How to Get into UCSF School of Medicine: The Definitive Guide (2026-2027 Cycle)

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine is a public MD school in San Francisco, California, and one of the oldest medical schools in the western United States. It is also one of the largest recipients of research funding from the National Institutes of Health and one of the hardest medical schools in the country to get into. For the 2025 entering class, more than 10,000 people applied and fewer than 600 were interviewed.

This guide covers the 2026-2027 application cycle, which is for students who want to start medical school in August 2027 (the Class of 2031). It explains who is eligible, what the class statistics really mean, how much UCSF costs in 2026-27, how the Bridges Curriculum works, and how to answer each of the three MD secondary questions, with a full illustrative example and analysis for each one. It also covers the virtual interview, the special tracks such as PRIME-US and SJV PRIME, and the people who lead the school.

Key Takeaways

• Eligibility is narrow. UCSF only considers applications from U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents and applicants with DACA. International applicants are not considered, and the school does not accept transfer students at any level.
• The academic bar is very high, but there are no published cutoffs. Accepted applicants for the 2025 entering class had a median MCAT of 517 and a median GPA of 3.93. There is no minimum GPA or MCAT.
• Interviews are the real bottleneck. In Fall 2025, UCSF interviewed 584 of 10,300 applicants. No offer-based acceptance rate is published.
• Deadlines: AMCAS by October 15, 2026, with no extensions. The MD secondary deadline is December 1, 2026, and the secondary fee is $85.
• Costs for 2026-27: tuition and fees are $55,959 for California residents and $68,204 for nonresidents. The first-year cost of attendance is $89,634 for residents and $101,879 for nonresidents.
• Mission fit matters. The MD program exists to educate learners who will improve the health of communities and alleviate suffering. The secondary asks you to show how you will support UCSF’s PRIDE values.
• Training is spread across many sites. The Bridges Curriculum puts students in clinical teams from year one, and students say a car becomes essential from the second year.
• Next step: submit AMCAS early, line up three to five letters (a committee letter is preferred), and start drafting your PRIDE values essay before the secondary arrives.

Key Statistics About UCSF School of Medicine

The snapshot below pulls together the figures most applicants ask about first. Class statistics are for the 2025 entering class. Applicant, interview and matriculant counts are for Fall 2025, and cost figures are for the 2026-27 academic year. The table lists the source of each figure.

UCSF does not publish the number of acceptances, so any “UCSF acceptance rate” you see elsewhere is either an estimate or a matriculation ratio. The 161 matriculants are 1.6% of applicants, and the 584 interviews are 5.7%; neither figure is the share of applicants who received an offer. For a fuller breakdown of the numbers, see our separate page on the UCSF acceptance rate.

Mission and Educational Priorities

UCSF’s School of Medicine states the purpose of its MD program plainly: “to educate learners who will improve the health of our communities and alleviate suffering due to illness and disease in our patients.” The Bridges Curriculum is meant to produce physicians and leaders “committed to advancing health for all” (see the mission page). The wider university is dedicated to “advancing health worldwide” through biomedical research, graduate education in the health professions and excellence in patient care.

That mission has a long public-service history behind it. UCSF traces its roots to Toland Medical College, founded in 1864 during the crowded, unsanitary years after the Gold Rush. The University of California acquired the college in 1873 and formed a partnership with San Francisco General Hospital that continues today. That hospital, now Zuckerberg San Francisco General, is the city’s public safety-net hospital and one of UCSF’s core teaching sites.

What does this mean for you as an applicant? Three things stand out.

First, UCSF wants range, not a single type. There is “no single mold that defines a UCSF student.” It wants some students who will become excellent doctors, some who will become great scientists and some who will lead in health policy. You do not need to pretend to be a future researcher if your real strength is community care, or the reverse. You do need to show you have done something real and thought hard about it.

Second, the school measures you against seven competencies. The MD program defines its objectives through seven core competencies: patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, systems-based practice and interprofessional collaboration. Systems-based practice is the one many applicants overlook. UCSF students start learning how health systems work, and how to improve them, from their first months in the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship. Experiences where you noticed a broken process and helped fix it are useful evidence here.

Third, the PRIDE values are part of the application. UCSF’s institutional values are Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Excellence. One of the three secondary questions asks how you will contribute to and support them. Read the official definitions on the UCSF Mission and Values page before you write, because each value is defined in specific terms. “Professionalism,” for example, means being competent, accountable, reliable and responsible, and working well with colleagues, patients and partners.

The Associate Dean for Admissions, Michelle A. Albert, MD, MPH, puts the school’s goal in her welcome letter: UCSF wants “curious, compassionate people who are committed to serving others.” Applicants who can show both curiosity (asking questions, testing ideas, following up) and service (sustained work with people who need help) are telling the story this mission is built around.

Accreditation and Institutional Identity

UCSF School of Medicine’s MD program is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for MD programs. The LCME last reviewed UCSF in 2019 and continued full accreditation for an eight-year term (see the school’s LCME accreditation page). The next formal review takes place during the 2026-2027 academic year. The school launched its self-study in Fall 2025, and the site visit is scheduled for February 1-3, 2027. Accreditation confirms the program meets national standards. It is not a ranking or a guarantee about any one student’s outcome.

A few points about identity help avoid confusion:

• Institution. The School of Medicine is one of UCSF’s professional schools. UCSF is a graduate and professional university in the University of California system, with top-ranked schools of nursing, dentistry and pharmacy, a graduate division and a physical therapy program. It has no undergraduate college, so there is no “UCSF pre-med” major. Applicants finish their prerequisites and build clinical experience at other colleges, through campus health programs, local clinical jobs or medical internships for undergraduates.
• Public school. UCSF is a public school that accepts out-of-state applicants. California residents still make up most of the class: 71% of the Fall 2025 entering class were Californians.
• Campuses. The admissions office sits on the Parnassus Heights campus near Golden Gate Park, but medical education also runs through Mission Bay, Mount Zion, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the regional campus at UCSF Fresno. UC Merced is also one of the School of Medicine’s regional campuses.
• Recent change. Starting in Fall 2027, students in the SJV PRIME track will complete their entire medical education in the San Joaquin Valley at the UC Merced and UCSF Fresno regional campuses. That affects anyone applying this cycle who is interested in the Central Valley. See the programs section below.
• Faculty recognition. UCSF’s faculty includes seven Nobel laureates, 61 National Academy of Sciences members and 112 National Academy of Medicine members, and that UCSF has ranked first in NIH funding in nine of the past ten years.

Medical Programs and Affiliations

There are three programs for earning a UCSF MD degree: the MD, the MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), and the MS/MD UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP). Within those routes, applicants can also express interest in two special tracks, PRIME-US and SJV PRIME. All of these start with the same AMCAS application. You indicate your interest in a program or track on the UCSF secondary application, and “additional information may be required for these programs.”

The four-year MD program

Most students enter the standard four-year MD program and complete the Bridges Curriculum, described in the next section. Almost all of them train on the San Francisco campuses and at affiliated sites around the Bay Area, with some rotations possible at UCSF Fresno.

MD/PhD: Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP)

The MSTP is UCSF’s combined MD/PhD program for future physician-scientists. It has had continuous NIH support since 1978, and trainees receive full tuition support and a stipend. The program interviews about 57 applicants and enrolls about 12 new trainees each year. For the class entering in 2026, the MSTP had 840 AMCAS applications, 702 secondary applications, 57 interviews and 11 matriculants, with an average GPA of 3.97 and an average MCAT at the 98th percentile.

Key MSTP details for the Fall 2027 cycle (full instructions are on the MSTP application page):

• Designate yourself as an MD-PhD applicant on AMCAS. MSTP materials go only to applicants who pass the School of Medicine’s initial screen and receive a secondary.
• AMCAS deadline: October 15, 2026. MSTP secondary deadline: November 15, 2026.
• You will submit a supplemental essay about your recent research, interests and career goals, and list all research projects and your role.
• The MSTP is funded by NIH training funds available only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, so it cannot admit international students.
• If you are not offered an MSTP spot, you can still be considered for the MD program if you request it on the secondary.
• Students who choose the Medical Anthropology PhD track are considered only for that graduate program and answer an additional essay.

MS/MD: UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP)

The JMP is a five-year program. Students spend their pre-clerkship years at UC Berkeley in a problem-based learning curriculum while earning a Master’s degree in Health and Medical Sciences at Berkeley’s School of Public Health. After two and a half years, they move across the Bay to UCSF for their final two and a half years of clinical training and receive the MD from UCSF. Each JMP class has 16 students (see the JMP website). The program suits applicants with a strong interest in public health, research and small-group learning. You select the JMP on the UCSF secondary.

