Medical school students looking to study in New York City are going to get the deal of a lifetime at one school after the widow of a Wall Street investor donated $1 billion to the school, which is now using it to offer free tuition.
Ruth Gottesman, the wife of the late investor David “Sandy” Gottesman, was responsible for the donation to Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Gottesman, 93, shared that the donation is meant to help pay the tuition of students who may not otherwise have been able to attend the college and support faculty.
“l feel blessed to be given the great privilege of making this gift to such a worthy cause,” Gottesman said.
The donation will now help the school attract a diverse group of applicants, allowing all those who attend the ability to graduate without school debt, which can often take decades to pay off, administrators for the school shared.
Tuition at Einstein is an estimated $59,458 per year, school officials shared. Compared to the rest of the nation, the average medical school debt is $202,453, excluding any prior debt from undergraduate schooling, according to the Education Data Initiative.
Gottesman, a former professor and the chairperson of the school’s board of trustees, has been associated with the college for 55 years and shared that her donation wouldn’t have been possible without her husband leaving her the financial means to help the students.
“Each year, well over 100 students enter Albert Einstein College of Medicine in their quest for degrees in medicine and science,” Gottesman said in a release. “They leave as superbly trained scientists and compassionate and knowledgeable physicians, with the expertise to find new ways to prevent diseases and provide the finest health care.”
Sandy Gottesman was the founder of the First Manhattan investment house and served on the board of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. He died at the age of 96 in 2022.
“I believe we can change healthcare history when we recognize that access is the path to excellence,” Dr. Philip Ozuah, the president and chief executive of Montefiore Einstein, the umbrella organization for the college and Montefiore Health System, said.