New York Medical College cancels tuition after $1 billion donation

All current fourth-year students will be reimbursed for spring 2024 semester fees.

New York:

A New York medical school will eliminate tuition after receiving a “transformative gift” worth $1 billion from a wealthy donor, the organization that parent the Albert Einstein College of Medicine said in a statement.

The charitable donation, one of the largest publicly received by a U.S. educational institution, will reduce nearly $60,000 in undiscounted annual tuition to zero.

The school and its affiliated hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, are located in the Bronx, New York City’s poorest borough, which has among the worst health outcomes in the state, according to official statistics.

Clips of campus announcements posted on social media showed students in the auditorium reacting enthusiastically, cheering, screaming and clapping.

We are grateful to Dr. Ruth Gottesman, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics @EinsteinMed,for #montefioreeinstein— the largest medical school in the country — ensuring students no longer have to pay tuition. https://t.co/XOy9HZLbfD pic.twitter.com/1ijv02jHFk

— Montefiore Health System (@MontefioreNYC) February 26, 2024

“The Albert Einstein College of Medicine has received a transformative gift from Ruth L. Gottesman, Ed.D., chair of the Einstein Board of Trustees and a member of the Montefiore Health System Board of Trustees,” the organization said Monday said in a statement in the evening.

“This historic gift—the largest gift ever given to a medical school in the nation—will ensure that Einstein students will no longer have to pay tuition.”

All current fourth-year students will receive tuition reimbursement for the spring 2024 semester, and all future students will receive free tuition starting in August, the statement added.

Gottesman, 93, is a former clinical professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the wife of former Wall Street financier David Gottesman. They were significant benefactors to the school during his lifetime.

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