(The Hill) -- The Albert Einstein College of Medicine announced on Monday that students will have free tuition after a major donation from a former professor.
Ruth Gottesman, chair of the Einstein Board of Trustees and Montefiore Health System board member, donated $1 billion to the school.
“This donation radically revolutionizes our ability to continue attracting students who are committed to our mission, not just those who can afford it. Additionally, it will free up and lift our students, enabling them to pursue projects and ideas that might otherwise be prohibitive,” said Yaron Tomer, the Marilyn and Stanley Katz Dean at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
“We will be reminded of the legacy this historic gift represents each spring as we send another diverse class of physicians out across the Bronx and around the world to provide compassionate care and transform their communities,” Tomer added.
The school is using the donation to make the school, typically costing almost $60,000 a year, free to students.
All current students graduating this spring will have their last semester reimbursed to them, and all other students starting next academic year will get free tuition.
“Albert Einstein College of Medicine was founded in 1955 with a mission to welcome all students, without restrictions. Today this gift furthers that mission by removing the financial restrictions for those without the economic means to afford medical school,” the statement reads.
The college says this is the largest gift that has ever been given to any medical school.
Gottesman was associated with the school for 55 years, according to the statement, and “She and her late husband, David S. Gottesman, have been enormously generous donors in the past to Einstein’s innovative research and education initiatives.”