Johns Hopkins University to offer free tuition to most students thanks to $1 billion gift from Bloomberg

The majority of students attending Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will be tuition-free thanks to a $1 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, a 1964 Johns Hopkins graduate, said his gift would also provide increased financial aid to nursing, public health and other graduate students.

“By reducing financial barriers to these critical fields, we can empower more students to pursue careers they are passionate about and enable them to serve more families and communities that need it most,” Bloomberg said.

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Johns Hopkins University will offer free tuition starting this fall to medical students from families with annual incomes of less than $300,000. In addition, the university said Bloomberg will cover living expenses for students whose families earn up to $175,000.

According to the American Medical Association, attending medical school can cost up to $330,000, leaving most medical graduates with at least $200,000 in student loan debt.

“Removing financial barriers to individual opportunity fosters excellence, innovation and discovery that benefits society,” said Ron Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University.

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This isn’t the first major gift Johns Hopkins has received from Bloomberg Philanthropies. In 2018, the organization gave the school $1.8 billion to use for undergraduate financial aid. The school said the gift had a profound impact.

“The number of undergraduate students entering Hopkins from low-income backgrounds and/or who are the first in their family to attend college (FLI) has increased by 43 percent since the Bloomberg gift became effective,” the school said.