 85.6% | 1136 | 234 | 252 |
| 2024 | DO_Senior | 59.4% | 252 | 223 | 251 |
| 2024 | IMG | 49.3% | 68 | — | 248 |
| 2022 | MD_Senior | 89.8% | 1050 | 237 | 248 |
| 2022 | IMG | 49.6% | 68 | 233 | 240 |
| 2020 | MD_Senior | 90.5% | 1112 | 234 | 246 |
| 2020 | DO_Senior | 79.3% | 302 | 233 | 243 |
| 2018 | MD_Senior | 96.4% | 1012 | 232 | 244 |
| 2018 | IMG | 67.1% | 114 | 231 | 237 |
| Pool | Share |
|---|---|
| MD_seniors | 72.3% |
| DO_seniors | 13.4% |
| US_IMG | 5.4% |
| Non_US_IMG | 8.9% |