Anesthesiology is not an undergraduate major. It is a medical specialty you enter after completing medical school and a four-year residency. There is no bachelor’s degree program in anesthesiology at any accredited university in the United States. The path to becoming an anesthesiologist starts with choosing an undergraduate major, but that major can be almost anything.
What You Actually Major in as an Undergrad
Since anesthesiology isn’t available as a major, aspiring anesthesiologists pick a standard undergraduate degree and make sure they complete the prerequisite science courses that medical schools require. The most common choice is biological sciences, which includes biology, physiology, and related fields. This route is popular because it naturally overlaps with the coursework medical schools want to see and the material covered on the MCAT.
Other strong options include chemistry, biochemistry, neuroscience, psychology, biomedical engineering, and health sciences. But you’re not locked into a science major. Students regularly get into medical school with degrees in English, philosophy, economics, sociology, and anthropology. Medical admissions committees increasingly value diverse academic backgrounds. What matters is that you complete the required science prerequisites and score well on the MCAT, regardless of what your diploma says.
Prerequisite Courses for Medical School
No matter what major you choose, you’ll need to check off a specific set of science and math courses before applying to medical school. Most programs require roughly the same core:
- Biology: Two semesters (about 8 credit hours), typically with lab
- General chemistry: Two semesters with lab
- Organic chemistry: Two semesters with lab
- Physics: Two semesters (about 8 credit hours)
- Math: Calculus is preferred at many schools, though some accept college algebra or above
- Statistics or biostatistics: One course, sometimes interchangeable with additional math credits
If you pick a science major, many of these courses will count toward your degree requirements. If you choose a non-science major, you’ll take them as electives alongside your regular coursework, which can make your schedule heavier but is entirely doable.
The Full Path to Becoming an Anesthesiologist
The timeline from starting college to practicing independently is long. Here’s what it looks like in total:
You’ll spend four years earning your bachelor’s degree, then four years in medical school earning an MD or DO. After that comes anesthesiology residency, which in the United States lasts four years: one year of internship followed by three years of anesthesia-specific training. That’s a minimum of 12 years after high school before you’re eligible to practice.
During residency, you rotate through 12 required clinical areas and take a series of board certification exams administered by the American Board of Anesthesiology. These include the BASIC exam (taken during your second year of residency and required to graduate), the ADVANCED exam, and the APPLIED exam. Passing all three earns you board certification, which is considered essential for career advancement.
For comparison, the U.S. training timeline is moderate globally. Canada and Switzerland require five years of post-medical school training, Japan and Denmark require six, and the United Kingdom’s pathway stretches to nine years after medical school.
Subspecialty Options After Residency
After completing residency, some anesthesiologists pursue an additional year of fellowship training in a subspecialty. Common options include adult cardiothoracic anesthesiology, critical care medicine, neuroanesthesiology, obstetric anesthesiology, pain medicine, pediatric anesthesiology, and regional anesthesiology with acute pain medicine. Each fellowship typically lasts one year. Pain medicine is one of the most popular, offered at multiple training sites across the country.
Salary and Job Numbers
Anesthesiology is one of the highest-paid medical specialties. The median annual salary was $191,980 as of May 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a median hourly wage of $92.30. Roughly 33,470 anesthesiologists were employed in the U.S. at that time. Salaries vary significantly by region, practice setting, and subspecialty, with many anesthesiologists earning well above the median.
Alternative Routes Into Anesthesia Care
If the 12-year physician pathway feels daunting, there is another route into anesthesia practice: becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). This is a different profession with a different scope of practice, but CRNAs administer anesthesia in many of the same settings as physician anesthesiologists.
The CRNA path starts with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, followed by at least one year of full-time work as an ICU nurse. You then enter a nurse anesthesia program, which runs about 36 months of full-time study at the doctoral level. By graduation, students manage a minimum of 800 anesthesia cases and log more than 2,000 clinical hours before sitting for a national certification exam. The total training time is shorter than the physician route, though the two roles differ in training depth, autonomy (depending on state law), and earning potential.
Anesthesiologist assistants (AAs) offer yet another path. AA programs require a bachelor’s degree with the same core science prerequisites as medical school, followed by a graduate program. Like CRNAs, AAs work under physician supervision, and neither credential can be earned with just a four-year university degree.
Choosing Your Undergraduate Major Strategically
Since your major won’t be “anesthesiology,” the practical question is which major gives you the best shot at medical school. For the 2024-2025 application cycle, MD programs had an acceptance rate of about 45% and DO programs about 42%. Your GPA, MCAT score, clinical experience, and extracurriculars matter far more than the name of your major.
A biology or biochemistry major streamlines your coursework and naturally prepares you for the MCAT. A non-traditional major like economics or philosophy can make your application stand out, but you’ll need discipline to fit all the prerequisites into your schedule alongside your degree requirements. Either approach works. Pick the major where you’ll earn the strongest grades and develop genuine intellectual interests, because admissions committees can tell the difference between a student who chose strategically and one who’s just checking boxes.