We work with a significant number of physicians here at Personal Wealth Strategies. One of the road blocks we come across in our planning, especially with residents and new physicians, is their student loan debt. This problem has been building over the last several years and Americans now owe nearly $1.5 trillion of student loan debt. At Personal Wealth Strategies, our average graduating resident easily exceeds $200,000 of student loans and it can be a source of financial stress.
The schools are aware of the overwhelming financial debt facing graduates and New York University School of Medicine decided to do something about it. In August of this year they announced all students enrolled in their MD degree program will receive full-tuition scholarships. In a statement they promised to, “award full-tuition scholarships to all current students and future matriculated students, regardless of merit or financial need, that cover the majority of the cost of attendance, provided each student maintains satisfactory academic progress in accordance with NYU School of Medicine’s Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy.”
NYU currently has 531 medical students enrolled with a tuition bill of $55,018/year that will be fully paid for through the newly announced scholarship. NYU is ranked as the #3 medical school for research according to U.S. News’ 2019 rankings. So this is clearly big news.
Students will still be on the hook for room and board as well as their books, but these promised scholarships will reduce the total cost of attendance by over 66%. This will drastically reduce the burden of student loans and allow the graduating physician to pursue their passion, rather than gravitate towards the highest paying specialties. It remains to be seen how many other top medical schools will soon do the same.