How do they have the money to do this, sustainably?
NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
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Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
#32I'll probably be downvoted on a forum like this, but I worry about the most successful universities using their funds to subsidize those who would be fine without it. I was actually made aware of this by a wealthy Stanford alumni which has a fairly broad program for undergraduate tuition assistance. Graduates of mid/low tier universities seem more and more likely to have to compete with better credentialed people with lower debt.
Don't get me wrong, this is fantastic on an atomic level, and the levels of debt required to get an MD these days is insane (have a lot of family in the field). Also, it's not like this is a unique structural disadvantage, just a new one.
Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
#33How do they have the money to do this, sustainably?
By creating a giant endowment that can be used to generate cash. In this case, $600 million lump sum.
Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
#34I hope this helps to decrease the costs of medical care in the US to some extent as it removes one pressure for doctors to earn extra money charging for things that might not need to be needed. edit: Just so I am clear I know that there are lots of other influences on healthcare costs and doctor debt isn't the only pressure they face. Doctors do have some influence on cost (if not large) and if pressure on them is re…
Why would it?
Hospitals in America aren't actually a free market. You cannot choose not to buy, and in emergency situations you can't actually compare prices between sellers. Hospitals charge whatever they can get away with and insurance companies get a discount because they have some leverage- but you and I don't.
All this would really do is help lower the medical providers costs. Likely it will give them additional funding to lobby against socialized health care.
Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
#35I'll probably be downvoted on a forum like this, but I worry about the most successful universities using their funds to subsidize those who would be fine without it. I was actually made aware of this by a wealthy Stanford alumni which has a fairly broad program for undergraduate tuition assistance. Graduates of mid/low tier universities seem more and more likely to have to compete with better credentialed people wit…
The paywall hits for me before the source(s) of the subsidies is identified (assuming they are identified). So how much is public and how much is private?
Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
#36How do they have the money to do this, sustainably?
One possibility is paying for it from their endowment.
NYU's endowment is $4.1 billion. They make 7.5%/year on that according to this report: https://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/investmentOffice/documen...
That's $300 million/year in growth, not counting donations.
Their medical school apparently has 679 students. At $50k/year each, that's $34 million a year. Or approximately 10% of the appreciation in their endowment.
Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
#37I hope this helps to decrease the costs of medical care in the US to some extent as it removes one pressure for doctors to earn extra money charging for things that might not need to be needed. edit: Just so I am clear I know that there are lots of other influences on healthcare costs and doctor debt isn't the only pressure they face. Doctors do have some influence on cost (if not large) and if pressure on them is re…
I hope so too, but I can't see why it would. The market forces would be the same. I have no student debt but I still would take a higher-paying job, all else being equal. Not sure why it would be different for doctors. I'm not an economics expert so please let me know if this is a well-studied question and I'm just talking out of my ass.
It's not so much about how much you can make but more about how much you need to make to stay afloat. It's a very different story depending on whether you have $0k in debt or $300k in debt.
Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
#38How do they have the money to do this, sustainably?
The article says they believe they can fund the programme in perpetuity with 600 million dollars to invest. The article says they've raised three quarters of that. They have that money by asking people to give it to them.
Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
#39But who is going to pay off that $450 million ?
Not sure about the down votes, I didn't mean to ask a rhetorical question. But someone has to pay if not students. Or is that not how it works in this case?
Disclaimer: I couldn't read the whole article because I don't have a login to the website.
Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students
#40I hope this helps to decrease the costs of medical care in the US to some extent as it removes one pressure for doctors to earn extra money charging for things that might not need to be needed. edit: Just so I am clear I know that there are lots of other influences on healthcare costs and doctor debt isn't the only pressure they face. Doctors do have some influence on cost (if not large) and if pressure on them is re…
Why would it? Hospitals in America aren't actually a free market. You cannot choose not to buy, and in emergency situations you can't actually compare prices between sellers. Hospitals charge whatever they can get away with and insurance companies get a discount because they have some leverage- but you and I don't. All this would really do is help lower the medical providers costs. Likely it will give them additional…
Generally speaking, when exactly can you compare prices in a non-emergency situation? I have gotten to the point that every time I see my doctor, I ask for the costs because I enjoy the awkward and ultimately unanswerable question and I like bringing the problem to the surface rather than pretending it doesn't exist.