New York University (NYU)’s School of Medicine has announced that it will now cover the cost of tuition for all past and present students, regardless of merit or financial need. This includes international students, and makes NYU the only top-ranked US medical school to offer full tuition scholarships to all students.
The university cited concerns on the ‘overwhelming financial debt’ facing graduates, which could lead aspiring doctors to choose more lucrative specialties, rather than general roles, or even put them off studying medicine altogether.
NYU’s initiative is effective immediately, affecting 443 current students, and will cover tuition fees of US$55,000 per year. However, students will still need to self-fund for their room, board and other fees and expenses, which come to around $27,000 per year.
The scheme was made possible thanks to the donations of more than 2,500 supporters, including a $100 million gift from Kenneth G. Langone and his wife Elaine, after whom the school is named.
Robert I. Grossman, dean of the medical school and CEO of NYU Langone Medical Center, said: “This decision recognizes a moral imperative that must be addressed, as institutions place an increasing debt burden on young people who aspire to become physicians”.
Tackling the issue of affordability
Medicine is well known as one of the most expensive courses to study, with the annual cost of attending a public medical school in the US currently standing at $60,945, including living costs. Private medical schools are even more costly, at $82,278 per year.
And in 2017 the Association of American Medical Colleges found that the median debt for graduating medical students was a whopping $192,000. At NYU, 62 percent of the Class of 2017 left with some debt, with the average figure slightly lower than the national average, at $184,000.
Most of the 20,000 students enrolled in US medical students take out large federal loans to support their studies, and only a few institutions have launched initiatives to offer free tuition to medical students.
One such example is UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, where up to 20 percent of students per year are granted a full scholarship which covers the entire cost of medical school for four years, including tuition and living expenses. However, this scholarship is only granted based on merit.
