New York University offers free Tuition to all Medical Students

[Nightmoves5]

Check this out, awesome and something to drive those of us looking at medicine to work even harder:

https://www.valuemd.com/main-foreign-med...dents.html

[bjcheung77]

Now this is amazing... who's going to sign up?! *looks at credit card*

[GoodYellowDogs]

My only object is the use of the word "free." It's not free. Someone (tax-payers?) is footing the bill. While it is free to the students, nothing is really free. It always irritates me.

[davewill]

My only object is the use of the word "free."    It's not free.  Someone (tax-payers?) is footing the bill.   While it is free to the students, nothing is really free.   It always irritates me.

NYU is a private university. The cost would be covered by their endowments. No reason to be irritated at all. 

[GoodYellowDogs]

I stand corrected

[dfrecore]

My local CC has a $1M grant to give last-dollar grants to all kids who go there after graduating from a local high school (there's a list). I, as a taxpayer, appreciate that someone wanted to do an experiment to see if more kids will go to school if it's free, and used their own money to do so! We will benefit from it, as my dd will go there, and get a free year of school even though we don't qualify for any gov't aid.

It will be interesting to see how NYU gives out this money, how many people graduate debt-free, and how competitive this school gets (if you thought it was hard to get in before, just wait). It will also be interesting to see if other schools follow suit.

[cardiacclep]

This is much needed as perhaps more doctors will do more family and internal medicine that is traditionally less pay that some subspecialities. Some (not all) choose lucrative medical fields in part because they know they could pay off debt faster and make the 10 years of education worth it. With no debt, more options become available. Kudos to NYU and benefactors that made it happen.

[eLearner]

That is incredible! Amazing news!

[alexf.1990]

This is much needed as perhaps more doctors will do more family and internal medicine that is traditionally less pay that some subspecialities. Some (not all) choose lucrative medical fields in part because they know they could pay off debt faster and make the 10 years of education worth it. With no debt, more options become available. Kudos to NYU and benefactors that made it happen.

More people are going to apply for NYU and the admissions standards will undoubtedly increase. This will bring more prestige to NYU, which will attract better professors, which attracts better students, which brings more prestige to NYU, and on we go. This work outs well for NYU in the long term. I don't know if its so clear that it will incentivize students to enter less lucrative fields though.

This is definitely going to create a wonderful natural experiment. Do you think that the specialty doctors end up choosing is more of a financial choice, or based on what doctors find interesting or challenging? I know there's a component of both in the decision, but I would think the decision would weigh the preferences of the doctors more, particularly with doctors competitive enough to aim for tough schools like NYU. This tuition plan will increase competition for admissions to NYU. I wonder if attracting more competitive applicants will end up attracting more of the people who go into lucrative, challenging specialties.

From my rough review of the field, it looks like the major impediment to filling the underserved fields is the AMA's arbitrary limit on the number of medical schools and residencies. Its a difficult problem, because an increase in the number of doctors lowers wages for existing doctors, so the AMA has an incentive to avoid increasing the number of doctors. We can see this directly in their response to the increase in nurse practitioners as a way to ease the shortage of doctors:

"The American Medical Association (AMA) is disappointed by the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) unprecedented proposal to allow advanced practice nurses (APRN) within the VA to practice independently of a physician's clinical oversight, regardless of individual state law." (https://www.ama-assn.org/ama-statement-v...ice-nurses)

We're in a bizarre situation where the advocacy group for doctors is in control of how many doctors are allowed into the job market, and actively opposes any effort to ease the artificial shortage their protectionist policies create.

[dfrecore]

cardiacclepThis is much needed as perhaps more doctors will do more family and internal medicine that is traditionally less pay that some subspecialities. Some (not all) choose lucrative medical fields in part because they know they could pay off debt faster and make the 10 years of education worth it. With no debt, more options become available. Kudos to NYU and benefactors that made it happen.

More people are going to apply for NYU and the admissions standards will undoubtedly increase. This will bring more prestige to NYU, which will attract better professors, which attracts better students, which brings more prestige to NYU, and on we go. This work outs well for NYU in the long term. I don't know if its so clear that it will incentivize students to enter less lucrative fields though.

This is definitely going to create a wonderful natural experiment. Do you think that the specialty doctors end up choosing is more of a financial choice, or based on what doctors find interesting or challenging? I know there's a component of both in the decision, but I would think the decision would weigh the preferences of the doctors more, particularly with doctors competitive enough to aim for tough schools like NYU. This tuition plan will increase competition for admissions to NYU. I wonder if attracting more competitive applicants will end up attracting more of the people who go into lucrative, challenging specialties.

From my rough review of the field, it looks like the major impediment to filling the underserved fields is the AMA's arbitrary limit on the number of medical schools and residencies. Its a difficult problem, because an increase in the number of doctors lowers wages for existing doctors, so the AMA has an incentive to avoid increasing the number of doctors. We can see this directly in their response to the increase in nurse practitioners as a way to ease the shortage of doctors:

"The American Medical Association (AMA) is disappointed by the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) unprecedented proposal to allow advanced practice nurses (APRN) within the VA to practice independently of a physician's clinical oversight, regardless of individual state law."  (https://www.ama-assn.org/ama-statement-v...ice-nurses)

We're in a bizarre situation where the advocacy group for doctors is in control of how many doctors are allowed into the job market, and actively opposes any effort to ease the artificial shortage their protectionist policies create.

I 100% agree with everything you've said here.  Very well thought out.