Future medical students will now have another option to potentially earn their degrees debt-free.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine on Monday announced it received a historic billion-dollar donation to make tuition free. The donation "will ensure that no student at Einstein will have to pay tuition again," the medical school, which is located in New York City's Bronx borough, said in a press release.
While becoming a doctor has historically been a lucrative career path, many students come out of med school under a mountain of student debt.
Nearly 3 in 4 med school graduates have education-related debt when they graduate, according to Bankrate. Public med school graduates leave with an average of $194,558 in debt, while those who attend private schools graduate with an average of $222,899 in loans.
Though these students eventually may earn salaries big enough to manage that debt responsibly, the huge financial undertaking can deter a lot of would-be applicants.
"This donation radically revolutionizes our ability to continue attracting students who are committed to our mission, not just those who can afford it," Dr. Yaron Tomer, dean at Albert Einstein, said in the press release. "Additionally, it will free up and lift our students, enabling them to pursue projects and ideas that might otherwise be prohibitive."
Students currently enrolled in the college will be refunded for any payments made for the spring 2024 semester and tuition will officially be free as of August of this year.
3 other medical schools that waive tuition
The donation to Albert Einstein College is the largest made to any medical school in the U.S., the school says. But it's not the first medical school to offer free tuition. Here are three others that do the same.
1. New York University Grossman School of Medicine
NYU's Grossman School of Medicine in Manhattan launched a tuition-free scholarship program for all of its students in 2018. All admitted students automatically received a scholarship to cover the entire cost of tuition at the medical school, according to its website.
A $200 million donation in 2023 from Kenneth G. Langone and his wife allowed NYU's Grossman Long Island School of Medicine to go tuition-free in perpetuity as well.
The Long Island campus opened in 2019 and specializes in preparing students to become primary care physicians, whereas the Manhattan campus allows students to explore a broader range of medical careers.
2. Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University
CCLC in Ohio has offered tuition-free med school since 2008.
The school enrolls just 32 students a year and offers the full tuition scholarship to all students "to ensure that financial constraints do not preclude appropriate candidates from following their dream of becoming physician investigators," according to its website.
3. Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
The medical school operated by California-based health-care system Kaiser Permanente matriculated its first class of students in 2020.
It announced at the time it would waive tuition for its first five classes of students, meaning med students enrolling in fall 2024 will also receive a tuition-free education.
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