Students admitted to medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx will attend tuition-free from now on thanks to a one billion dollar donation from the widow of a former Warren Buffett business partner that will eliminate student education costs, the Washington Post reports.
Ruth Gottesman, the chair of the board of trustees, made the donation that will allow the college to open admission to applicants who might otherwise not be able to afford the $60,000 tuition, part of $100,000 per year in annual costs, including room, board, and books. Currently, about half of the first-year class of 183 students identifies as female, with 18% saying they belong to an under-represented group.
The private donation is the largest made to any medical school in history and is believed to be the second largest in the history of academic donations, topped only by a $1.8 billion donation to The Johns Hopkins University by alumnus and former New York Mayor who did not go nuts, Michael Bloomberg, which also aims at increasing diversity and opportunity at the university.