Johns Hopkins med school will be free for most after $1 billion donation
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
View of Johns Hopkins University. Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images
Starting this fall, most students at Johns Hopkins' medical school will attend tuition-free thanks to a $1 billion donation from billionaire Mike Bloomberg.
Driving the news: The generous gift is intended to address "twin challenges of declining levels of health and education," Bloomberg said in a letter Monday.
The big picture: The donation will cover the full cost of tuition for medical students from families earning less than $300,000, Bloomberg Industries announced Monday.
- It will also cover living expenses and other fees for students from families earning up to $175,000.
- Currently, nearly two-thirds of medical students at the school qualify for financial aid. Johns Hopkins' medical students graduate with an average student loan debt of about $104,000.
- The donation will also increase financial aid at some of the university's other graduate schools, including the schools of nursing and public health.
What they're saying: "Extraordinary talent exists in every community across America ... removing financial barriers to individual opportunity fuels excellence, innovation, and discoveries that redound to the benefit of society," said Ron Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University, in a statement.
State of play: In his letter, Bloomberg drew attention to Americans' declining life expectancy in the context of the country's mounting shortage of doctors and nurses.
- The high costs of medical school bar many prospective students from enrolling, while driving graduates laden with debt towards more lucrative specialties rather than the ones most needed to serve communities, Bloomberg said.
- "As a result, the United States has too few primary care doctors and nurses, especially in low-income areas, making the decline in life expectancy especially difficult to reverse," he said.
Zoom out: Other medical schools have also moved towards being tuition-free in recent years.
- In 2018, New York University announced that it would fully cover tuition costs for its medical students regardless of financial standing.
- A $1 billion donation from Ruth Gottesman to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine earlier this year will make tuition at the medical school free for all students.
