By Laura Kurtzman and Nicholas Roznovsky
For the second year in a row, UC San Francisco has been recognized in the top five nationally among psychiatry programs in the U.S. News & World Report survey of best graduate and professional schools. Placed fifth overall, UCSF is also the top public university for graduate and professional psychiatry programs in the nation.
U.S. News' 2020 rankings for medical specialty areas are based on ratings made by medical school deans and senior faculty at peer institutions who are asked to identify up to 15 schools offering the best programs in each specialty. This is only the second consecutive year that U.S. News has included psychiatry as a specialty ranking for medical schools.
As a whole, UCSF’s School of Medicine placed in the top five nationally for the 10th consecutive year. UCSF was the only medical school to be ranked in the top five in the nation in both research and primary care, the categories the magazine uses to assess medical education, ranking fifth in biomedical research and third in primary care education.
In addition to psychiatry, UCSF was also the only medical school ranked in the top five in all of the specialty areas covered in this year's survey: anesthesiology, family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, radiology, and surgery.
The UCSF School of Nursing's program in psychiatric/mental health across the lifespan was also ranked fourth nationally in its category this year.
“At UCSF, the purpose of medical education is to empower learners to advance science and seek new ways to improve health care delivery in their communities and nationwide,” said Talmadge E. King Jr., MD, dean of the School of Medicine. “We are proud that for the 10th year in a row, we are the only medical school in the nation in the top ranks of both biomedical research and primary care education. This unique distinction reflects our success in creating an environment where students can individualize clinical and scientific learning to support their career path, whether as pioneering physician-scientists or as champions for the most vulnerable populations.”
The rankings are published in the magazine’s 2020 issue of “Best Graduate Schools.”
About UCSF Psychiatry
The UCSF Department of Psychiatry, UCSF Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital, and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a mission focused on research (basic, translational, clinical), teaching, patient care, and public service.
UCSF Psychiatry conducts its clinical, educational and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including UCSF campuses at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay and Laurel Heights, UCSF Medical Center, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, the San Francisco VA Health Care System, and UCSF Fresno.
About the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, established by the extraordinary generosity of Joan and Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, brings together world-class researchers with top-ranked physicians to solve some of the most complex challenges in the human brain.
The UCSF Weill Institute leverages UCSF’s unrivaled bench-to-bedside excellence in the neurosciences. It unites three UCSF departments—Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurological Surgery—that are highly esteemed for both patient care and research, as well as the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a cross-disciplinary alliance of nearly 100 UCSF faculty members from 15 basic-science departments, as well as the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center focused on finding effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.
About UCSF
UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise.
It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises three top-ranked hospitals – UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland – as well as Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital, UCSF Benioff Children’s Physicians, and the UCSF Faculty Practice. UCSF Health has affiliations with hospitals and health organizations throughout the Bay Area. UCSF faculty also provide all physician care at the public Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, and the San Francisco VA Medical Center. The UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program is a major branch of the University of California, San Francisco’s School of Medicine.