PRIME-US: Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved

PRIME-US is a five-year track at both UCSF and the JMP for students committed to working with urban underserved communities. It admits 11 students on the UCSF campus (PRIME-US@UCSF) and 4 at the JMP (PRIME-US@JMP). The track adds a stipend-supported summer immersion before classes, small-group seminars during the first two years, early clinical placements in settings that serve under-resourced communities, community engagement projects, mentorship and a month-long capstone course in the final year. The extra year is used for a master’s degree or research program. Applicants submit separate PRIME-US essays with the secondary, and the same essays can be used if you apply to PRIME-US at both UCSF and the JMP (details are in the PRIME-US admissions FAQ). PRIME-US applicants should be able to point to sustained work with under-resourced communities, and many patients in San Francisco’s safety-net clinics speak Spanish. If you are building Spanish for patient care, a medical internship in Peru places you in a Cusco teaching hospital whose wards run in Spanish. Language practice supports your service record; it does not replace it.

SJV PRIME: San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education

SJV PRIME is a UCSF track for students committed to high-quality, well-distributed medical care in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where the program works with highly underserved populations. This is the program with the biggest change this cycle. Beginning in Fall 2027, SJV PRIME students will complete their medical school education in the San Joaquin Valley at UCSF’s regional campuses at UC Merced and UCSF Fresno (see the SJV PRIME page).

There are two ways into that cohort, and it helps to keep them separate:

1. SJV PRIME+ BS/MD. This is UCSF’s baccalaureate/MD program: an eight-year partnership of UCSF, UCSF Fresno and UC Merced in which high school graduates earn a bachelor’s degree at UC Merced and then the MD from UCSF, entirely in the San Joaquin Valley. It is a freshman-entry program, so it is not a route for college students or graduates applying through AMCAS this cycle.
2. SJV PRIME through regular admissions. Up to five students a year are admitted through the traditional UCSF School of Medicine process. You must meet all MD requirements, apply through AMCAS, and select “MD/SJV PRIME” on the secondary. Doing so lets both MD and SJV PRIME admissions consider your application.

Put simply, the BS/MD and the AMCAS route feed the same SJV PRIME cohort, and from Fall 2027 that whole cohort trains in Merced and Fresno rather than San Francisco. If you want to train in San Francisco, SJV PRIME is not the right box to check.

Other combined degrees and research options

Once enrolled, UCSF students can add other degrees or research years:

• MD/MAS: a five-year combined program with a Master’s in Advanced Studies in clinical research.
• MD/MPH: a master’s in public health at UC Berkeley during an extra year, taken between the third and fourth years or after the MD.
• MD with Distinction in Yearlong Research: a 12-month research or scholarship project with a symposium presentation, a conference presentation and a completed product such as a thesis or manuscript.
• MD-PhD in History of Health Sciences: a PhD in UCSF’s Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine.
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery: residents in the OMFS program earn the MD as part of their training.

MD/MBA, MD/JD and MD/MPP combined degrees are not available.

Clinical affiliations

UCSF’s four primary teaching campuses are UCSF Medical Center (Parnassus and Mission Bay), UCSF Mount Zion, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the San Francisco VA Medical Center. UCSF Fresno is also a core teaching hospital. Students also train at community sites across the nine-county Bay Area. These affiliations are covered in more detail in the clinical rotations section.

Curriculum Overview

UCSF’s MD curriculum is called the Bridges Curriculum. It launched in August 2016 and is a three-phase, fully integrated curriculum delivered over four years. Its goal is to produce physicians who can improve care for individual patients and also improve the health systems those patients rely on.

Foundations 1

In Foundations 1, students learn the basic and clinical sciences “while building the habits of mind of an inquiring physician” (see the Bridges Curriculum page). Teaching is integrated and active. Instruction mixes lectures, small groups, early clinical exposure, research and team-based, inquiry-driven learning, with online lectures available. The curriculum also includes case-based courses, problem-based learning and a clinical skills center.

The most distinctive part of Foundations 1 is the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship (CMC). From the start of training, students are placed in clinical teams and learn how to help patients work through a complicated health care system while also working on the health of populations and how well care is delivered. Clerkship education “begins on the first day with the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship.” For applicants, this means you will be in a clinic or hospital setting much earlier than at many schools. Experience working on a team in a real care setting is good preparation.

Foundations 2

Foundations 2 is the core clinical year. Students rotate through team-based clinical settings, building patient care and systems improvement skills while revisiting the foundational science behind clinical decisions. This is when the dispersed clinical sites matter most, and when students report that a car becomes essential.

Career Launch

Career Launch is the individualized final phase. Students choose clinical experiences and a scholarly project that fit their career goals. The academic year for third- and fourth-year students begins in summer, and students in those levels normally attend summer term.

Threads that run through all three phases

Bridges weaves three elements through every phase: foundational sciences, clinical and systems applications, and inquiry. A few specific features are worth knowing:

• The Inquiry Curriculum. This is designed to help students recognize the limits of current knowledge, take part in scientific discovery and look at health care problems through six domains of science. The MD has a research or thesis requirement, which is met through mentored scholarly work with protected time.
• Mentorship and advising. Close mentorship and a personalized advising system support students as they enter the profession.
• Flexible learning. Classroom sessions are active and supported by online learning tools.
• Individualized learning. Students have room to shape clinical and scientific learning around their career goals, and can add a research year or a second degree.

Assessment and grading

UCSF uses pass/fail grading and does not rank students. The school runs on a quarter system. There is no prematriculation program and no community service requirement, although service is woven into many tracks and student organizations.

How tracks change the curriculum

• JMP students complete their pre-clerkship years at UC Berkeley in a problem-based curriculum and join UCSF for clinical training after two and a half years.
• PRIME-US students follow Bridges plus a parallel curriculum of seminars, clinical immersion, community engagement and a capstone, with an extra year for a master’s degree or research.
• SJV PRIME students entering in Fall 2027 or later complete their education at the UC Merced and UCSF Fresno regional campuses.
• MSTP students combine the MD curriculum with PhD training in one of UCSF’s graduate programs.

What the curriculum means for your application

Because clinical work starts so early, UCSF expects you to know what patient care looks like. Shadowing is not required, but “applicants should have clinical experience that illustrates their interest in and knowledge of medicine.” And because the Inquiry Curriculum asks every student to complete scholarly work, applicants with no research background should still be able to talk about how they ask and answer questions. That could mean a quality improvement project, a public health survey or a careful look at why a clinic’s process was failing.

Admissions Requirements and Application Process

The UCSF admissions process has six steps: check eligibility, submit AMCAS, complete the secondary if invited, interview if invited, receive a post-interview decision, and prepare to enroll. The full details are on the school’s MD Program Application Process page, checked October 17, 2026. UCSF’s requirements are subject to change from year to year, so recheck them before you submit.

Eligibility: citizenship, residency and transfer

• UCSF considers applications only from U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents and applicants with DACA. Canadian and other international applicants are not accepted.
• Out-of-state applicants are accepted, with no special requirements related to the school or state for non-residents.
• The School of Medicine does not accept transfer students at any level.
• A criminal background check is part of the process.
• Applicants must meet UCSF’s technical standards for medical students.

Prerequisite coursework

UCSF expects a four-year undergraduate program and a bachelor’s degree before you start medical school. All prerequisites must be finished by June of the year you enter (June 2027 for this cycle).

Course policies worth knowing:

• Community college: accepted from accredited institutions, but a maximum of 105 quarter units can transfer from a community college.
• Online and pass/no pass: both accepted.
• Age of coursework: coursework taken within ten years of matriculation is preferred.
• Postbaccalaureate and graduate work: considered. Fifteen members of the 2025 entering class came from postbaccalaureate programs.

UCSF’s prerequisite list is shorter than many schools’. It does not list English, math, statistics or social science courses as requirements. That does not mean those subjects are irrelevant. The MCAT tests psychology and sociology, and statistics helps with the Inquiry Curriculum. For a broader view of what other schools require, see our medical school prerequisites checklist.

MCAT policy

• The MCAT is required of all applicants. UCSF publishes no minimum score.
• For applications submitted by October 15, 2026, UCSF accepts MCAT scores released between January 1, 2024 and September 13, 2026.
• If you have taken the MCAT more than once, the committee uses your most recent score. That is unusual. It means a retake that comes in lower replaces a higher earlier score.
• The school encourages applicants to test in the spring rather than the summer, so there is time to retake if needed.

GPA policy

UCSF has no minimum GPA and “does not limit applicants based on GPA from any institution.” The class profile is still very strong, as the statistics section shows.

Experience

Shadowing is recommended but not required. What matters more is clinical experience: applicants “should have clinical experience that illustrates their interest in and knowledge of medicine.” Applicants short on patient contact often add it through scribing, EMT work, free clinic shifts or clinical internships for pre-med students where you take vitals and do patient intake under supervision. Research is not a formal requirement for the MD, but the school’s mission and curriculum put heavy weight on inquiry, and letters that document research or health-related work are “of particular interest” to the committee.

