Hub med schools won’t join NYU free tuition plan
Boston-area medical schools don’t plan to follow New York University and cover tuition for budding doctors, saying the cost is prohibitive.
“We feel that we are able to get a very competitive class. We don’t anticipate any changes,” said UMass Medical School spokeswoman Jennifer Berryman.
Harvard Medical School, in a statement, applauded NYU and said it is working to lower student debt by partnering with donors.
“We believe the cost of attendance should never prevent promising students from going to medical school,” the Harvard statement said.
Boston University School of Medicine also says that scholarships are of top priority, but they can’t currently compete with NYU.
NYU announced its tuition-free initiative last week, saying more than 2,500 donors gave $600 million to cover medical tuitions. The cost of tuition at NYU School of Medicine is $55,000 a year but students will still have to pay other expenses including room and board, books, and health insurance which total $27,000 a year.
NYU said it hopes the initiative will reinvent medical education: “This allows physicians to get into the field of their choice earlier, during their most productive years, and with less debt.”
According to a 2018 report from the Association of American Medical colleges, medical school students graduate with an average of $195,000 in debt. Tuition at Harvard, Tufts, the University of Massachusetts and BU medical schools runs between $50,000 and $60,000 a year.
Tufts University School of Medicine doesn’t have any immediate plans to offer free tuition, but noted its Maine Track, which covers a portion of tuition for medical students interested in working in poor urban and rural areas.
“We agree that the cost of medical education is too high,” a Tufts statement said. “All schools need to come up with ways to reduce indebtedness. Any strategies that make a student’s decision easier to go into primary care/family medicine and work with underserved populations should be encouraged.”