Weill Cornell Medicine says the scholarship program will let two thirds of its student body graduate ... [+]
Topline: Cornell’s medical school is the latest institution to tackle the student loan debt crisis by offering debt-free schooling for financial aid students, making it the third medical school in the last two years to offer free tuition or debt-free programs.
- Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City will pay for the cost of attendance, housing and living expenses for all medical students who qualify for financial aid starting with the 2019–2020 academic year, the school announced Monday.
- The Starr Foundation, which is chaired by former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg, along with Joan and Sanford I. Weill, the billionaire former CEO of Citigroup, made the largest donations toward the $160 million scholarship program.
- The school needs to raise an addition $50 million to keep the fund going, the New York Times reported.
- According to Weill Cornell Medicine, 50% of the school’s medical students will graduate debt-free because of the scholarship program.
- Tuition runs $90,000 per year, the school says.
Surprising fact: The amount of student debt aspiring doctors amass is astronomically higher than that of the average student. According to Student Loan Hero, an informational website owned by Lending Tree, average student loan debt totaled $29,800 per person in 2018, including both private and public loans. Meanwhile, the median loan debt for medical students was $194,000 in 2018, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges
Key background: Weill Cornell Medicine is the third medical school to announce some sort of major debt or tuition assistance in the last two years. Columbia’s medical school and NYU’s medical school already have programs that let students graduate debt-free.
However, Cornell doesn’t go as far as NYU’s School of Medicine, which in 2017 abolished tuition for every student, regardless of financial need.
News peg: Most of the 2020 Democratic field has plans to reduce student loans, but progressives Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have the most far-reaching proposals. Both say they would make public colleges free and abolish current student loan debt.