Assessments

UCSF does not use AAMC PREview scores and requires no additional assessments, so Casper and the Duet are not part of the application. If that changes, it would appear on the school’s process page or in your secondary instructions.

Step 2: AMCAS

All applicants use AMCAS. The 2026 AMCAS application opened in early May, and the earliest submission date was May 28, 2026. UCSF’s deadline is October 15, 2026, and extensions are not granted. AMCAS began forwarding applications to schools at the end of June. If you are new to the AMCAS system, our AMCAS application guide walks through each section.

Applying early still helps, but UCSF does not send its secondary on a first come, first served basis. UCSF reviews every verified AMCAS application first and invites only some applicants to complete a secondary. Full review of an MD application begins after the secondary is requested.

Step 3: The secondary application (screened)

If you pass the initial screen, you will receive an email inviting you to the secondary. This usually happens about 3-10 weeks after UCSF receives your verified AMCAS application. MSTP applicants should allow 8-12 weeks. Applicants who are not invited receive an email saying they are no longer under consideration.

The secondary includes:

• The $85 fee for U.S. citizens, permanent residents and DACA applicants, payable by credit card. Applicants approved for the AMCAS Fee Assistance Program should have the fee waived.
• Completed forms, including the essay questions covered later in this guide.
• A Statement of Access to Letters of Recommendation.
• A Statement of Authenticity confirming that everything you submitted is full and accurate.
• Your program choices: JMP, MSTP, PRIME-US or SJV PRIME, if any.

Secondaries go out and come back from mid-July to November, and the MD secondary deadline is December 1, 2026. Because the review only starts once your secondary is in, there is no advantage in waiting. Aim to submit within about two weeks of receiving it. All admissions communication is by email, so add ucsf.edu to your safe senders list and check your spam folder.

Letters of recommendation

• Submit letters only through the AMCAS Letters Service. Do not send them to the admissions office.
• UCSF requires between three and five letters, including at least two from instructors.
• A committee letter or letter packet is preferred and satisfies the requirement.
• Letters from instructors of upper-division courses who know you well tell the committee the most. Letters that document research or other science or health care work are of particular interest.
• Character references from family, friends or associates are not recommended.
• Letters are not considered until you are invited to complete the secondary.

Steps 4 and 5: Interviews and decisions

Interview invitations can begin as early as September 1, 2026, and interviews run from late September to early February. For 2026-2027, all interviews are virtual. The interview section below covers the format.

Starting in February, interviewed applicants receive one of three outcomes: an offer of acceptance, a place on the Alternate List, or notice that the application is no longer being considered. Post-interview decisions are released from February to April 2027. Accepted applicants have two weeks to respond, and no deposit is required.

The Alternate List is unranked and holds about 150 applicants. The number of offers made from it varies widely each year. Applicants on the Alternate List are not considered until after the April 30 deadline, and most offers come after May 1.

Updates and letters of intent

Interviewed applicants may submit up to two application updates: one at the time of the interview and one any time after it. Letters of interest or intent are not necessary and are not included in applicant files. Before you are interviewed, the place to update your activities is the optional secondary question.

Deferral

Written deferral requests must arrive by May 1 of the year of expected entry. UCSF typically approves deferrals only for time-limited, once-in-a-lifetime academic opportunities. It is unlikely to grant one for financial reasons, personal development or family needs.

Timeline for the 2026-2027 cycle

Tuition, Cost of Attendance and Financial Aid

UCSF is a public school, but it is not cheap, and San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the country to live in. The numbers below are UCSF’s 2026-27 estimates. Tuition and fees are subject to change by the University of California Regents.

Tuition and fees, 2026-27

Annual fees on the UCSF Registrar’s 2026-27 School of Medicine fee schedule (updated July 21, 2026) are:

Two things to notice. First, the resident total includes $11,914 for student health insurance, so it is the full annual bill, not tuition alone. Second, third- and fourth-year students start their academic year in the summer and pay summer-term fees on top of the annual total.

For comparison, the 2025-26 registrar totals were $53,441 for residents and $65,686 for nonresidents. That is an increase of about $2,500 in one year.

Cost of attendance by year, 2026-27

UCSF Student Financial Aid publishes an estimated cost of attendance (COA) for each year of the MD. The COA adds living costs, books and commuting to tuition and fees, and it sets the maximum aid you can receive.

Source: UCSF Student Financial Aid, 2026-27 Estimated Cost of Attendance.

If you add the four years together at 2026-27 rates, the total is about $380,138 for a California resident and $429,118 for a nonresident. That sum is not a figure UCSF publishes, and it does not account for future fee increases. For comparison, the 2025-26 first-year COA was $89,616 for California residents and $101,861 for nonresidents.

Notice the commuting line. It rises from $795 in the first year to $2,000 in the third, which reflects the travel to dispersed clinical sites described below.

JMP students follow a different budget during their transition to UCSF. The 2026-27 COA lists a “Transitioning JMP” budget of $57,876 for residents, and JMP students pay UCSF fees only for the quarters they are registered at UCSF.

Residency for tuition

The $12,245 nonresident supplemental tuition is charged each year you are classified as a nonresident. The school’s pages do not say whether out-of-state students can reclassify as California residents after their first year. If that matters to your budget, ask the UCSF Registrar’s residence office before you commit.

Financial aid and scholarships

• On average, 85% of UCSF medical students receive some form of financial aid, through scholarships, loans or both.
• Scholarships for entering students are awarded “primarily on the basis of need.”
• Financial aid is only available to U.S. citizens or permanent residents. DACA applicants should ask UCSF Student Financial Aid which California-based options apply to them.
• Students who need extra money for commuting can only borrow loans for it, although the School of Medicine offers a small F2 Clerkship Travel Stipend of up to $450 a year to second-year students who travel to distant sites.
• MSTP students receive full tuition support and a stipend.

Debt after graduation

Average graduate indebtedness was $105,406 for AY 2024-2025. For 2022 graduates it was $141,523, compared with $182,699 for all U.S. medical graduates that year, so UCSF graduates have tended to borrow less than the national average. Because scholarships are need-based, the cost you actually pay can be quite different from the sticker price. File the FAFSA and any institutional aid forms on time once you are accepted.

Campus Facilities and Student Life

UCSF’s main campus is in the center of San Francisco, at Parnassus Heights near Golden Gate Park. The newer Mission Bay campus, home to research buildings and the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, sits on the east side of the city. The school offers virtual tours of both campuses through its admissions FAQ.

Getting around

Free UCSF shuttles connect Parnassus, Mission Bay, Mount Zion, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the VA Medical Center. That covers most of the first year. After that, things change. Students “have found it is essential to have a vehicle to travel efficiently to these dispersed clinical sites starting in their second year” (see the clinical learning sites page). Most shuttles run between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., not every clinical site has a shuttle stop, and some sites in the Bay Area and the Central Valley have very limited public transit, with trips of more than two hours each way. A driver’s license and a vehicle are recommended.

Plan for this in your budget. Car ownership, insurance, gas and parking in the Bay Area add up, and the 2026-27 budget only includes $1,200 to $2,000 a year for commuting in the clinical years. Every student pays a $272 Student Transit Pass fee, which covers some public transit.

Housing

The 2026-27 COA assumes $32,280 in living costs for a 10-month first year, or about $3,228 a month for rent, food and everything else. Many students share apartments to make that work. When you visit virtually or talk with students during your interview day, ask where people live and how long their commutes are. It is one of the most practical questions you can ask.

Student support and well-being

Support programs include the Medical Student Well-Being Program, Student Health and Counseling Services and the MedPeers peer support program. The Associate Dean for Students, Erick Hung, MD, sees students about student life, the learning environment and mistreatment, well-being and mental health, academic support, disability accommodations, leaves of absence and career advising. The education deans directory lists who handles each area, which is useful to know before you arrive.

Student community

The Associate Dean for Admissions writes that UCSF “seeks to create a welcoming environment that supports everyone to reach their potential,” and that whether you want to connect with peers interested in a specific research area or join a student organization, “there is a place for your unique interests.” Every MD student pays a small fee to the Associated Students of the School of Medicine, the student government. As of Fall 2024, 24.1% of current MD students are first-generation college students.

Service and global health

UCSF has no formal community service requirement, but service is built into tracks such as PRIME-US and SJV PRIME and into the school’s partnership with Zuckerberg San Francisco General, the city’s public hospital. For students interested in global health, the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences offers research and training opportunities. In 2025, 11% of graduating seniors reported a global health experience. If global health is part of why you want to study medicine, medical internships abroad can give you supervised patient contact in health systems with fewer resources. Pre-health internships like these are most useful when you can explain what you saw about access to care and how it connects to the communities UCSF serves.

Clinical Rotations and Research Opportunities

Where students train

UCSF has four primary teaching campuses:

• UCSF Medical Center, including the Parnassus and Mission Bay hospitals.
• UCSF Mount Zion Medical Center, part of UCSF Health in San Francisco.
• Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG), San Francisco’s public safety-net hospital and a UCSF partner since 1873.
• The San Francisco VA Medical Center, which serves military veterans.

