Colleges and universities

The Mission Bay campus of UCSF

The University of California, San Francisco is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system, and is San Francisco's second-largest employer. It is solely dedicated to graduate education in health and biomedical sciences and is ranked among the top-five medical schools in the U.S.
It also operates the UCSF Medical Center, ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the U.S.

A 43 acre Mission Bay campus, complementing its original facility in Parnassus Heights, opened in 2003. It contains research space and facilities to foster biotechnology and life sciences entrepreneurship and will double the size of UCSF's research enterprise. The University of California, Hastings College of the Law, founded in Civic Center in 1878, is the oldest law school in California and claims more judges on the state bench than any other institution.

San Francisco State University is part of the California State University system and is located near Lake Merced. The school has close to 30,000 students and awards undergraduate and master's degrees in more than 100 disciplines.

The City College of San Francisco, with its main facility in the Ingleside district, is one of the largest two-year community colleges in the country. It has an enrollment of about 100,000 students, and offers an extensive continuing education program.

Founded in 1855, the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco, located on Lone Mountain, focuses on the liberal arts, and is one of the oldest universities established west of the Mississippi. Higher education in the arts is provided by the San Francisco Art Institute, the Academy of Art University, and an extension of the Oakland-based California College of the Arts.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the only school of its kind on the west coast, grants degrees in orchestral instruments, chamber music, composition, and conducting. The California Culinary Academy, associated with the Le Cordon Bleu program, offers programs in the culinary arts, baking & pastry arts, and hospitality & restaurant management.

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools are run by the San Francisco Unified School District as well as the State Board of Education for some charter schools.
Lowell High School, the oldest public high school in the U.S. west of the Mississippi, and the smaller School of the Arts High School are San Francisco's two magnet schools at the secondary level.

Just under 30 percent of the city's school-age population attends one of San Francisco's more than 100 private or parochial schools, compared to a 10 percent rate nationwide.

Nearly 40 of those schools are Catholic schools managed by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Among the most prominent private high schools in San Francisco are Convent of the Sacred Heart High School, San Francisco University High School, The Urban School, Lick-Wilmerding High School, St. Ignatius College Preparatory and Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory.