McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University Program

Program Identity & Fit

Northwestern's OB-GYN residency is a university-based, academic program combining a state-of-the-art quaternary women's hospital (Prentice, two-thirds of training) with a substantial safety-net rotation at Stroger Hospital of Cook County, giving residents exposure across the full socioeconomic and acuity spectrum of Chicago women. Research is structurally embedded rather than optional: every resident designs a publishable senior research project, with protected weekly half-days across PGY1-3, a dedicated PGY-3 elective research block, longitudinal "works in progress" mentorship meetings, internal grant funding, and access to NIH-funded basic science labs (fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian aging, ovarian cancer) and multi-site clinical trial networks (MFMU, nuMOM2b). The department's subspecialty depth (Gyn Onc, MFM, REI, FPMRS, Family Planning) and physician-scientist training infrastructure signal a strong pull toward fellowship and academic career trajectories, while still training generalists. The program explicitly emphasizes a cohesive, hard-working resident culture and structured mentorship pairing residents with research faculty from PGY-1 onward.