Students also train at community sites across the nine-county Bay Area, a region of about 7,000 square miles. Some students rotate to the regional campus at UCSF Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the core teaching hospitals.

This range is one of UCSF’s biggest strengths. In a single year you might care for patients at an academic medical center, a public safety-net hospital and a veterans hospital. It also means travel. Clinical placements are spread out, which is why the car advice in the previous section matters.

How clinical training is structured

Clinical training starts in the first year with the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship and continues through Foundations 2, the core clerkship year. Career Launch then gives students time for advanced clinical work and electives that fit their specialty plans. PRIME-US students rotate through hospitals that focus on underserved populations in San Francisco, the wider Bay Area and Fresno. SJV PRIME students take part in a clinical program based at UCSF Fresno, and from Fall 2027 they complete their medical school education in the Valley.

Research

UCSF is one of the most research-intensive medical schools in the world. UCSF received $624 million in federal research grants and contracts in fiscal year 2024 and has been the top NIH-funded institution in nine of the past ten years.

All MD students take part in research through the Inquiry Curriculum, which includes protected time and a scholarly project. Students who want more can add a full research year through the Distinction in Yearlong Research, or a degree such as the MD/MAS or MD/MPH. Research institutes open to students include:

• AIDS Research Institute
• Cardiovascular Research Institute
• Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases
• Weill Institute for Neurosciences
• Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute
• Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research
• Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies
• Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education

Access to a particular lab depends on mentors, funding and timing, so treat this list as a guide to what exists rather than a promise of placement.

Residency match outcomes

UCSF’s 2026 match report shows 166 students matched. Of those, 47 matched at UCSF, 109 matched in California, and 65 matched in primary care. The most common specialties were internal medicine (39 students), anesthesiology (15), emergency medicine (13), pediatrics (13), psychiatry (11) and obstetrics and gynecology (9). Student counts are shown here rather than percentages.

Notable Alumni, Faculty, Leadership and Admissions Staff

The people below hold the roles shown as of October 2026. They are included because their work tells you something about the school’s priorities. Knowing who they are will not affect an admissions decision, and you should not mention them in an essay unless you have a real connection to their work.

School leadership

S. Andrew Josephson, MD, Dean. Dr. Josephson is Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs. He is a neurologist who founded UCSF’s Neurohospitalist Program and is known nationally for launching the neurohospitalist model of care. He earned his MD at Washington University in St. Louis and then completed his internship, neurology residency (as chief resident) and fellowships in vascular and behavioral neurology at UCSF. He is Editor-in-Chief of JAMA Neurology and has won several UCSF teaching awards. For applicants, his path shows how much of UCSF’s leadership trained in its own residencies and stayed.

Karen Hauer, MD, PhD, Vice Dean for Education. Dr. Hauer is Vice Dean for Education and Professor of Medicine, and a UCSF medical school alumna who also completed her internal medicine residency and chief residency at UCSF. She supervises the associate deans and directors who oversee admissions, curriculum, assessment, regional campuses and more, and she is the faculty lead for the 2026-2027 LCME review. Her research focuses on competency-based medical education, assessment, coaching and remediation, which helps explain the school’s emphasis on the seven competencies.

José M. Barral Sánchez, MD, PhD, Vice Dean for the UCSF Regional Campus at Fresno. Dr. Barral Sánchez oversees medical education, faculty development and research growth at UCSF Fresno, including the expanding partnership with UC Merced. Before UCSF, he was the inaugural Chair of Biomedical Science and founding co-director of the MD-PhD program with Caltech at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. His role is directly relevant to anyone considering SJV PRIME.

Admissions and education deans

Michelle A. Albert, MD, MPH, Associate Dean for Admissions. Dr. Albert is Associate Dean for Admissions and Professor of Medicine. Her welcome letter to applicants describes the school’s goal of recruiting “curious, compassionate people who are committed to serving others” and a student body with a shared desire “to advance the health of ALL members of society.” That letter is a good summary of what the admissions office says it values.

Anna Chang, MD, Associate Dean for Curriculum. Dr. Chang is Associate Dean for Curriculum and a professor. She oversees the Bridges Curriculum and answers students’ questions about it. For applicants, her office is the one responsible for the features this guide describes, from the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship to the Inquiry Curriculum and Career Launch. If you are asked in an interview why the Bridges structure appeals to you, it helps to understand that the curriculum has a dedicated dean and is treated as a defining part of the school.

Erick Hung, MD, Associate Dean for Students. Dr. Hung is Associate Dean for Students and Professor of Psychiatry. He completed medical school, psychiatry residency and a forensic psychiatry fellowship at UCSF. He sees students about student life, the learning environment, well-being and mental health, academic support, accommodations and career advising.

Peter Chin-Hong, MD, Associate Dean for Regional Campuses. Dr. Chin-Hong is Associate Dean for Regional Campuses and Professor of Medicine. He meets with students who have questions about programs at UCSF’s regional campuses, which now include Fresno and Merced. His role matters most for applicants weighing SJV PRIME, since from Fall 2027 that track’s students will train entirely at the regional campuses. If you are drawn to the San Joaquin Valley, the regional campus structure, not just the San Francisco campuses, is what you are applying to join.

Faculty

David Julius, PhD, Professor and Chair of Physiology. Dr. Julius holds the Morris Herzstein Chair in Molecular Biology and Medicine at UCSF. He shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries about receptors for temperature and touch. His work is a reminder of the basic science depth behind the Inquiry Curriculum.

Stanley Prusiner, MD, Professor of Neurology. Dr. Prusiner is Director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at UCSF and received the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering prions. The institute he directs is one of the research centers the school lists as open to medical students.

Susan Buchbinder, MD, Professor of Medicine. Dr. Buchbinder is both a faculty member and an alumna (MD 1984 and UCSF resident alum). The UCSF Medical Alumni Association named her its 2026 Alum of the Year. Her path, from UCSF medical student and resident to professor at the same institution, is one example of how often UCSF graduates stay to build careers in research and teaching at the school where they trained.

Alumni

Michael V. Drake, MD, Class of 1975. Dr. Drake trained as an ophthalmologist at UCSF and later served as chancellor of UC Irvine and president of The Ohio State University. He became president of the University of California in 2020. In May 2025, UCSF announced that he would step down from that role in July 2025, and the alumni association gave him its Lifetime Service Award. His career shows one of the leadership paths UCSF says it wants some graduates to take.

Stephanie D. Chao, MD, Class of 2006. Dr. Chao is a pediatric surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery at Stanford, where she is trauma medical director at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The UCSF Medical Alumni Association named her its 2025 Alum of the Year. Her career is a reminder that UCSF graduates go on to lead at other major academic centers, including in surgical specialties, and that the alumni association recognizes clinical leadership as well as research.

Kenneth S. Song, MD, Class of 2000. Dr. Song, also a UCSF resident alum, received the UCSF Alumni Entrepreneur Award in 2025. The award shows that the alumni association treats entrepreneurship as one of the paths open to MD graduates. That fits UCSF’s aim of admitting students with different career aspirations, not one model of what a UCSF physician becomes.

Admissions Statistics and Class Profile

How selective is UCSF?

The UCSF acceptance rate is one of the lowest of all medical schools in the country, but the exact number is not published. These are the Fall 2025 figures from the school’s admissions data page:

• 10,300 applications
• 584 interviewed (5.7% of applicants)
• 161 matriculated (1.6% of applicants)
• Average age at matriculation: 23
• Californians: 71% of the entering class

By residency, the 2025 entering class breaks down as follows:

The 1.6% figure is a matriculation ratio, not an acceptance rate. Some admitted applicants choose another school, so the share of applicants who receive an offer is higher than the share who enroll. UCSF does not publish the number of offers, so the true acceptance rate is unknown. The same caution applies to the interview figure: 584 of 10,300 tells you how many applicants were interviewed, not how many were accepted.

Residency still matters in practice. In the 2025 entering class, about 7% of in-state applicants were interviewed (342 of 4,761), compared with about 4% of out-of-state applicants (242 of 5,482). Out-of-state applicants are welcome, but the odds are longer. Among currently enrolled students (Fall 2024 update), 88.4% are California residents.

What is a good GPA for UCSF?

There is no minimum. UCSF has no GPA cutoff and does not limit applicants based on GPA. For all accepted applicants in the 2025 entering class:

• Overall GPA: median 3.93, mean 3.90
• Science GPA: median 3.91, mean 3.87

A median is not a minimum. Half of accepted applicants were below 3.93. But a GPA well under that range needs a clear upward trend, strong postbaccalaureate or graduate work, or other strengths that explain your academic ability.

What is a good MCAT score for UCSF?

A good MCAT score for medical school in general is often put around 510. The 2020 percentile table published by the Association of American Medical Colleges placed 510 near the 80th percentile. Percentiles shift each year, so check the current AAMC table before you interpret your score.

