Skip to main content

Residency Training Program

The ACGME accredited categorical Neurosurgical Residency Training Program at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School provides Neurosurgical training at the highest levels of clinical expertise and technological proficiency. The program follows guidelines established by the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) and is a rigorous seven-year experience that is in full compliance with the guidelines for residency as dictated by the ACGME and approved by the Neurosurgical RRC.
Applications for the Neurological Surgery Residency Program are accepted exclusively through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) online system. A completed application must include all of the following:

  • On-line ERAS application
  • Personal Statement
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Minimum of three (3) letters of reference
  • Dean’s Letter
  • Transcript
  • USMLE Scores

Applications are accepted beginning September 1st through the ERAS on-line system. Upon receipt and review of your application through ERAS, the program will notify applicants if they have been selected to interview. In-person interviews are limited and scheduled from mid-October through mid-December so we encourage you to apply early. The deadline for application submission is Oct 1st. If you have any questions about our program or more details on how to apply to the Rutgers, New Jersey Medical School Neurological Surgery Residency Program please contact Fatima Meadows, our Residency Coordinator at: almisrfa@njms.rutgers.edu.

The Rutgers Neurosurgical Residency Training Program has two approved sites. These sites include the University Hospital in Newark and Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Both sites provide exposure to a wide variety of elective cranial, spinal, pediatric, cerebrovascular, endovascular and peripheral nerve surgeries. At both sites, the residents operate with full-time faculty with each site having a designated full-time Director of Neurosurgical Education.

In addition to the standard neurosurgical procedures, residents participate in comprehensive programs in reconstructive spine surgery, epilepsy surgery, endoscopic neurosurgery, and both framed and frameless stereotactic neurosurgery. University Hospital in Newark was the first hospital in North America to have low-field (0.2 T) intra-operative MR imaging. Exposure to neurotrauma is gained mainly at University Hospital, which is a Level I state trauma center with Stroke Center designation. The 12-bed neurosurgical intensive care unit (NICU) is a dedicated unit for neurosurgical patients, which is run exclusively by the neurosurgical service. This provides a superb venue for resident education in critical care management. The pediatric neurosurgical intensive care has its own full-time team of intensivists who work closely with the neurosurgical team in the care of our pediatric patients. Separate medical, surgical/trauma, and cardiothoracic intensive care units are additional resources. Dedicated step-down beds with full monitoring capabilities and critical care level nursing are also present on the neurosurgical floor.

Both the Rutgers NJMS Newark site and Robert Wood Johnson training site has dedicated neurosurgical operating rooms, state-of-the-art imaging equipment for diagnosis and treatment and several on-going funded clinical research studies.