According to a Medscape report, 11 medical schools in the last five years have eliminated or reduced tuition. The University of Houston waived tuition for its first class of students. And other programs, like the Yale School of Medicine, are demonstrating a longer-term commitment. The school recently announced that a large donor gift will ensure that all medical students with demonstrated financial need will take on no more than $10,000 in loans.
On average, medical school tuition has increased by $1500 a year since 2015, which has significantly outpaced inflation. And the majority of students, almost three-quarters, take out loans to pay for its cost. Students bear an average debt burden of $200,000 to $215,000, although about 14 percent have loans worth more than $300,000. This is particularly noteworthy because tuition actually makes up a small percentage of schools’ operating budgets. While it varies between programs, at NYU Grossman, prior to it becoming tuition-free, tuition comprised just 0.25 percent of the budget. Via Medscape, Daniel Barron, MD, and a psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, argued that most schools could cut tuition by belt-tightening and redirecting some existing funds.
"Tuition can't keep rising without having unintended consequences. The resulting debt is putting a massive amount of pressure on future generations of physicians," said Robert Pearl, MD, and a professor at Stanford’s School of Medicine told Medscape.
Below, we’ve compiled a list of schools that have created programs to reduce or waive tuition. The Education Data Initiative also provides a complete list of average costs for resident and non-resident attendees at the 193 accredited medical schools (allopathic and osteopathic).
Schools With Eliminated or Reduced Tuition:
New York University Grossman School of Medicine: Provides full tuition for all admitted students, as well as student health insurance
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM): Provides full tuition and select administrative fees for all admitted students
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons: Offers the Vagelos Scholarship Program, which will meet 100 percent of a student’s demonstrated financial need
Weill Cornell School of Medicine: Offers need-based financial aid under a financial program that offers full-ride grants (debt-free) instead of loans
Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai :The Enhanced Scholarship Initiative (ESI) allows qualifying (financial need-based) medical students to graduate with a maximum total debt of $75,000.
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis: Considers all admitted first-year students for a full or partial tuition scholarship for all four years of medical school based on need and/or merit (or a combination)
Stanford School of Medicine: Provides scholarship funding to eliminate medical school debt for qualified students with demonstrated financial need
Geisinger Commonwealth Medical School: The Geisinger Primary Care Scholars Program provides debt-free medical school and living assistance to medical students who commit to work within primary care at the health system after graduating.
NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine: Provides full tuition, student health insurance, and offers debt-free scholarships to qualifying students for housing, food, books, and other miscellaneous expenses
Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine: Offers students, entering between 2019-2024, the school’s first five cohorts, a scholarship covering 100 percent of tuition for all four years of medical school
Yale School of Medicine: Beginning with the 2023–2024 academic year, Yale medical students with demonstrated financial need will not need to take out more than $10,000 in loans per year.