For UCSF specifically, a good score is much higher. For accepted applicants in the 2025 entering class:

Remember that UCSF uses your most recent score. Retake only if you are confident you will improve. To see how these numbers compare with other schools, our page on average GPA and MCAT scores by medical school lists figures across the country.

Who is in the class?

The 2025 entering class at a glance:

• About 62% women, 37% men and 1% of another gender identity.
• 13 MD/PhD matriculants (8 in-state, 5 out-of-state).
• 12% held a graduate degree.
• 68% majored in science or math, so about a third did not.
• 15 came from postbaccalaureate programs.

MSTP and JMP numbers

The MSTP enrolls about 12 new trainees a year, and 11 matriculated in the class entering in 2026, after 57 interviews from 840 AMCAS applications. Each JMP class has 16 students, and PRIME-US admits 11 students at UCSF and 4 at the JMP. Applicants for the JMP are expected to show a strong interest in public health and research.

Tips and Strategies for Admission

UCSF admits applicants who have “demonstrated the ability to perform at a very high level in their prior academic pursuits,” and then, among those, builds a class with different backgrounds, talents, interests and career goals. That two-step logic shapes the advice below. Strong numbers get you considered. What happens after that depends on what you have done and how well you explain it.

1. Build clinical experience that shows you know what medicine is

UCSF does not require shadowing, but it does expect clinical experience that shows your “interest in and knowledge of medicine.” The strongest experiences put you in contact with patients over time, in a role with real responsibility: taking vital signs, doing intake, interpreting, scribing, working as a medical assistant or an EMT, or volunteering in a free clinic. Because UCSF students join clinical teams in their first year through the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship, the committee is looking for people who already know how a care team works.

Some applicants add structured clinical experience abroad. International Medical Aid’s pre-med internships place pre-health students in clinics and hospitals in Kenya and other sites, where interns take vitals, do patient intake and triage and help with direct care under the supervision of local clinicians. Experience like this helps only if you reflect on it honestly in your application, including what you learned about the limits of your own role.

2. Show inquiry, even if you are not a career researcher

Every UCSF student completes scholarly work through the Inquiry Curriculum, and the school wants some students who will become great scientists. That does not mean every applicant needs publications. It means you should be able to show that you ask questions and follow them up. A bench research project, a public health survey, a quality improvement project at a clinic or a careful analysis of why patients miss appointments can all count. Describe the question, what you did and what you found, including what did not work.

3. Take the PRIDE values seriously

Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Excellence show up directly in the secondary. Before you write, read the official definitions and match each one to a specific moment in your experience. Applicants often write about values in general terms. A specific story about honesty under pressure, or about changing how you work after feedback, says much more.

4. Use the secondary to add something new

Your primary application will contain most of the information the UCSF admissions committee is looking for. The secondary is a chance to add something useful you did not get to say. Before you begin, go over your activities list and personal statement, then ask what else is true about you that would help complete the picture. Avoid reusing the same stories from your primary. Use the short space to be straightforward, get to the point and support each claim with evidence.

Some qualities medical schools look for in their applicants include leadership, cultural competence and teamwork, and these line up well with UCSF’s own seven MD competencies. Our article on medical school competencies and how admissions committees evaluate readiness explains how to show these through experience rather than claims.

5. Show you understand health care in society

Top medical schools such as UCSF expect applicants to show an interest in patient care and also an understanding of how health care fits into society, including how it intersects with inequality. UCSF’s partnership with San Francisco’s public hospital, its PRIME-US and SJV PRIME tracks, and its mission to advance health “for all” all point the same way. Show that you have seen how cost, language, transportation or housing affect care, and what you did about it.

6. Plan your letters early

UCSF wants three to five letters through AMCAS, including at least two from instructors, and prefers a committee letter or packet if your school offers one. Ask upper-division instructors who know your work well, and ask a research or clinical supervisor who can describe what you contributed. Skip character references from family or friends.

7. Be strategic about the MCAT

Because UCSF uses your most recent MCAT score, plan your test date so you only retake if you are confident of improving. The school encourages spring testing so you have time to retake before the September 13, 2026 score cutoff if needed. Testing in spring also frees the summer before you apply for clinical work, research or pre-med summer internships.

8. Choose programs deliberately

If you are applying to PRIME-US, SJV PRIME, the JMP or the MSTP, be sure each choice matches what you have actually done. SJV PRIME students entering in 2027 will train in Merced and Fresno, not San Francisco. The JMP spends its first two and a half years at Berkeley. The MSTP expects substantial laboratory research and letters from research advisors. Checking a box you cannot support with experience will not help.

9. Submit early and track your email

Submit AMCAS early in the cycle so your application is among the first reviewed for secondaries, then turn your secondary around within about two weeks. UCSF communicates only by email, and the secondary is time-sensitive.

10. Get honest feedback

Ask an advisor, a mentor or a professional reader to look at your school list, personal statement and secondaries before you submit. IMA’s medical school admissions consulting team can review drafts and help you decide whether UCSF and its special tracks fit your record.

Secondary Application Questions, Example Responses and Analysis

As with all medical schools, UCSF uses a secondary application. The UCSF secondary is short, which makes it harder to stand out, not easier. For the 2026-2027 cycle (Fall 2027 entry), the MD secondary has three essay questions. Together they allow up to 1,350 words.

UCSF does not publish its secondary questions, and the applicant portal opens only when you are invited. The wording below is the 2026-2027 wording, which is the same as the prior year apart from the graduation year. Always follow the wording and limits shown in your own portal. For a wider list of schools’ prompts, see our medical school secondary essay prompts database.

UCSF does not publish its program-specific essay questions. The MSTP, PRIME-US, SJV PRIME and the JMP questions appear in your portal after you select the program. How to prepare for each is covered at the end of this section.

The examples below are original teaching examples, written for this guide. Each is labeled Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay. Do not copy them. Use them to see how a response can answer every part of a question within the limit, then write your own from your own experiences.

Question 1: Activities update (optional, 500 words)

“If you wish to update or expand upon your activities, you may provide additional information below.”

Limit: 500 words. Who answers: any invited MD applicant. The wording (“If you wish”) marks it as optional.

What it asks. This is a chance to tell UCSF what has changed since you submitted AMCAS, or to add depth to an activity your primary could not fully explain. It is not a second personal statement and not a “Why UCSF” essay.

Approach. Should you answer an optional question? Answer it if you have something real to add: a new role, a project with results, a new activity or an important part of an existing one that your 700-character AMCAS description could not hold. If you have nothing new, leaving it blank is better than repeating yourself.

A thesis-and-evidence structure works well here. Start with one sentence that states what has changed or what the reader should understand. Then give the evidence as a sequence that shows how each step led to the next, rather than a list. Use two to four activities at most in 500 words. Close by connecting the updates to the direction of your application, and to a specific, verified part of UCSF’s training if it fits naturally.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (457 words)

Since I submitted my AMCAS application in June, two of my activities have grown and one new one has started.

At the Eastside Free Clinic, where I have volunteered as a Spanish-English intake volunteer since 2023, I was asked in July to become one of four student clinic managers. I now run the Saturday evening session about twice a month. Before the doors open, I check that we have a physician, two interpreters and enough glucose test strips. During the session, I sort the waiting room by visit type, take vital signs when the medical assistant is short-handed, and make sure every patient leaves with a printed plan in their own language. Running the session showed me how much of a good visit depends on things the patient never sees: a schedule that works, supplies that are there and a handoff that does not drop information.

That last problem became my project. In my primary application I described noticing that patients with high A1c results often did not return. Over the summer, with our medical director, I reviewed four months of charts and found that 19 of 46 patients with an A1c above 9 had no follow-up visit within 90 days. Most had no working phone number on file. We added a step at check-in where volunteers confirm a phone number and a second contact, and we started reminder calls one week before follow-up dates. In the first eight weeks, 14 of 21 patients came back on time. The numbers are small, and a short project cannot prove the change will last, but it taught me to ask a question, measure it and change one thing at a time.

The new activity is personal. In August I began tutoring two adults at my public library who are preparing for the high school equivalency exam, one hour each Tuesday. One of them is a home health aide who wants to become a licensed vocational nurse. She is quicker than I am at reading a medication list and slower than she wants to be at fractions. Working with her has made me a more patient teacher and more aware of how much effort people put into goals that others never see.

These updates point in the same direction as the rest of my application. I want to work in settings where the care itself is good and the system around it is reliable, and I want to be the kind of physician who notices when it is not. UCSF’s Clinical Microsystems Clerkship, which places students in clinical teams from the first year to learn how care is delivered and how to improve it, is the kind of training that would let me keep doing this work with more skill.

