UCSF Ranks Among Nation's Best Medical, Nursing Schools

By Kristen Bole

UCSF Parnassus campus

UCSF Parnassus campus

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is ranked among the nation’s top four schools for medicine and nursing, according to a new survey conducted by U.S. News & World Report.

Results are published in the magazine’s 2012 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” which appeared online today and will be available on newsstands on April 5.

The survey ranks schools according to the quality of training in both research and primary care. UCSF has the only school of medicine in the nation that ranks in the top five in both categories – fourth in the United States for primary care and fifth nationally for research.

The report ranks the UCSF School of Nursing fourth overall and first nationwide in the nursing specialties of family nurse practitioner, psychiatric/mental health clinical nursing, and adult/medical surgical nursing. The university also received top ratings in many medical specialties and scientific sub-disciplines.

The rankings also include previous assessments of other types of schools, which U.S. News surveys, but not on an annual basis. In its most recent ranking, in 2008, UCSF School of Pharmacy was ranked number one. In its most recent ranking, in 2010, the UCSF graduate programs in the biological sciences tied for seventh place, with the specialties of immunology/infectious disease ranked second and neuroscience ranked third. The surveys do not rank dental schools.

“These rankings showcase the high quality of UCSF’s educational and research enterprise across the board," said UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH. “But moving beyond the numbers, they reflect the excellence and hard work of all the UCSF faculty and staff and the breadth of experience available to every student who comes here to study.”

According to the magazine, the overall medical school rankings are based on two types of data: surveys sent last fall to medical school deans and administrators, and statistical indicators provided by 126 medical schools fully accredited in 2010 by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, as well as by the 20 schools of osteopathic medicine fully accredited by the American Osteopathic Association.

These data measured such factors as acceptance rates, faculty resources, and the number of graduates entering primary care. Research activity also was measured by funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Specialty rankings for medical schools were based on surveys of medical school deans and senior faculty. Rankings for nursing were based on surveys sent to deans, administrators, and faculty at programs in those fields.  

SUMMARY OF NEW RANKINGS

Overall rankings of UCSF Medical School

  • Primary Care – 4 (tied with University of Colorado-Denver)
  • Research – 5 (tied with Duke, Stanford and Yale)

Medical specialty rankings for UCSF School of Medicine:

  • AIDS – 1
  • Women’s Health – 2
  • Internal Medicine – 3
  • Drug/alcohol abuse – 4
  • Family medicine – 6
  • Geriatrics – 7 (tied with University of Michigan – Ann Arbor)
  • Pediatrics – 10

Specialty rankings for UCSF School of Nursing

  • Master’s Program (Overall ranking) – 4 (tied with University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
  • Adult Surgical Nurse Specialist – 1
  • Family Nurse Practitioner – 1
  • Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Specialist – 1
  • Adult Nurse Practitioner – 2 (tied with University of Washington)
  • Community/Public Health Nurse Specialist – 4 (tied with Univ. of North Carolina – Chapel Hill)
  • Geriatric Nurse Practitioner – 8 (tied with Univ. of Maryland – Baltimore)
  • Pediatric Nurse Practitioner – 8
  • Nursing Midwifery Master’s/Doctorate – 4
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