NYU Will Give Every Medical Student a Full-Ride Scholarship

New York University announced Thursday that it will provide all incoming medical students with full-ride scholarships, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The scholarship is intended to alleviate the overwhelming debt from medical-school loans, the Journal added, and to incentivize doctors to pursue less lucrative but vital specialties like primary care and research. So far, the university has raised $450 million of the $600 million it needs to finance the scholarships “in perpetuity.” The school will also refund tuition payments from this year, and return loans that have already been taken out. The Journal noted that no other medical school program comes close to providing this level of aid to its students on such a large scale. “This is going to be a huge game-changer for us, for our students and for our patients,” said Dr. Rafael Rivera, NYU’s associate dean for admission and financial aid. In NYU’s most recent graduating class, the Journal added, 62 percent took out student loans—which amounted to $171,908 for medical school and $184,000 overall, on average. “There’s really a moral imperative to reduce the amount of debt people have,” Rivera said.