Analysis. The response does exactly what the question asks: it updates and expands on activities. The first sentence tells the reader the structure, so nothing is wasted. The clinic manager update shows a new level of responsibility with concrete tasks (staffing checks, vital signs, written plans in the patient’s language), which signals clinical knowledge without claiming more than a volunteer does. The quality improvement paragraph expands on something mentioned in the primary instead of repeating it, and gives real numbers, a method and an honest limit (“a short project cannot prove the change will last”). That kind of honesty is a good sign of the inquiry habits UCSF’s curriculum is built around. The tutoring paragraph adds a new activity and uses a single, specific detail to show respect for the person being tutored. The close links all three updates to one theme, reliable systems around good care, and names one verified feature of UCSF training, the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship, in a way that connects to the applicant’s experience instead of flattering the school.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Repeating your AMCAS descriptions with new wording.
• Listing every activity you have done since June with one line each.
• Inflating results. Small numbers stated honestly are more credible than big claims.
• Turning the answer into a “Why UCSF” essay. A brief link to the school is fine; the update is the point.
• Writing to the limit when you only have 200 words of new material.

Question 2: Since completing your undergraduate degree (conditional, 350 words)

“If you are 2025 or earlier college graduate, please use the space below to tell us what you have done since completing your undergraduate degree.”

Limit: 350 words. Who answers: applicants who completed their college degree in 2025 or earlier. (The wording above is reproduced exactly as posted, including the missing “a.” The prior cycle’s version said “2024 or earlier.”) If you graduate in 2026 or later, this question does not apply to you.

What it asks. UCSF wants to know how you have spent your time since graduation and what you have done to prepare for a career as a physician. UCSF’s Fall 2025 entering class had an average age of 23 at matriculation, so many applicants have spent at least a year out of college and the committee reads many of these answers. The best ones make the gap years look like a purposeful part of the path to medicine.

Approach. Begin by stating what you set out to do after graduation, such as learning more about a specific field, gaining more hands-on clinical experience or strengthening your academic record. Keep to the goals that relate to your reason for applying to medical school. Then give specific evidence for each one: the jobs you held, how many days and hours a week you worked, your daily duties, your role and what you accomplished. Structure it as a story of how you worked toward your goals, not a list. Finish by explaining what these years taught you and how you will carry it into medical school. If you are still planning your time off, pre-med gap year programs that add hands-on clinical work give you specific duties and hours to describe here, and the same is true if you are reapplying and need to show what changed.

If you had a gap for family, health or financial reasons, say so plainly in one sentence and focus on what you did and learned. You do not need to apologize for working.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (332 words)

I graduated in May 2024 with a degree in public health. My goal for the next two years was simple: to learn what clinical medicine looks like from the inside, every day, before committing to it.

Since June 2024, I have worked full time, 40 hours a week, as a clinical research coordinator for a heart failure study at a community hospital. I screen patients for eligibility, explain the study in English and Spanish, collect vital signs and questionnaires at follow-up visits and enter data. I have enrolled 38 participants. The most important thing I learned was how often patients wanted to say yes but could not, because visits conflicted with work or required two bus transfers. When I raised this with my principal investigator, we moved some follow-up visits to evenings and added phone check-ins where the protocol allowed. Retention at six months improved, and I learned that study design is also a question of access.

Since January 2025, I have also volunteered four hours every Sunday at a hospice. I sit with patients, read to them and help families find the right person to ask about a medication or a change they have noticed. I did not expect hospice to change how I think about research, but it did. A study measures readmissions and survival. A family measures whether their father was comfortable and whether anyone explained what was happening.

In fall 2024 I also retook organic chemistry lab at a community college and earned an A, to strengthen an area where my undergraduate grade was weaker.

These two years have made my decision to pursue medicine clearer and more grounded. I know that I like the slow work of following patients over time, that I am good at explaining hard information, and that I want to keep asking how care is organized around the people who need it. I will bring those habits into medical school and, I hope, into a career that combines patient care with clinical research.

Analysis. The opening sentence states the goal, so every paragraph that follows can be read as evidence for it. The research job paragraph includes the details the question invites: start date, 40 hours a week, specific duties, a number (38 participants) and an accomplishment that came from noticing a problem and raising it. The hospice paragraph adds a different kind of clinical exposure, with hours, and draws a short insight from the contrast between how studies and families measure outcomes. The single sentence about retaking organic chemistry lab addresses an academic weakness directly without dwelling on it. The conclusion explains what the years taught the applicant and how that will carry into medical school, which is the second half of what the question is really asking. The response stays under 350 words by giving each activity one focused paragraph.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Writing a list of jobs with dates and no reflection.
• Leaving out the basic facts the committee needs: role, hours, duration and results.
• Using the space to repeat your personal statement’s motivation story.
• Being vague about a gap. A short, honest explanation is better than silence.
• Forgetting the forward-looking close. The committee wants to know how these years prepared you.

Question 3: UCSF PRIDE values (500 words)

“UCSF PRIDE values serve as a guiding light for institutional life and activities. Briefly describe how you will contribute to and support our PRIDE values consistent with your goals or life experience. Learn more about UCSF PRIDE values at Mission and Values.”

Limit: 500 words. Who answers: all invited MD applicants. Treat this question as required.

What it asks. UCSF’s PRIDE values are Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Excellence. The official definitions are specific:

• Professionalism: to be competent, accountable, reliable and responsible, interacting positively and collaboratively with colleagues, students, patients, visitors and business partners.
• Respect: to treat all others as you wish to be treated, being courteous, kind and acting with consideration for others.
• Integrity: to be honest, trustworthy and ethical, doing the right thing without compromising the truth, and being fair and sincere.
• Diversity: to appreciate and celebrate differences in others, creating an environment of equity and inclusion with opportunities for everyone to reach their potential.
• Excellence: to be dedicated, motivated, innovative and confident, giving your best every day and encouraging and supporting others to excel.

The question has three parts: how you will contribute to these values, how you will support them, and how that is consistent with your goals or life experience. It is forward-looking (“will”), but it asks you to ground that future in your past.

Approach. You do not have to give every value equal space. A strong approach is to lead with one or two values tied to a specific story, then address the rest briefly and honestly. Use UCSF’s own definitions rather than your own general ideas of the words. For each value, show a moment from your life, what you did, and how you will carry it into UCSF.

This is also where your “Why UCSF” thinking belongs. Before you write, research UCSF and its training sites to learn which opportunities relate to your past activities, and then show how your experience will let you contribute there. Name only real, verified features (such as Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship, PRIME-US or the Inquiry Curriculum), and only when they connect to your story. End by reminding the committee how you will carry these values into medical school and practice.

Illustrative example, not an actual applicant essay (460 words)

I learned what integrity means in medicine from a moment that could have gone wrong.

During my second year as a volunteer Spanish-English interpreter at a county hospital, a resident in a hurry asked me to “just tell her it’s a routine test” when a patient asked why she needed a biopsy. I was nervous and twenty years old. I asked him, quietly, if he would explain it to her himself, and I interpreted every word. He did. The patient cried, then asked three good questions. Afterward, the resident thanked me. UCSF defines integrity as being honest, trustworthy and ethical without compromising the truth. That night made the definition concrete for me: the truth belongs to the patient, and my job was to protect her access to it.

The same experience shaped how I think about respect, which UCSF describes as treating others as you wish to be treated, with courtesy and consideration. In interpreting, respect is practical. It means sitting at eye level, letting a patient finish a sentence before I start, and not softening a family member’s words because they are uncomfortable. I have carried that into my current job as a research assistant, where I explain consent forms in plain language and check understanding by asking participants to tell me back what they heard.

Diversity, in UCSF’s words, means appreciating differences and creating an environment where everyone can reach their potential. I grew up translating for my grandmother at her own appointments. I know what it feels like to be the person in the room who is not understood, and I know how much a patient can contribute when the room adjusts. At UCSF, I hope to contribute by helping classmates who are learning medical Spanish and by continuing the kind of training I helped lead last year, a workshop for 12 new volunteer interpreters.

Professionalism and excellence are the values I am still building. Professionalism has meant learning to be reliable in small ways: arriving early, finishing documentation the same day and admitting when I do not know something. Excellence has meant accepting feedback. When my supervisor told me my consent conversations were accurate but rushed, I started timing them and practicing with a colleague. They got slower and better.

My goal is to practice internal medicine in a public hospital that serves patients who speak many languages. UCSF’s long partnership with Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and the Bridges Curriculum’s placement of students in clinical teams from the first year, would let me practice these values early in exactly that kind of setting. I would bring the habits I have relied on so far: telling the truth, slowing down for the patient in front of me and asking for feedback until I get it right.

