This is a very big deal. NYU Medical School, one of the best in the nation, is going to waive tuition for all of its students. From the NPR story:
In a move it said was to address the large cost of entering a career in medicine, New York University’s School of Medicine said Thursday that it will offer full scholarships to all current and future students in its doctor of medicine program.
NYU said it was the “only top 10-ranked” medical school in the U.S. to offer such a generous package.
“I’m proud to announce that as of right now, every student that we admit to New York University School of Medicine comes tuition-free,” Kenneth G. Langone, chair of the board of trustees, said in a video announcement Thursday. “And this includes the incoming class and the upperclassmen as well that are here right now — no more tuition.”
“They walk out of here unencumbered, looking at a future where they can do what their passion tells them, which is to help people live better quality lives,” he added.
By email, I asked NYU bioethicist Art Caplan for a comment. He told me that the entire cost will come from private philanthropy. “Our dean made it a priority for fundraising. The motivation was to minimize debt for graduates to encourage them to pursue areas of medicine that don’t pay as well as others.” (This is especially important to increase the number of primary-care physicians.)
More Caplan:
Also to open the door to poorer and middle class students who would not think about the huge expense of NYU even though it is #3 in the nation. NYU doing this will encourage others to follow, maybe even undergraduate schools.
And to think, this accomplishment was made possible by voluntary giving, without taxation or Elizabeth Warren–style regulatory authoritarianism.
Good for NYU. Let’s hope that other schools find equally imaginative and freely decided upon methods — say, by digging into fat endowments? — to ease the exorbitant costs of higher education for their students.