Most medical students at Johns Hopkins University will no longer pay tuition thanks to a $1 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies announced Monday.
Starting in the fall, the donation will cover full tuition for medical students from families earning less than $300,000. Living expenses and fees will be covered for students from families who earn up to $175,000.
Bloomberg Philanthropies said that currently almost two-thirds of all students seeking a doctor of medicine degree from Johns Hopkins qualify for financial aid, and 45% of the current class will also receive living expenses. The school estimates that graduates’ average total loans will decrease from $104,000 currently to $60,279 by 2029.
The gift will also increase financial aid for students at the university's schools of nursing, public health, and other graduate schools.
“By reducing the financial barriers to these essential fields, we can free more students to pursue careers they’re passionate about – and enable them to serve more of the families and communities who need them the most,” Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP, said in a statement on Monday. Bloomberg received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1964.
The gift will go to John Hopkins' endowment and every penny will go directly to students, said Ron Daniels, president of Johns Hopkins University.
“Mike has really been moved by the challenges that the professions confronted during the course of the pandemic and the heroic efforts they’ve made to protecting and providing care to American citizens during the pandemic," Daniels said in an interview. “I think he simply wanted to recognize the importance of these fields and provide this support to ensure that the best and brightest could attend medical school and the school of nursing and public health.”
Bloomberg Philanthropies previously gifted $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins in 2018 to ensure that undergraduate students are accepted regardless of their family’s income.
Johns Hopkins will be the latest medical school to offer free tuition to most or all of their medical students.
In February Ruth Gottesman, a former professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the widow of a Wall Street investor, announced that she was donating $1 billion to the school. The gift meant that four-year students immediately received free tuition and all other students will be offered free tuition in the fall.
In 2018, Kenneth and Elaine Langone gave $100 million to the NYU Grossman School of Medicine to make tuition free for all current and future medical students through an endowment fund. The couple gave a second gift of $200 million in 2023 to the NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine to guarantee free tuition for all medical students. Kenneth Langone is a co-founder of Home Depot.
Other medical schools, like UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, offer merit-based scholarships thanks to some $146 million in donations from the recording industry mogul, David Geffen. The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine has also offered tuition-free education for medical students since 2008.
Candice Chen, associate professor, Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University, has researched the social missions of medical schools and had a strong reaction to the recent major gifts to John Hopkins, NYU and Albert Einstein.
“Collectively the medical schools right now, I hate to say this, but they’re failing in terms of producing primary care, mental health specialists as well as the doctors who will work in and serve in rural and underserved communities,” Chen said. She would have loved to see this gift go to Meharry Medical College in Tennessee, for example, which is a historically Black school that has produced many primary care doctors who work in communities that have shortages.
Bloomberg granted Meharry Medical College $34 million in 2020 as part of a $100 million gift he made to four Black medical schools to help reduce the debt of their medical students for four years.
There have been only a handful of previous $1 billion donations to universities in the U.S., most coming in the past several years.
In 2022, the venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife, Ann, gave $1.1 billion to Stanford University for a new school focusing on climate change.
The small liberal arts school McPherson College has received two matching pledges since 2022 from an anonymous donor totaling $1 billion. The school, which has around 800 enrolled students, has a program for automotive restoration and is located 57 miles north of Wichita, Kansas.
Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, gave $3 billion to charities in 2023, making him one of the largest donors, according to research by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
FILE - Former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg speaks during the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York, Sept. 19, 2023. Most medical students at Johns Hopkins University will no longer pay tuition thanks to a $1 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Starting in the fall, the gift announced Monday, July 8, 2024 will cover full tuition for medical students from families earning less than $300,000. (Shannon Stapleton via AP, Pool, File)
A sign stands in front of part of the Johns Hopkins Hospital complex, July 8, 2014, in Baltimore. Most medical students at Johns Hopkins University will no longer pay tuition thanks to a $1 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Starting in the fall, the gift announced Monday, July 8, 2024 will cover full tuition for medical students from families earning less than $300,000. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, file)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Zack Wheeler touched 99 mph as he threw all 11 of his pitches for strikes in the first inning Saturday, the Philadelphia Phillies' ace offering a tantalizing peek at his dominant playoff outing ahead.
Wheeler kept wheeling and dealing from there in the NL Division Series opener and stuck it to his old team, the New York Mets — nine strikeouts and a whopping 30 swings-and-misses over 111 pitches in seven shutout innings.
It was a bit of pitching mastery for the two-time All-Star.