Analysis. The response opens with a specific moment instead of a definition, which earns the reader’s attention. The interpreter story addresses integrity under real pressure and shows the applicant acting with tact rather than confrontation. That matters, because UCSF’s definition of professionalism includes working “positively and collaboratively” with colleagues. Each value is tied to UCSF’s own definition, so the reader can see the applicant read the source. Respect is described through concrete behaviors (eye level, letting patients finish, not softening words). Diversity is grounded in life experience and paired with a specific, believable contribution: helping classmates with medical Spanish and continuing interpreter training. The applicant is honest that professionalism and excellence are “still building,” and supports that with an example of accepting feedback, which reads as more mature than claiming perfection. The final paragraph answers the “consistent with your goals” part of the question by naming a career goal and two verified UCSF features that fit it. It ends by restating what the applicant will bring.

Mistakes to avoid.

• Defining the five values in your own words and never showing them in action.
• Writing five equal mini-paragraphs with no story.
• Ignoring the “will contribute and support” part. The committee wants to see what you would do at UCSF.
• Naming UCSF programs, people or sites you have not checked, or that have nothing to do with your experience.
• Writing about diversity only as a demographic label. UCSF’s definition is about appreciating differences and building an environment where everyone can reach their potential.

Program-specific essays: MSTP, PRIME-US, SJV PRIME and JMP

UCSF does not publish the essay questions for its special programs. They appear in your secondary portal once you select a program. Here is what each program asks for and how to prepare.

• MSTP (MD/PhD). You will be asked to submit “a brief supplemental essay describing your recent research experience, your interests, and your future career goals,” and to list all research experiences and your role. Applicants who choose the Medical Anthropology track answer an additional essay. If you are applying to the MSTP, prepare a clear account of your most significant research project (the question, your role, the methods, the results and why it matters), a list of publications, presentations and honors, and your reasons for choosing UCSF’s MSTP specifically.
• PRIME-US. Separate PRIME-US essays are submitted with the secondary, and you may use the same essays if you apply to PRIME-US at both UCSF and the JMP. Prepare to describe your commitment to urban underserved communities with specific experiences, including leadership and team roles, and to explain how you would balance the extra seminars and community work with your academic responsibilities.
• SJV PRIME. Applicants select “MD/SJV PRIME” on the secondary, and additional information may be required. Be ready to explain your connection to the San Joaquin Valley and why you want to train in Merced and Fresno.
• JMP. Applicants select the JMP on the secondary. Answer any JMP questions that appear in your portal with the same care as the MD essays, with a focus on public health, research and small-group learning.

For every program question, write to the limit shown in your portal and answer each part of the question with specific experiences. Watch your secondary portal carefully, because program questions may only appear after you select the program.

Other secondary items

The secondary may also include short form items, such as interview availability (with a 300-character limit in 2025-2026), a disclosure acknowledgment about criminal and institutional actions, and a list of all states of residence in the past ten years. If they appear, answer them factually and briefly. For example, for an availability field: “Available for virtual interviews on any weekday from October 2026 through January 2027 except December 21 to January 4, when I will be traveling but still able to join by Zoom.” For a residence field, list each state with the years you held an official address there, most recent first.

Interview Format and Preparation

If the admissions committee decides your application shows strong potential as a future UCSF-trained physician, you will be invited to interview. In Fall 2025, UCSF interviewed 584 applicants, so reaching this stage already puts you in a small group.

How UCSF interviews in 2026-2027

Here is how the interview works this cycle:

• All interviews are virtual. For the 2026-2027 cycle, UCSF conducts every interview by Zoom and does not host applicants on campus.
• Timing. Interviews run from late September to early February. Invitations can go out as early as September 1, 2026.
• Logistics. Your invitation email explains how to schedule. Interviews take place between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Pacific time. You receive the Zoom details the business day before and your schedule for the day by 8:30 a.m. Pacific on interview day.
• Format. Whenever possible, you will have two interviews. Your interviewers will be either two faculty members or one faculty member and one medical student. This is a traditional one-on-one format, not a multiple mini interview (MMI).
• Length. The average interview lasts 40 minutes but varies by interviewer and applicant, so leave some extra time in your schedule.
• Blind interviews. Interviews are conducted without prior review of your application. Your interviewers do not have information about your grades, scores or activities.

MSTP applicants interview on paired School of Medicine and MSTP days for 2026-27: October 26-27, November 16-17 and December 7-8, 2026, and January 12-13 and January 25-26, 2027. MSTP applicants interview with MSTP Council faculty and graduate faculty, and Medical Anthropology applicants interview only on the January 25-26 dates (see the MSTP interviews page).

What the blind format means for you

Because your interviewers have not read your file, the interview is a fresh start. A weaker grade will not come up unless you raise it. It also means you carry the whole story. The interviewer will not know about your research, your clinical work or why you chose medicine unless you tell them clearly.

Use the interview to highlight the points of your journey that got you to where you are now. Whatever you do, do not memorize your application word for word. Recited answers come across as practiced rather than real. Instead, know your three or four most important experiences well enough to tell them in two minutes each, with a clear point and what you learned.

How to prepare (general guidance)

The points below are practical advice, not UCSF’s published scoring criteria.

1. Prepare your core stories. Most traditional interviews include versions of “Tell me about yourself,” “Why medicine?” and “Why UCSF?” Prepare honest answers that connect to the mission, the curriculum and the training sites you have read about. Our list of common medical school interview questions is a useful practice set.
2. Know UCSF specifics. Be ready to talk about the Bridges Curriculum, the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship, the Inquiry Curriculum and any track you applied to. If you mention a program, be sure you know what it involves.
3. Expect a student interviewer. A medical student interviewer may ask about how you handle stress, work in teams or would contribute to the class. Treat it with the same care as a faculty interview.
4. Prepare questions. Good questions show you have thought about the realities: how students handle travel between sites, how mentoring works in the Inquiry Curriculum, or what student support looks like in Foundations 2.
5. Set up your space. Test your camera, microphone and internet the day before. Use a quiet room with a neutral background and good light, and have a backup plan (a phone hotspot, for example) if your connection drops.
6. Practice with feedback. Do at least two mock interviews by video, with someone who will give you honest feedback. IMA’s admissions consulting team can help you practice for a traditional one-on-one format.

After the interview

You may submit up to two updates as an interviewee: one at the time of your interview and one later. Use them for real news, such as a publication, a new role or a completed degree. Decisions arrive by email, starting in February.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the UCSF School of Medicine acceptance rate?

UCSF does not publish an acceptance rate, because it does not publish the number of offers it makes. What it does publish is the Fall 2025 funnel: 10,300 applications, 584 interviewed (5.7% of applicants) and 161 matriculated (1.6%). The 1.6% figure is a matriculation ratio. Some admitted applicants enroll elsewhere, so the true acceptance rate is higher than 1.6%, but by how much is unknown. UCSF is one of the most selective medical schools in the country. Plan to apply to a broad list of schools alongside it.

What GPA and MCAT do I need to get into UCSF?

There is no minimum GPA or MCAT score. For the 2025 entering class, accepted applicants had a median MCAT of 517 (mean 516.7) and a median overall GPA of 3.93 (science GPA median 3.91). These are medians, not cutoffs, so half of accepted applicants were below them. Applicants with numbers under these levels can still be admitted if the rest of the application is strong, but the odds are lower. Remember that UCSF uses your most recent MCAT score if you have taken it more than once, so retake only when you are confident of improving.

Does UCSF accept out-of-state applicants?

Yes. UCSF accepts out-of-state applicants, with no special requirements for non-residents. But the class is mostly Californian. In the 2025 entering class, 342 of 4,761 in-state applicants were interviewed (about 7%), compared with 242 of 5,482 out-of-state applicants (about 4%). Californians made up 71% of the Fall 2025 entering class. Out-of-state students also pay $12,245 more per year in nonresident supplemental tuition in 2026-27. If you live outside California, apply if your record and experiences fit the mission, but treat UCSF as a reach.

Can international students apply to UCSF School of Medicine?

No. UCSF considers applications only from U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents and applicants with DACA. Canadian and other international applicants are not accepted. The MSTP is funded by NIH training funds that are limited to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, so it also cannot admit international students. International applicants who want to train in California should look at schools that state they accept international applicants, and confirm the policy directly with each school.

Can DACA recipients apply to UCSF?

Yes. UCSF lists applicants with DACA as eligible for the MD program, alongside U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and the $85 secondary fee applies to DACA applicants in the same way. Financial aid is the area to check carefully. Financial aid is only available to U.S. citizens or permanent residents, so DACA applicants should contact UCSF Student Financial Aid early to ask which California-based aid options apply. The MSTP can admit only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents because of its NIH funding.

When is the UCSF secondary deadline, and how much does it cost?

The MD secondary deadline is December 1, 2026. The secondary fee is $85, and it is waived for applicants approved for the AMCAS Fee Assistance Program. The secondary is by invitation only. UCSF screens every verified AMCAS application and usually sends invitations about 3-10 weeks after receiving it. Your file is not reviewed until the secondary is in, so submit within about two weeks of receiving it rather than waiting for the deadline. MSTP applicants have an earlier MSTP secondary deadline of November 15, 2026.

How many secondary essays does UCSF have?

