WU Commits $100M To MD Scholarships

Story Written by Kristina Sauerwein Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has committed $100 million over the next decade to provide scholarships allowing as many as half of its future medical students to attend tuition-free and many other students to receive partial tuition support. The funding also will support current efforts to enhance and modernize the school’s medical education program.

The scholarship program began with the 2019-20 entering class.

The investment aims to reduce concerns about medical school debt, while attracting highly qualified students from diverse backgrounds.

“For most medical students, debt is a significant factor in selecting a school and a career path,” said Eva Aagaard, MD, senior associate dean for education and the Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Professor of Medical Education. “We want to help alleviate that financial burden and instead focus on training the best and brightest students to become talented and compassionate physicians and future leaders in academic medicine. There, they will teach and inspire future medical trainees to reimagine health through scientific discovery and innovation, and work to help improve the health of people everywhere.

“This is an investment in our students and in our institution, as well as in the health of St. Louis and the greater global community,” she added.

It has long been a priority of the School of Medicine to send its graduates into the field with as little debt as possible. The average debt of Washington University School of Medicine graduates over the past five years was $99,088, versus a national median of $166,239. And in four of the past five years, the School of Medicine has ranked second lowest nationally in average medical school debt. Further, each year the school’s tuition is frozen for the entering class, meaning the cost for each student is the same each year for all four years of medical school.

NYU Offers Full-Tuition Scholarships

NYU School of Medicine is offering full-tuition scholarships to all current and future students in its MD degree program regardless of need or merit—a bold effort to simultaneously address the rising costs of medical education and still attract the best and brightest students to careers in medicine.

“Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of our trustees, alumni, and friends, our hope—and expectation—is that by making medical school accessible to a broader range of applicants, we will be a catalyst for transforming medical education nationwide,” says Kenneth G. Langone, chair of the Board of Trustees of NYU Langone Health. The yearly tuition costs covered by the scholarship are $55,018.

“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,” says Robert I. Grossman, MD, the Saul J. Farber Dean of NYU School of Medicine and CEO of NYU Langone Health.

Overwhelming student debt is fundamentally reshaping the medical profession in ways that are adversely affecting healthcare. Saddled with staggering student loans, many medical school graduates choose higher-paying specialties, drawing talent away from less lucrative fields like primary care, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. Moreover, the financial barriers discourage many promising high school and college students from considering a career in medicine altogether due to fears about the costs associated with medical school.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, 75% of all doctors in the U.S. graduated with debt in 2017. Additionally, the median cost of medical education (tuition and fees) for private medical school is $59,605 and the median current debt of a graduating student is $202,000. What’s more, 21% of doctors graduating from a private school do so with more than $300,000 of educational debt.

ISMMS Starts New Scholarship Initiative

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) has launched its Enhanced Scholarship Initiative (ESI), a new program offering substantial debt relief for students with demonstrated financial need. The program enables qualifying medical students to graduate with a maximum total debt of $75,000. Currently enrolled students are also eligible for the ESI for their remaining years at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

An estimated 40% of students attending ISMMS are benefiting from the program, with aid covering the entire cost of attendance, including tuition, housing, meals and other living expenses such as travel and books. These students are eligible for a loan of no more than $18,750 per year, funded by a combination of institutional and federal loans. The remainder of the students’ unmet need will be covered by the new scholarship.

Nationwide, 76% of medical students in the class of 2018 graduated with student debt, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Among those graduates, the median debt was $200,000. Mount Sinai’s program will enable students who are eligible for school-based financial aid to graduate with significantly less than half of that burden.

Columbia U’s Medical School Scholarship

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons have announced a sweeping scholarship program in the coming academic year – several years ahead of schedule – that will replace student loans with scholarships for all students who qualify for financial aid.

Currently, about half of the student body in the medical school receives financial aid, including need-based scholarships and student loans, to pay tuition and living expenses. Under the new program, all student loans included in their financial aid packages will be replaced with scholarships. About 20% of the school’s students – those with the greatest financial need – will receive full-tuition scholarships.

The scholarship fund will be supported by an endowment that was established by Dr. P. Roy and Diana Vagelos, for whom the 250-year-old medical school was renamed last December.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the median cost of tuition and fees at private U.S. medical schools is nearly $60,000 per year. In 2016, nearly 73% of students at private medical schools graduated with debt, with the median level of debt at $190,000. At Columbia, like most medical schools, students who qualify for financial aid are typically required to borrow about $30,000 or more per year to help pay for their tuition. Under the new scholarship program, students will be able to forgo that borrowing.

WCM Eliminates Medical Education Debt

NEW YORK -- A new scholarship program established by Weill Cornell Medicine eliminates medical education debt for all students who qualify for financial aid. A lead gift from The Starr Foundation, directed by Weill Cornell Medicine Overseer Maurice R. Greenberg, in partnership with gifts from Joan and Board of Overseers Chairman Emeritus Sanford I. Weill and the Weill Family Foundation have made this longstanding goal possible. These gifts, including those from other donors, total $160 million.

The new financial aid program expands Weill Cornell Medicine’s scholarship offerings to provide debt-free education to all medical students with demonstrated financial need beginning with the 2019-2020 academic year and then every year thereafter in perpetuity. By replacing student loans with scholarships that cover tuition, housing and other living expenses, the program ensures that all students, including those from economically diverse backgrounds, can pursue their medical education without financial burden. This program empowers students to ultimately focus their careers on their interests and talents, rather than the requisite future salaries to repay their loans.

Source: Stories courtesy of NEWSWISE, Washington University, NYU School of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Weill Cornell Medicine