Why tuition-free medical schools are failing their lofty commitments — and exacerbating health-care disparities

[In 2018], the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, in Manhattan, announced that it would become tuition-free for all students. The change was made possible in part thanks to a $100 million donation from Kenneth Langone, a Home Depot co-founder, and his wife, Elaine…. In a triumphant report, the school declared, “The ultimate success of this tuition-free initiative will be measured over time by the clinical and research achievements of future graduates, as well as the improvements in diversity of the physician ranks.”

The school’s shift to a tuition-free model has no doubt been a tremendous boon to those students fortunate enough to gain admission. But judged against the standards set out by the Langones and NYU itself, the initiative has been a failure. The percentage of NYU medical students who went into primary care was about the same in 2017 and 2024, according to an analysis by Chuck Dinerstein, the medical director at the American Council on Science and Health. The locations of the hospitals where students do their residencies—often a clue about where they will end up practicing long-term—also remained essentially unchanged…. Perhaps most alarming of all, doing away with tuition appears to have made the student body wealthier: The percentage of incoming students categorized as “financially disadvantaged” fell from 12 percent in 2017 to 3 percent in 2019.

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