NYU School of Medicine has announced that, for future and current students enrolled in their Medical Doctorate programs, all tuition will be free. The decision makes this the only top ten ranked school in the US to offer this to its student body.
The decision to offer such extensive opportunities in this way is to encourage students that would have been saddled with student loan debt to study fields of medicine that interest them rather than simply pursuing the careers that pay the most. A variety of expertises in the medical fields are necessary, but not all pay the most.
Many of the students who attend medical school choose a career path that will guarantee them the ability to pay off student loans, many of whom are stuck with $300,000 dollar debt after seven years of schooling. Hoping to encourage the students to participate in medical training that will place them in job positions that are very much necessary, but have seen a drop in professionals in recent years.
Students and faculty seemed immensely excited after the news was broken during a school wide assembly on August 16th, standing to applaud the decision. Rafael Rivera, MD, is the Associate Dean for Admissions at NYU, and he states that this decision was made to bring people who may not otherwise choose to study medicine into the medical work force.
He believes that qualified students, given the opportunity to study medicine in their chosen field, will greatly benefit the medical work force. The number of medical physicians is expected to drop by the year 2030, which is a major problem for society in general.
