How Long Does It Take to Become a Radiologist?

The AMA's list of residency lengths puts diagnostic radiology under "Five years," which counts the intern year, and interventional radiology under "Six years," with a note that it runs "up to seven years depending on program." The Society of Interventional Radiology describes the integrated IR residency as "5 years in length," with 6 years of postgraduate training once you add the required internship. Its first 3 years focus on diagnostic radiology and its last 2 on interventional work.

College and medical school take the same 8 years for every specialty, and MD and DO graduates both enter radiology residencies. The general timeline to becoming a doctor covers those first stages, including the gap years that most applicants now take.

Radiology residents spend their first postgraduate year outside radiology. Penn State's program spells out the rule: "All residents will need to complete a clinical year (PGY-1) of ACGME-approved training," and no more than 3 months of that year can go to radiology, radiation oncology or pathology. The year can be in internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, OB-GYN, neurology, family medicine or emergency medicine.

Then comes the radiology residency itself, which Penn State describes as "a four-year program (PGY-2 to PGY-5)." Residents in those 4 years are often called R1 through R4, so an R1 is a doctor in their second year out of medical school.

This setup changes how you apply. Most diagnostic radiology programs offer advanced positions, which start in the PGY-2 year. If you match into one, you also need a separate 1-year preliminary or transitional position for your intern year. A smaller number of programs offer categorical positions that include the intern year.

Either way, you're a paid resident doctor from the start of the intern year. Penn State adds that its first-year radiology residents are "paid PGY-2 salaries regardless of previous experience."

Diagnostic radiology offered 1,239 first-year and second-year positions in the 2026 Main Residency Match, and filled all but 25, for a fill rate of 98.0 percent across both starting years. The split between starting years is the clearest picture of the advanced-position setup.

Here's the 2026 breakdown by track.

According to the NRMP's 2026 Advance Data Tables, 173 programs offered 1,083 PGY-2 diagnostic radiology positions and filled 1,066 of them (98.4 percent). Another 34 programs offered 156 categorical PGY-1 positions and filled 148 (94.9 percent).

The international graduates row combines 30 US citizen and 91 non-US citizen IMGs, and the shares are of filled positions. Interventional radiology is smaller: 70 PGY-1 positions (94.3 percent filled) and 168 PGY-2 positions (96.4 percent filled). What happens on Match Day explains how the algorithm pairs applicants with programs.

The American Board of Radiology (ABR) certifies radiologists through two exams. Its diagnostic radiology certification page lists them:

1. Core Exam. The qualifying exam, "offered after 36 months of residency," so radiology residents take it during training. It covers 18 subspecialty and modality categories, and you have to pass overall and in each category.
2. Certifying Exam. The final exam, "given 15 months after completion of diagnostic residency training," built from five modules.

That second step is changing. The ABR is replacing the Certifying Exam with an online oral exam starting in 2028, first applying to residents who finish training in June 2027, according to Applied Radiology. The ABR has also announced new exam timing for DR and IR/DR residents starting in 2028. In its steady-state plan, the first chance at the Core Exam comes in the fall of the final residency year and the first chance at the oral exam in June of that year. If you're a premed today, you'll take whichever version is current when you finish, so check the ABR's site once you're in residency.

Fellowships are optional on paper, and most radiologists do one anyway. A RadioGraphics review from the Radiological Society of North America cites a survey of chief residents in which 96 percent of graduating residents intended to pursue fellowship training. A University of Pennsylvania survey of more than 300 residents, reported by Radiology Business, found that more than 98 percent planned one.

Most radiology fellowships run 1 year. At the Medical College of Wisconsin, every radiology fellowship that lists a length is a one-year program: cardiothoracic imaging, neuroradiology, advanced neuroradiology brain mapping and pediatric radiology. The fellowship explainer covers how fellowships work across specialties.

An estimate, for a student who starts medical school at 22 with no gap year: you'd finish medical school at 26, the intern year at 27, radiology residency at 31 and a 1-year fellowship at 32. On the integrated interventional track, the same start puts you at 32 when residency ends, with no fellowship needed. Each gap year, or a year spent reapplying, adds one to every one of those ages. In the AAMC data cited in the general timeline, most new medical students had taken at least one.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $420,860 for radiologists in May 2025, against $275,930 for all physicians and surgeons. That's $144,930 above the overall median, after 2 more years of training than the 11-year minimum for specialties like pediatrics. For comparison, the BLS median for anesthesiologists, whose path takes 12 years at minimum, is $391,490. How much doctors make sets those numbers beside resident stipends and other specialties.

The 13-year clock starts with the steps you control now: your prerequisites, your MCAT^® and your application. Radiology rests on physics, and so does much of the MCAT^®'s Chem/Phys section, which covers sound and light. The PurpleCAT MCAT formulas sheet collects the equations you'll need for those questions.

Last verified October 31, 2026, against the NRMP's 2026 Advance Data Tables, the ABR's certification pages, the AMA's residency length list, the SIR's integrated IR page and BLS data for May 2025. ABR exam timing is changing from 2028; check the ABR for the current schedule.