Free medical classes in New York thanks to a billion-dollar donation

A donation of one billion dollars would allow the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City to offer free classes to its students.

The gesture was announced by the company in a statement this Monday.

“This historic gift — the largest ever awarded to a medical school in the country — will ensure that no Einstein student ever has to pay tuition again,” the center said.

The donor, Ruth Goetzman, was a teacher at a school located in one of the most deprived neighborhoods in the Big Apple.

According to The New York Times, the Bronx has the highest number of premature deaths and the least healthy borough in New York, while the bulk of donations to hospitals and medical schools go to wealthier neighboring Manhattan.

Thanks to money left to her husband Katzman, a Wall Street investor who was Warren Buffett's protégé, when he died two years ago, Einstein's students didn't have to face hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans. Accumulate during the race.

The school hopes the endowment will “attract a talented and diverse group of individuals who may not otherwise have considered medical education.”

This is not the first time a New York medical school has offered free tuition to its students. In 2018, the New York University School of Medicine announced a similar program to address the high costs facing the nation's students.

Goetzman, for his part, didn't want his last name immortalized as part of the donation, but he made one condition: The school must maintain the name of Albert Einstein, who the famous physicist agreed to endow the center with. It opened its doors in 1955.