Albert Einstein College of Medicine to Offer Free Tuition Following $1B Donation
Students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx will no longer pay tuition after it received a $1 billion donation, the college said Monday. The donation “marks the largest gift to any medical school in the country,” according to the school. Einstein’s tuition is about $60,000 per year. With the costs of books and room and board, the school estimates, students’ expenses can total around $100,000.
The donor, Ruth Gottesman, is a former professor at Einstein, where she studied learning disabilities, developed a screening test and ran literacy programs. Dr. Gottesman said her donation would enable new doctors to begin their careers without medical school debt, which often exceeds $200,000. She also hoped it would broaden the student body to include people who could not otherwise afford to go to medical school.
Gottesman credited her late husband, David ‘Sandy’ Gottesman for leaving her with the financial means to make such a donation. David Gottesman built the Wall Street investment house, First Manhattan, and was on the board of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. He died in 2022 at age 96.
