The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), is a center of health sciences research, patient care, and education devoted solely to graduate education and located in San Francisco, California. The UCSF School of Medicine is one of the most selective medical schools in the United States based on average MCAT score, GPA, and acceptance rate. In 2015, 7,393 people applied and 437 were interviewed for 149 positions in the entering class. UCSF is ranked 3rd among research-oriented medical schools in the United States and ranked 3rd for primary care by U.S. News and World Report, making it the only medical school to achieve a top-5 ranking in both categories. UCSF is currently ranked 3rd among medical schools in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (Clinical Medicine, 2016).

The UCSF School of Medicine is affiliated with UCSF Medical Center, the nation's 8th-ranked hospital according to U.S. News & World Report. In 2014, a national evaluation of residency programs named UCSF and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine the top two physician training institutions in the United States.