"Free tuition for aspiring doctors? Few medical schools could pull off that feat"

Photo source: JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES via statnews

"NYU has suggested that its approach is a blueprint for medical schools to enroll more students from disadvantaged backgrounds as well as to free up future physicians to pursue less lucrative but increasingly essential careers in family medicine and primary care. Those are great and necessary goals, but free medical tuition probably won’t be enough to achieve them.

Even if a handful of schools follow NYU’s lead, it will do little to solve the financial challenges inherent in medical training or increase the socioeconomic diversity of the nation’s applicant pool. Most institutions and students across the country are not in a financial position to benefit from this strategy, a strategy that does nothing to address the upstream barriers that keep disadvantaged students from becoming viable medical school candidates in the first place." - By DANIEL THOMAS and DANIEL CHARYTONOWICZ