For 2026-2027, the MD secondary has three essays: an optional activities update (500 words), a question about what you have done since graduation for 2025 or earlier graduates (350 words), and a question about how you will contribute to and support UCSF’s PRIDE values (500 words). Most applicants who are still in college answer two, and graduates answer three. UCSF does not publish the essays for the MSTP, PRIME-US, SJV PRIME and the JMP. If you select one of those programs, watch your portal for additional questions and follow the limits shown there.

What is the UCSF interview format?

For 2026-2027, all UCSF interviews are virtual by Zoom. Whenever possible, you have two one-on-one interviews, with two faculty members or one faculty member and one medical student. Interviews average 40 minutes, though length varies by interviewer and applicant. Interviews are blind: your interviewers have not reviewed your application. UCSF does not use the multiple mini interview format. Interviews take place between late September and early February, during Pacific business hours.

How much does UCSF medical school cost?

For 2026-27, UCSF’s tuition and fees are $55,959 a year for California residents and $68,204 for nonresidents, and these totals include $11,914 for student health insurance. The estimated first-year cost of attendance, which adds living costs, books and commuting, is $89,634 for residents and $101,879 for nonresidents. Costs rise in the third and fourth years because of summer fees and 12-month living budgets. Added together at 2026-27 rates, four years come to about $380,000 for a resident. About 85% of students receive some financial aid, and scholarships are mainly need-based.

What is the difference between the UCSF MD and the Joint Medical Program?

Both lead to a UCSF MD. Standard MD students complete all four years of the Bridges Curriculum through UCSF. The UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program is a five-year MS/MD: students spend their first two and a half years at UC Berkeley in a problem-based learning curriculum while earning a master’s in Health and Medical Sciences, then finish their final two and a half years of clinical training at UCSF. Each JMP class has 16 students. It suits applicants who want a strong public health and research foundation and small-group learning. You choose the JMP on the UCSF secondary.

What is SJV PRIME, and where will students train?

SJV PRIME is UCSF’s track for students committed to caring for communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Beginning in Fall 2027, SJV PRIME students will complete their entire medical education at UCSF’s regional campuses at UC Merced and UCSF Fresno, not in San Francisco. The cohort includes students from the eight-year SJV PRIME+ BS/MD program, which admits high school graduates through UC Merced, plus up to five students a year admitted through regular UCSF admissions. AMCAS applicants who want SJV PRIME select “MD/SJV PRIME” on the secondary, which lets both MD and SJV PRIME admissions review the file.

Does UCSF require shadowing, Casper or PREview?

Shadowing is recommended but not required. The school expects clinical experience that shows your interest in and knowledge of medicine, so direct patient contact matters more than hours spent watching. Clinical jobs, free clinic volunteering and internships for pre-med students that involve taking vitals and doing intake all build that kind of experience. UCSF does not use PREview and requires no additional assessments, so Casper and the Duet are not required. Check your secondary instructions in case anything changes during the cycle.

Can I send UCSF a letter of intent or update?

Updates, yes, but only after an interview invitation. Interviewed applicants may submit up to two updates: one at the time of the interview and one any time afterward. Letters of interest or intent are not necessary and are not included in applicant files. If you have news before you are interviewed, use the optional activities question on the secondary.

Is UCSF pass/fail, and does it rank students?

Yes, UCSF uses pass/fail grading and does not rank students. That is meant to support collaborative learning in the Bridges Curriculum. Pass/fail does not mean low expectations. Students still complete assessments, clinical evaluations, a required scholarly project through the Inquiry Curriculum and the national licensing exams, and residency programs look closely at clinical performance and research.

Related Medical School Guides

If UCSF is on your list, these guides cover other California schools worth comparing. They are grouped by geography and program type, not by selectivity.

• Stanford School of Medicine: the other major Bay Area medical school, and a private research university, so it is a natural comparison for applicants who want to train in Northern California.
• UC Davis School of Medicine: another University of California public medical school in Northern California, useful for California residents comparing UC options and costs.
• UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine: a UC public school in Los Angeles, often on the same lists as UCSF for applicants who want a large research-focused UC.
• UC San Diego School of Medicine: a UC public school in Southern California, a good comparison for California residents weighing curriculum and location across the UC system.
• USC Keck School of Medicine: a private medical school in Los Angeles, useful for comparing a private California option against UCSF’s public tuition.
• Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine: a newer California MD school built around an integrated health system, a different model of training worth comparing with UCSF’s university-based system.

When you compare these schools, look past the headline numbers. Check each school’s residency mix, its required secondary essays, its interview format and its cost of attendance for the same academic year, because those details change how realistic and affordable each option is for you. For a full list of California programs with side-by-side details, see our guide to medical schools in California.

How International Medical Aid Can Help

Top medical schools such as UCSF look for applicants who show a strong, sustained commitment to medicine and who understand patient care from the inside. International Medical Aid (IMA) helps pre-health students build that kind of experience and present it clearly.

Clinical internships. In IMA’s pre-med internships abroad, pre-medical students work in clinics and hospitals in Kenya and at other IMA sites. Interns take vital signs, do patient intake and triage, and help with direct patient care under the supervision of local clinicians. The experience gives you hands-on clinical skills and specific stories about patient care, teamwork and health systems with limited resources, the kind of material UCSF’s PRIDE values question and interviews ask about. You can compare all of IMA’s international healthcare internships by field and location.

Admissions consulting. IMA’s expert consulting service helps with school lists, personal statements, secondary essays and interview practice. Whether you want a better understanding of the UCSF acceptance rate and medical school requirements, or help with your UCSF secondary application, our team can work through it with you.

If you are not sure which is the better next step, start with your timeline. Applicants who still need meaningful patient contact before applying usually benefit most from clinical experience first, while applicants who are already applying this cycle usually benefit most from help with secondaries and interviews.

IMA is not affiliated with UCSF, and no internship or consulting service can guarantee admission to any medical school. What we can do is help you gain real clinical experience and tell your story well. When you are ready to start, contact a member of our team.

Final Thoughts and Sources

Getting into UCSF School of Medicine takes excellent academics, but the deciding factors are usually the experiences behind the numbers and how clearly you explain them. Confirm that you are eligible, submit AMCAS well before October 15, 2026, line up three to five strong letters, and draft your PRIDE values essay early so your secondary goes back within about two weeks. Choose special tracks only if your record supports them, and prepare for two blind, virtual interviews where you will tell your story from the beginning. Treat UCSF as one strong option on a balanced list of schools, and use the related guides above to build the rest of it.

Source notes

All facts were checked on October 17, 2026. Cohort and year labels are given with each figure in the article.

• AAMC Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR), UCSF School of Medicine profile: applicant and matriculant data for the 2025 entering class (as of October 29, 2025), MCAT and GPA of accepted applicants, important dates for the 2026 AMCAS cycle, TSF 2025-2026 cost data and LCME Part I-B debt data for AY 2024-2025. MSAR is a subscription database.
• UCSF School of Medicine, MD Program Application Process: eligibility, prerequisites, MCAT window, deadlines, secondary materials, letters, interviews, decisions and deferral for 2026-2027.
• UCSF School of Medicine, MD Program Admissions FAQ: shadowing, prerequisites, letters of interest, tours and financial aid share.
• UCSF School of Medicine, Admissions Data (Fall 2025) and Current Student Enrollment (updated Fall 2024).
• UCSF School of Medicine, Degrees and Programs, Bridges Curriculum, Our Mission and LCME Accreditation pages.
• UCSF School of Medicine, SJV PRIME, PRIME-US, PRIME-US admissions FAQ and PRIME-US curriculum pages.
• UCSF School of Medicine, clinical learning sites, 2026 residency match outcomes, education deans directory and welcome from the Associate Dean for Admissions.
• UCSF School of Medicine, leadership page, and UCSF faculty profiles for David Julius, Stanley Prusiner, Erick Hung, Karen Hauer and Susan Buchbinder.
• UCSF News, 2026 alumni awards and 2025 alumni awards; Stanford profile for Stephanie Chao.
• UCSF Registrar, 2026-27 School of Medicine student fees (updated July 21, 2026), and UCSF Student Financial Aid, 2026-27 estimated cost of attendance.
• UCSF Medical Scientist Training Program: application page (Fall 2027 cycle), statistics for the class entering in 2026, FAQ and interviews page.
• UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program website.
• UCSF, Mission and Values (PRIDE values definitions).
• Secondary question wording for 2026-2027: Student Doctor Network, 2026-2027 UCSF School of Medicine thread (applicant post, July 16, 2026), and Med School Insiders UCSF secondary listing, 2026-2027 section. UCSF does not publish its secondary questions publicly.
• AAMC, 2020 MCAT total and section score percentile ranks (cited for historical context), and AAMC resources on MD/PhD careers and core competencies.
• NCBI Bookshelf, reference NBK221227 on health care and society (cited in the Tips section).