For applicants

Frequently asked questions

Questions applicants ask before they rank a program. If yours is not here, email Lee C. Zhao directly at lee.zhao@nyulangone.org.

Applying

Who is eligible?

Completion of an ACGME-accredited urology residency. Visa availability does not change this training requirement.

How do I apply?

Apply through the Genitourinary Reconstructive Surgery match, administered by the AUA:

1. Register for the GURS match and keep a copy of your registration form.
2. Send the registration form, CV, and three letters of recommendation to Lee C. Zhao, MD, at lee.zhao@nyulangone.org.

Registering for the match does not contact programs on your behalf. See the GURS applicant instructions.

When does the application window open?

Use the GURS applicant instructions and linked AUA timeline for the current match cycle’s dates.

How many interviews will I have?

GURS permits one formal interview per applicant per program. See the GURS match policy.

What is the interview format?

The formal interview is virtual. Any visit or other interaction afterward is strictly voluntary and will not influence your ranking.

Do you sponsor visas?

J-1 sponsorship is available through ECFMG. NYU does not offer H-1B sponsorship for residents or fellows. See NYU’s current visa policy. The ACGME-accredited urology residency requirement still applies; contact Lee C. Zhao about your training background before applying.

Who do I contact with questions?

Lee C. Zhao, at lee.zhao@nyulangone.org. There is no program coordinator by design. Applicants deal with the program director directly.

Is this an ACGME-accredited fellowship?

No. This is a GURS fellowship, filled through the GURS match administered by the AUA. It is not ACGME accredited.

The year

How many fellows do you take?

One a year. The fellowship runs August 1 through July 31.

What is the case volume?

In the 2025-2026 fellowship year the operative volume was 750 cases: 430 with robotic assistance and approximately 250 gender-affirming, and the two groups overlap. Mapped to the four GURS case log categories, that year was 98 urethral reconstruction, 253 genital reconstruction, 131 abdominal and pelvic reconstruction, and 68 genitourinary prosthetics. Those are the program’s cases, which is the pool a fellow draws from. A GURS log counts only the cases the fellow takes part in, so a fellow’s own logged total is smaller.

Which hospitals?

Three. NYU Langone, Bellevue, and the Manhattan VA.

What does a week look like?

Monday is grand rounds in the morning, then operating at the Manhattan VA with overflow at Tisch. Tuesday is clinic, gender-affirming in the morning and urology in the afternoon. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are operating days at Tisch.

Who are the faculty?

Lee C. Zhao, MD, is the fellowship director and the operative faculty. The fellow operates with the director across the full scope of the year rather than rotating among a roster.

Who is the current fellow?

Michael Scott, MD, is the 2026-2027 fellow. He completed urology residency at Stanford. Applicants who want to talk with a current fellow can ask Lee C. Zhao to make the introduction.

What is the call burden?

The fellow takes attending call at roughly the same frequency as the fellowship director.

What does the fellowship not cover?

This is a subspecialty year, not a general urology year. Oncology and endourology exposure is minimal. There is some call.

How much gender-affirming surgery is there?

Approximately 250 cases in the 2025-2026 year, primary and revision. That volume has been stable year to year.

Is this a high-volume urethroplasty fellowship?

Not in the sense of a urethroplasty a day. Mapped to the four GURS categories, the 2025-2026 program volume was 253 genital reconstruction, 131 abdominal and pelvic reconstruction, 98 urethral reconstruction, and 68 genitourinary prosthetics. Urethral reconstruction is part of the year rather than the center of it. If the highest possible urethroplasty count is your goal, raise it early. What the year is built to teach is how to do a large reconstructive operation well and efficiently, which is a different skill from repeating one index case.

What does a typical operating day look like?

Cases start at 7:30 and a day carries between two and five of them. In one representative week, Wednesday was a bladder neck reconstruction, a hemi-nephrectomy, a ureteral reconstruction with buccal mucosa graft, a urethroplasty with buccal mucosa graft, and an Optilume. Thursday was three vaginoplasties, an ileal conduit, and an inflatable penile prosthesis. That week held 16 operating room cases, 12 of them robotic. The full grid is on the week page.

Research and feedback

What research is required?

GURS re-verification requires at least one peer-reviewed publication or a published national or international meeting abstract from the fellow’s own original research during the fellowship year.

What have recent fellows published?

The 2025-2026 fellow published one peer-reviewed article in World Journal of Urology and presented two abstracts at the 2026 AUA annual meeting. Read the citations on the research page.

What research support is there?

A research coordinator, existing databases, and support for travel to present. That coordinator supports research rather than program administration; applicant and scheduling questions still come to the program director directly.

How is feedback given?

There is no standing one-on-one meeting. Feedback is continuous and case-based, because the fellow operates with the fellowship director on most days of the week. The formative and summative evaluations GURS requires still happen, and the fellow can ask for a debrief on any case at any time.

How does autonomy actually progress over the year?

By operative step, not by calendar month. The operations the service does often are broken into their component steps, and you take the next step when the one before it is consistent. In robotic peritoneal flap vaginoplasty, the peritoneal flap itself, the egg, is one of those steps: you take it once the dissection that precedes it is reliable. If that is October for you, it happens in October. The progression is tracked separately for open, multi-port robotic, and single-port robotic work, because skill on one does not transfer automatically to another.

Do fellows review operative video with the director?

Yes. Cases are recorded when the operative plan allows it, and you can sit down and review that footage with Lee C. Zhao. It is available when you ask rather than on a fixed schedule, which is how the rest of the feedback works here.

Afterwards

Where do alumni go?

Twelve fellows have completed the program. Current positions are listed on the alumni page.

Can I see how the service operates?

Operative and lecture video across most of the case families is public at the surgical video library, searchable by procedure, approach, and format.

How to apply