Thanks to multi-billionaire businessman and philanthropist Michael R. Bloomberg, tuition will be free for most students at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, starting this fall.
Bloomberg Philanthropies announced Monday, July 8, that the former New York City mayor and former presidential candidate made a billion-dollar donation to the medical school that will cover full tuition costs for students coming from families earning less than $300,000 annually. The donation will also increase financial aid for students at Hopkins’ schools of nursing, public health and other graduate programs.
Nearly two-thirds of Hopkins’ medical students qualify for financial aid. Most of them graduate with a student loan debt of approximately $104,000.
The donation will also cover living expenses and other fees for students from families earning up to $175,000 annually.
“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,” said Bloomberg, 82, who graduated from Hopkins in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. “By reducing the financial barriers to these essential fields, we can free more students to pursue careers they’re passionate about — and enable them to serve more of the families and communities who need them the most.”
Previously, Bloomberg donated more than $3.3 billion to his alma mater, and he is the first donor to ever exceed $1 billion in lifetime gifts to a single center of higher education.
His donations to Hopkins helped fund construction of a children’s hospital (the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center Building, named in honor of his mother); the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; bio-medical research facilities; a physics building; the Institute for Cell Engineering; and the Malaria Research Institute.
In 2021, Hopkins and Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the launch of the Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative to address the historical underrepresentation of minorities in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, particularly in leadership roles across universities, government and industry. The $150 million endowment creates avenues for students from historically Black colleges, universities and minority-serving institutions to pursue doctorates in STEM fields at Hopkins.
In 2018, Bloomberg donated $1.8 billion to undergraduate financial aid at Hopkins. He served as chairman of the Hopkins University board of trustees from 1996 to 2002.
“Extraordinary talent exists in every community across America, a fact borne out by the transformative impact of Mike Bloomberg’s historic gift for financial aid to Hopkins undergraduates six years ago that dramatically expanded the breadth of experience and accomplishment of our student body,” said Ronald J. Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University. “Removing financial barriers to individual opportunity fuels excellence, innovation and discoveries that redound to the benefit of society.”
The Bloomberg donation comes four months after Dr. Ruth L. Gottesman, a Baltimore native and scion of the Hochschild-Kohn department store dynasty, donated $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.
The gift — tuition-free for the indefinite future — was intended to attract students to the medical school in New York City’s poorest borough. By forgiving hundreds of thousands in student debt, the donation aimed to make Einstein accessible to a broad range of candidates. It was the largest donation ever given to Einstein.
Dr. Gottesman, 93, is a noted researcher, philanthropist and an emerita faculty member of Einstein.
In 2018, New York University announced it would fully cover tuition costs for medical students regardless of their financial standing.
A committed philanthropist and community leader, Russel was president of R&H Motors.
The mother of four was a native of Winchester, Virginia, who spent most of her life in Northwest Baltimore.
The remaining 6,000 members of the community are expected to immigrate by 2030.
The Columbia resident worked on the Gemini and Apollo space missions.