$1 Billion Donation: Former Pediatrics Professor's $1 Billion Gift

Einstein Medical School Becomes Tuition-Free Thanks to $1 Billion donation from Former Professor

Medical school is expensive — the average debt for a med school graduate is $250,995, not counting any undergraduate loans. For students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, this is a familiar reality, with almost half of them owing more than $200,000 after graduation, according to the school.

But that’s about to change, thanks to a $1 billion donation from Dr. Ruth Gottesman, a former professor at Einstein.

Starting this August, all students at Einstein will study for free. All current fourth-year students will get their tuition fees for spring 2024 refunded.

Gottesman’s donation is the biggest ever given to a medical school in the US; it means that no Einstein student will ever have to pay tuition again.

Gottesman inherited $1 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock from her late husband in 2022, who told her to “Do whatever you think is right with it.” She decided to give it all to Einstein — but only if the school kept its name.

“We’ve got the gosh darn name — we’ve got Albert Einstein,” Gottesman told the New York Times.

_{Repurposed article originally published in Entrepreneur}