Joel Ramirez MDAssociate Director of Advising

Dr. Ramirez was born and raised in East Los Angeles County, California. He graduated with honors from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2013. During his time at the University of California, Irvine he participated in peer-tutoring, mentorship programs, and he served as a teaching assistant for numerous pre-medical and biology courses. He received multiple awards for excellence in tutoring and research. After graduating, he spent a year working aboard an ambulance as an emergency medical technician in Los Angeles County prior to matriculating to the top-ranked University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

In medical school, he continued to teach, mentor, and advise undergraduate and medical students. He spent a year between his third and fourth year of medical school as a National Institutes of Health TL1 Clinical and Translational Research Fellow. During this time, he became intimately involved with USMLE education, tutoring, and preparation. He received a 266 on Step 1 (99th percentile), 265 on Step 2 CK (95th percentile), 255 on Step 3 (98th percentile) and he scored in the 90th percentiles on all of his shelf exams. He also received honors in nearly all of his clinical rotations.

Collectively, he has been teaching a wide range of subjects for more than ten years and has experience tutoring for several board exams, including all of the USMLE exams. He is a passionate educator and strongly believes that with hard work, good direction, and resilience, every medical student has the opportunity to succeed and pursue their dreams. In his role as the Director of Medical School Tutoring, he strives to ensure that all of the tutors at MedSchoolCoach have the training, tools, support, and resources that they need to provide their students with an exceptional experience.

In addition to his passions for education, he has been intimately involved in medical school admissions. He has served on the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine admissions committee and has extensive experience reviewing applications, interviewing applicants, and providing recommendations for admission. In this role, he enjoyed learning how to review applications holistically and how to view each applicant as a unique individual, each with their own experiences, skills, and passions.

He is currently an integrated vascular surgery resident at the University of California, San Francisco where he continues to be intimately involved in medical and surgical education. He is interested in academic vascular surgery and is committed to continue being a leader in medical education. In his free time, he enjoys running, swimming, weightlifting, and exploring San Francisco with his friends and family.