McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University Program

Program Identity & Fit

Northwestern's urology residency is a research-intensive, academic six-year program built around a fully funded, resident-directed PGY-4 research year and NIH funding ranked third nationally among urology departments. Training spans five distinct clinical environments within a 3.5-mile radius—Northwestern Memorial, Lurie Children's, Prentice Women's, Jesse Brown VA, and Cook County Stroger Hospital—giving residents exposure to private, pediatric, safety-net, and veteran populations alongside fellowship-trained faculty across every urologic subspecialty. The curriculum is distinctively flexible, with six months of resident-driven elective time (including international rotations) and high early operative volume (365 PGY1 cases average), reflecting a program that values curious, self-directed trainees capable of shaping their own subspecialty identity. Graduate outcomes split roughly evenly between fellowship and direct practice, and alumni narratives emphasize surgeon-scientist role models, suggesting the program prizes residents who can integrate rigorous research with broad surgical competence rather than narrow early specialization.