Talk about a free ride.
Thanks to a $1 billion gift from businessman Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropic organization, most students pursuing medical degrees at Johns Hopkins University will now receive free tuition.
Starting in the upcoming fall semester, students who come from households earning less than $300,000 will have their tuition paid for, while students whose households bring in less than $175,000 will have their tuition, fees and living expenses paid for, the university announced in a release Monday.
Nearly two-thirds of current and incoming students to the medical school will be eligible for the benefits.
“As the U.S. struggles to recover from a disturbing decline in life expectancy, our country faces a serious shortage of doctors, nurses, and public health professionals — and yet, the high cost of medical, nursing, and graduate school too often bars students from enrolling,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
Johns Hopkins’ medical school graduates had an average of $105,000 in student loan debt in the 2023-2024 school year, the university said.
Bloomberg is no stranger to the Johns Hopkins community.
He graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1964 and has donated heavily to the university in the past, including a $1.8 billion gift in 2018 for undergraduate financial aid. He additionally partnered with the school in 2021 for the Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative, which helps bring historically underrepresented students into STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) industries. That program has a $150 million endowment.
His gift will also go toward more financial aid for graduate students in the schools of public health and nursing, education, engineering, business, government and policy, arts and sciences and international studies, as well as the Peabody Institute, an arts conservatory.
After graduating from Hopkins, Bloomberg went on to co-found Bloomberg L.P., an international software, data, financial and media company. He also served as the mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013.