University of California San Francisco School of Medicine

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San Francisco, CA

Allopathic Medical Schools | Public Non-Profit

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🎓 The Basics ▼

Overall, how satisfied are you with this program?

2 out of 10

What was the zip code of your residence in high school?

19149

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What do you like most?

First two years of teaching quality; cheap and good food in the city.

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What do you like least?

Most educators taught well in first two years, but good luck when you hit the clinical rotations—You are expected to know and perform—sink or swim because you are being evaluated all the time. Once a while you might get lucky to get a nice (overworked) resident who will teach you a thing or two, but most of time, you better learn on your own or pick up what you can from your competitive classmates on your rotation. Attendings may give a didactic session here and there as time allows, but you will rarely get one-on-one preceptor teaching to help you learn what you don’t know. Perhaps what I am describing is not atypical of all medical school education, but be fully warned that there is no standardization of clinical experiences or evaluations here, and your grades on the clinical rotations will highly depend on how merciful or passively agressive your attending and senior resident is. Here’s an article to back this up: https://www.ama-assn.org/education/medical-school-diversity/how-ucsf-working-overcome-bias-clerkship-grading. This is one of the few medical schools that require a sub-internship rotation in internal/family medicine for graduation, and if you don’t pass, you will probably need to say bye-bye to your medical degree and be stuck with 3-4 years of med school debt. They are very proud of their « high » standards and « exceptional « clinical training. I saw many people comment on financial issues. While it’s true that rent is high on average in SF, you can sometimes find cheap places to rent due to rent control and if you are flexible enough. The biggest plus is that there is cheap and good produce and food. What’s more unbearable is the windy, chilly, gloomy weather all the time in the city. That being said, this has nothing to do with the quality of the school or what they have control over. While the tuition here may be cheaper than a private school, you will not get much if any in terms of grants or scholarships. Unlike my undergrad where there is free unlimited transcript ordering and printing for students, you will be paying $15 per transcript ordered and who knows how much per page printed here now. You can definitely tell that they are not financially as strong as private schools. Just look up the David Kessler scandal.

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🧾 The Details ▼

Does the student body seem cooperative or competitive?

5 out of 10

Does the environment seem supportive for underrepresented minorities?

5 out of 10

Does the environment seem supportive for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual students?

10 out of 10

Does the environment seem supportive for married students?

10 out of 10

Does the environment seem supportive for students with disabilities?

0 out of 10

Does the environment seem supportive for older/non-traditional students?

10 out of 10

Do you/did you feel well prepared for your board exams?

3 out of 10

How approachable are faculty members?

5 out of 10

What are the facilities and clinics like (old/new, well maintained, etc.)?

old and outdated classrooms. Some new testing facilities.

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How do students from this program do after graduation - are they adequately prepared for practice?

Students are heavily weeded out. Of course those who come through will seem well prepared.

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What are rotations like?

Sink or swim. Learn from your competing classmates, who might be the only ones you can learn from. Very little one-on-one teaching. Never know if they are questioning you to teach you something or trying to test your knowledge. Grades on clerkships are unpredictable and biased.

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How do students from this program do in the Match?

Students are heavily weeded out. Of course those who make through will do well in the match.

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Any other information you want to share?

Be ready to be weeded out in this school even if you are the brightest student ever. You clerkship grades may your who you are rather than what you know. If you fail, don't expect them to help you or define for you what you need to achieve to pass. You will just be asked to do more sink or swim rotations hoping you will just somehow learn enough from your overworked residents who are suppose to teach and evaluate you the same time. And when you repeat your rotation, they will tell your supervisors that you already failed once already--so be ready to walk on a floor of glass throughout the rotation as they will tell you. Talk about removing bias from clerkship evaluation/grading. Perhaps this experience can be similar in other medical schools, you will need to jump through an extra grand hoop in this medical school to graduate: Internal Medicine Sub-I. And by the way, the only evaluation that matters on this evaluation is your last senior resident's evaluation--that single evaluation can determine where you will earn your MD or be stuck with your debts with no career prospects in medicine. This school is mostly run by internal medicine docs who don't believe doctor should be allow to practice without being able to practice internal medicine at the "highest standards"--you should ask "what standards".

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University of California San Francisco School of Medicine

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