New York medical school to be tuition free after $1 billion donation

Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City announced on Monday that tuition will be free starting in August. Fourth-year students will be reimbursed for any payments made to the school for the 2024 spring semester. Before the donation, tuition and fees were almost $70,000. The decision was made possible by a $1 billion donation made to the school from Clinical Professor Emerita of Pediatrics Dr. Ruth Gottesman. According to a report by the New York Times, Gottesman’s late husband, who ran the investment firm First Manhattan, left her a significant stock portfolio at Berkshire Hathaway upon his death, with the instructions to do what she thought was right. Gottesman, who is the chair of the school’s board of trustees, made the donation to enable medical students to start their careers debt-free.

Are any other medical schools free? New York University’s Manhattan and Long Island medical schools are both tuition-free. The Long Island campus has been tuition-free since last year after the school received a $200 million donation.

Dig deeper: Listen to David Bahnsen on The World and Everything in It podcast discussing Biden’s plan to cancel student debt.