Fellowship by the Numbers: Surgical Fellowship Applications in the United States

The majority of residents pursue fellowship following training in general surgery, especially at academic medical centers. However, there is no singular body that oversees fellowship, and many aspects of fellowship remain speculative, including application and admissions. Our aim was to define the known statistics around surgical fellowships.

We performed a retrospective analysis of publicly available data from the National Residency Match Program (NRMP), the Fellowship Council, the SF Match, and the American Council on Graduate Medical Education Data Resource Book for 2014-2023. We included data on colorectal surgery, surgical critical care, minimally invasive surgery, surgical oncology, pediatric surgery, plastic surgery, thoracic, transplant, and vascular surgery fellowships. We did not include burn fellowship, pediatric critical care surgery, or research fellowships.

66% of US surgical residents pursue fellowship, which has been stable over the past decade. The largest fellowships are critical care, minimally invasive, vascular, and colorectal surgery. There is a very high match rate among critical care, surgical oncology, vascular, and transplant surgery for US trainees, while pediatric surgery consistently has the lowest match rate. US trainees are more likely to match into fellowship than non-US graduates.

This study provides a comprehensive snapshot of surgical fellowships in the United States. Two-thirds of surgery residents pursue fellowship, and the likelihood of matching varies substantially between specialties. These results can help inform national workforce planning and may be valuable to current residents in their fellowship application process.