Residency specialties that medical students are researching most

Each year as medical students prepare for Match, the sizable task of researching specialties and programs awaits. Any path to slimming the list of options can make the process less daunting. This exclusive user data reveals which medical specialties are getting the most attention when your peers weigh their residency program options. To get you started within a specialty, each link takes you to a list of the 10 most-viewed programs for that specialty. 

Rankings are based on user activity on FREIDA™ from Jan.1–Dec. 31, 2023. To qualify for this analysis, users must have searched by specialty and applied a state or region filter. FREIDA™, the AMA Residency & Fellowship Database®, allows medical students to search for a residency or fellowship from more than 13,000 programs—all accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Explore over 180 specialties and subspecialties with FREIDA’s Specialty Guide, which details important specialty training information such as graduates’ career plans, specialty training statistics and related association information.

In 2023, FREIDA users tallied nearly 2 million views of residency programs. With this collection, we share the 20 specialties that rose to the top for user interest based on total views to specialty programs.

Most popular medical specialties of 2023

1. Internal medicine – 732,759 total views of 629 residency programs

2. Family medicine – 288,973 total views of 767 residency programs

3. Surgery-general – 96,389 total views of 359 residency programs

4. Pediatrics – 86,886 total views of 218 residency programs

5. Obstetrics and gynecology – 82,651 total views of 295 residency programs

6. Psychiatry – 72,100 total views of 312 residency programs

7. Emergency medicine – 53,404 total views of 287 residency programs

8. Cardiovascular disease (internal medicine) – 47,866 total views of 274 residency programs

9. Anesthesiology – 47,342 total views of 170 residency programs

10. Neurology – 43,716 total views of 180 residency programs

11. Radiology-diagnostic – 29,165 total views of 197 residency programs

12. Pathology-anatomic and clinical – 24,887 total views of 142 residency programs

13. Gastroenterology (internal medicine) – 24,360 total views of 231 residency programs

14. Hematology and medical oncology (internal medicine) – 23,915 total views of 183 residency programs

15. Orthopaedic surgery – 21,367 total views of 209 residency programs

16. Pulmonary disease and critical care medicine (internal medicine) – 21,107 total views of 202 residency programs

17. Transitional year – 20,903 total views of 191 residency programs

18. Dermatology – 18,996 total views of 143 residency programs

19. Endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism (internal medicine) – 13,541 total views of 159 residency programs

20. Nephrology (internal medicine)  – 13,189 total views of 152 residency programs