Transitional year programs with the most residency positions

FREIDA™ 2025 data

In 2025, FREIDA™ users tallied 3.7 million views of medical residency programs. With this list of transitional year residencies, we draw from the 2,231 first-year positions for transitional year and reveal which residency programs offer the most positions.

Rankings are based on FREIDA™ data updated from Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2025. 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.

Specialty description

Transitional year is an intern experience that many fields require or prefer where the student experiences a global training before beginning residency training.

In this training, the graduate would experience both surgical and internal medicine rotations and be well prepared to enter a specialty where a thorough understanding of pathology, physiology and surgical procedures are necessary.

Transitional year programs with the most first-year positions

1. Emory University School of Medicine Program – 29 positions

2. San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium Program – 27 positions

3. Naval Medical Center (San Diego) Program – 27 positions

4. Naval Medical Center (Portsmouth) Program – 25 positions

5. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Program – 24 positions

6. Madigan Army Medical Center Program – 22 positions

7. Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University (Sinai-Grace) Program – 21 positions

8. Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science (Phoenix) Program – 21 positions

9. Cape Fear Valley Health Program – 20 positions

10. Jefferson Health Medical Education/Jefferson Einstein Montgomery Hospital Program – 20 positions

11. Baylor All Saints Medical Center Fort Worth Program – 20 positions

12. Brookwood Baptist Health Program – 20 positions

13. Wellstar Health System/WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center Program – 20 positions

14. Hackensack University Medical Center (Palisades) Program – 18 positions

15. KPC Global Medical Centers Inc Program – 18 positions