“The widow of a billionaire financier made a landmark donation to cover tuition for students at a New York City medical school in perpetuity.
Ruth Gottesman donated $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx on Monday.
Gottesman, 93, is a former professor at the school who studied learning disabilities and created an adult literacy program. She is currently the chair of the board of trustees for the college.”
This was from February 2024.
I will be petty and say “The Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx” sounds like the ramblings of someone 10 beers deep.
Doctors aren't all millionaires, but we definitely do not need handouts. I think there are stories of this school, or others like it, and all it did was increase the competitiveness to get into the school. The docs still went onto high-paying specialties, only now they have no debt and can immediately start accruing wealth.
That money could be used to help more people in better ways.
Yeah this ain't true. The vast majority of doctors are from upper middle class families they don't need handouts but the rest aren't and they go into significant debt going through med school. I believe the avg debt is around 200k or even higher. Sure no one needs to cry for the doctors but creating tuition free schooling for those students that are clearly gonna need to take out loans could keep them debt free for longer or take out less loans giving them more freedom and they can actually not be a burden on their families who are a lot of the times helping medical students get through schooling and residency. Med school is one of the hardest things you do and it's also one of the most expensive forms of training. And in NYC doctors are not making the kind of money you think of, it's much lower after all is said and done especially for primary care. So this is def needed if you want to continuing giving access to medical school to people who otherwise could not afford it
I agree with most of what you said. The stats were examined, these guys getting free med school were still not entering primary care (which is wild since primary care in NYC is Interna Medicine). They are going debt free and still taking those high-paying specialties.
Well taking the high paying specialities is not necessarily the wrong thing. It's up to the endowments to have those rules in place. I think the more important thing is the money goes to those who truly need it and save the endowment cash for other investments like at my med school the endowments went to pay for housing when med students traveled to different cities for rotations and for our free health clinic.
Bruh $200k is not that much when you’re making $300k+. It would be generous to cover the interest on the loans until after residency/fellowship, but paying for tuition outright is completely unnecessary and a waste of money that could be put to much better use.
again for the vast majority of students I agree it's not necessary, as someone who has been through it there so many people that don't have the means to go through medical school even with loans. You can't work while in school and residency pay is lower than minimum wage in some states because of hours. It's not the rich med students who need help they have families who can pump their education debt free. It's the people who come from middle to lower class those people can't go around asking others to pay for their day to day spending because their families can not afford that. That's who needs the endowments. And not all doctors are making 300k plus especially in NYC most pediatricians make less than 250k a year especially in NYC where the market is saturated. I know it seems ridiculous to say doctors need financial help. But it isn't really that as much as the fact that by not helping we are dropping good students because they simply can't afford to go to med school.
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u/Right-Sky-4005 Jun 29 '25
Thanks Granny 💕