“You can’t make mistakes in the playoffs,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler sure didn't make many, lifted after he held the Mets to just one hit with Philadelphia clinging to a 1-0 lead.
But once he left, the wheels fell off for the Phillies.
Maybe it was the five-day layoff for the NL East champions, a spell of down time that also doomed a pair of 100-win Braves teams each of the last two seasons dumped by the Phillies in the Division Series.
Maybe the Mets are just riding the kind of late-season wave the Phillies enjoyed each of the last two years on their way to deep playoff runs.
Whatever the cause, the Phillies failed to solve Kodai Senga or the four Mets relievers who followed him, as they quieted the heart of Philadelphia's batting order. All-Star relievers Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm folded in the eighth inning — five runs allowed after three straight batters reached following 0-2 counts — and let the Mets escape Saturday with a 6-2 win in Game 1.
“It was stunning, it was, to see Hoffy and Strahmy give it up like that,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “But that’s baseball sometimes. They haven’t done that since we’ve had them, really.”
Thomson also gave props to Wheeler, though.
The right-hander, who left the Mets in free agency following the 2019 season, forced 14 swings-and-misses over the first three innings and deftly escaped his only jam in the fourth when he got Jose Iglesias to ground into an inning-ending double play.
“He was pretty nasty,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When you’re throwing 98 (mph) and locating the way he was locating, up at the top of the zone, you know, in and out, and then the sweeper, the split. I mean, unbelievable. He was pretty much unhittable today. And that’s who he is.”
Kyle Schwarber backed Wheeler with a leadoff homer, a Schwarbomb that lived up to its name when he socked Senga's third pitch into the second deck.
Schwarber, who hit 38 home runs in the regular season, including a record 15 leadoff homers, sent Phillies fans into a frenzy right away. Schwarber has 21 career playoff home runs in 66 games. That ranks fourth behind Manny Ramirez (29), Jose Altuve (27) and Bernie Williams (22).
Jimmy Rollins and Derek Jeter both had three career leadoff home runs during the playoffs.
From there, it was a dizzying repeat of the Phillies' anemic offensive collapse at home in Games 6 and 7 of the NL Championship Series last season against Arizona. Schwarber added a bloop single in the third inning but none of the next 19 Phillies got a hit.
All-Stars Trea Turner and Alec Bohm were each hitless in four at-bats. Bryce Harper walked twice and doubled, while Nick Castellanos was 1 for 4 with two strikeouts.
“As an offense, we wasted that start,” Harper said. “It's the same thing, man. Chasing balls in the dirt. Didn't work deep in the counts like we should have. We've got to understand what they're going to try to do to us and flip the switch as an offense.”
Philadelphia lost a Game 1 of any postseason series for the first time since the 2010 NLCS.
The Phillies won a Wild Card Series each of the last two seasons before they twice knocked out 100-win Atlanta teams in the NLDS. The Braves blamed a layoff as the root cause of their early exits, so the Phillies kept busy to avoid getting stale over five off days. The Phillies held an intrasquad scrimmage, took batting practice, had infield drills and pitchers' fielding drills as they tried to keep a routine as close to normal as it gets during the regular season.
Thomson didn't think the cold bats and ragged effort from the bullpen could be blamed on rust.
“I don’t think so. They pitched on Wednesday, and they threw the ball fairly well,” Thomson said. “I’d have to look at the tape. It’s probably about execution, and leaving some pitches in the middle of the zone.”
The Phillies have All-Star and new dad Cristopher Sánchez on the mound for Game 2.
“You can't harp on this one,” Harper said. “You've got to flush it, come back tomorrow. Sanchy on the bump, looking forward to that.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
New York Mets' Pete Alonso follows the flight of the ball after hitting a run scoring sacrifice fly off Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm during the eighth inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philadelphia Phillies' Zack Wheeler pitches during the fifth inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series against the New York Mets, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler reacts after New York Mets' Jose Iglesias hit into a double play during the fourth inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler checks the runner at first during the seventh inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series against the New York Mets, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philadelphia Phillies second base Bryson Stott catches a fly out hit by New York Mets' Jose Iglesias during the seventh inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler acknowledges fans after the seventh inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series against the New York Mets, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm walks to the dugout after being released during the eighth inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series against the New York Mets, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm is released during the eighth inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series against the New York Mets, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philadelphia Phillies first base Bryce Harper rests during a pitching change during the eighth inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series against the New York Mets, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philadelphia Phillies' Bryce Harper, second right, looks on from the dugout with teammates during the ninth inning of Game 1 of a baseball NL Division Series against the New York Mets, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
