Internal Medicine
Adult medicine. Broadest possible foundation, gateway to nearly every fellowship.
IM residents rotate through inpatient wards, ICUs, ambulatory clinics, and electives. After three years you can hospitalist, do primary care (PCP), or fellowship into any of cardiology, GI, heme/onc, pulm/CCM, nephrology, endocrine, ID, rheum, etc. Diagnostic reasoning is the central skill. The largest specialty by far.
Lifestyle & practice
Resident hours 60 to 80 per week. Hospitalists work shifts (typically 7-on/7-off or block). Outpatient is 40 to 50. Comp varies enormously: hospitalist $250k to $300k, cardiology $500k+, GI/heme-onc among the highest in non-surgical medicine.
Common fellowship paths
- Residency length
- 3 years
- Median comp (hospitalist)
- $280k to $320k
- Fellowship paths
- 13+ subspecialties
High-signal external links curated for residents and applicants.
- American College of Physicians ↗
Premier IM society. MKSAP for boards, Annals of IM.
- Curbsiders podcast ↗
Outpatient IM podcast widely listened to by residents.
- Annals on Call ↗
Brief audio summaries of major Annals papers.
- JAMA Network ↗
Top general medicine journal.
- Internal Medicine forum (SDN) ↗
Long-running medical career forum with active specialty subforums.
Positions
10681
All applicants
13143
Seats / app
0.81
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 | 251 | 8.7 | 3.3 | 15.9 | 3024 |
| DO_seniors | 221 | 242 | 4.1 | 2.7 | — | 1326 |
| US_IMG | 220 | 238 | 3.6 | 1.9 | — | 816 |
| Non_US_IMG | 237 | 248 | 7.0 | 2.6 | — | 2535 |
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 | 97.9% | 3024 | 234 | 251 |
| 2024 | DO_Senior | 95.2% | 1326 | 221 | 242 |
| 2024 | IMG | 63.1% | 816 | — | 238 |
| 2022 | MD_Senior | 98.2% | 2962 | 237 | 249 |
| 2022 | IMG | 60.3% | 829 | 225 | 235 |
| 2020 | MD_Senior | 97.4% | 3364 | 235 | 248 |
| 2020 | DO_Senior | 93.3% | 1233 | 227 | 240 |
| 2018 | MD_Senior | 98.1% | 3070 | 233 | 246 |
| 2018 | IMG | 56.9% | 911 | 225 | 234 |
| Pool | Share |
|---|---|
| MD_seniors | 33.7% |
| DO_seniors | 14.0% |
| US_IMG | 10.7% |
| Non_US_IMG | 41.5% |