Johns Hopkins medical school will be free for most students starting this fall, thanks to a $1 billion donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Tuition will be completely free for medical students whose families earn less than $300,000. The donation will also cover living expenses and fees for students from families earning up to $175,000.
Previously, tuition was about $65,000 per year for four years.
The donation aims to address declining life expectancy in the U.S. by making medical and nursing education more accessible to lower-income students and diversifying the healthcare workforce.
Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP, said, “As the U.S. struggles with a decline in life expectancy and faces a shortage of doctors, nurses, and public health professionals, the high cost of education often prevents students from pursuing these careers. By reducing financial barriers, we can enable more students to pursue careers they’re passionate about and serve communities in need.”
Currently, graduates from Johns Hopkins medical school have an average student loan debt of around $104,000, compared to a median debt of $200,000 for 2023 medical school graduates nationwide.
Bloomberg’s donation aims to reduce the average debt for Johns Hopkins graduates to $60,279 by 2029, with most students paying nothing at all. This helps aspiring doctors from low-income families pursue careers in medicine without financial burden.
The donation will also increase financial aid for students at Johns Hopkins’ School of Nursing and Bloomberg School of Public Health. This follows a $1.8 billion donation in 2018 to establish need-blind admissions for undergraduate students at Johns Hopkins.
This isn’t the first donation to make medical education free. In February, Dr. Ruth L. Gottesman donated $1 billion to make Albert Einstein College of Medicine tuition-free indefinitely. The Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine and Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine have also waived tuition costs for certain students in recent years.