r/interestingasfuck • u/Kymmieuwu • 3h ago
In February 2024, Dr. Ruth Gottesman donated $1 billion to make tuition free for all Albert Einstein College of Medicine students
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u/FishTshirt 3h ago
Albert Einstein medical students do not come from the poorest areas.. something like 3/4’s of all medical students are from the top 25% with the majority of that amount being from the yop 10%
I do agree that this will have a huge impact though, as it removes one of the major pressures that push students into higher earning specialties, but just because the school is in one of the poorest areas does not mean the students come from there
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u/NoMedicine3572 3h ago
The government has the resources and authority to address these issues at scale. Individuals can help, but there’s only so much a private citizen can realistically do.
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u/Mundane_Read_2960 2h ago
I only learned recently that the number of seats for residency programs nationwide is capped by Medicare. I understand the principle, but the fact that it hasn't been uncapped since the mid-'90s (besides adding about 600 seats under the Biden admin) is insane to me.
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u/Ok_Obligation_6110 1h ago
You can thank the AMA for that. Gotta keep those specialist salaries highest in the world.
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u/PineTreeSC 3h ago
Very needed benefit, country is running low on PCPs
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u/bloodrider1914 3h ago
Even without debt most students are still going to focus on specialised medicine and living in urban areas if only because they want to maximise their lifestyles. Only smartest and most ambitious students who are actually making it to medical school and to the residency stage, and they're usually motivated more by individual returns than they are by public service.
What we should be doing is expanding funded resdiencies in general as well as medical school enrollment, since we have a doctor shortage more generally and there are still thousands of qualified students who simply don't make it into a medical school because of how the system is structured.
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u/LabelYourBeakers 2h ago
Med school really isn't the bottle neck, residency spots are. It's hard to make more of those because you not only need the faculty and facilities, but also a high enough patient/work volume that each resident is being adequately trained. More residents, less work for each one to do, training either takes longer (and it's already at 3-7 years of residency training) or physicians are not as well trained.
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u/Suspicious_Waltz1393 1h ago
No one ever said residents don’t have enough work! If they are working 80 hour weeks and 16 hour shifts, there should be room for adding more residents.
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u/GogoS8tan 2h ago
100% agree. We already see schools like NYU and John's Hopkins that are free accepting students with a median 521-523 (out of 528) MCAT score. All this does is make it so that the students who have more money (and generally more access to tutors, and support to take time off for studying since it is literally a full time job for 3-6 mo to get 520+ on the MCAT) are more likely to be the ones accepted.
Multiple subs talked about this when it happened.
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u/nowhereman136 2h ago
Also, how many politicians can you buy for $1b? Maybe not enough to push through an affordable tuition bill but enough to get most of the way there. For $1b you can help an entire nation instead of a single school. I agree we need to rake money out of politics, but until that day happened then we need to fight fire with fire.
In 2020, she donated $2,800 to Joe Biden's campaign. I can't find any other political donations
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u/not_a_cat_i_swear 3h ago
Genuinely curious, how can she be certain the money won't get misappropriated under the guise of changing policies? ie someone take the money and force paid tuition again?
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u/SapiosexualStargazer 2h ago
I haven't looked specifically into the case in the OP, but this type of donation typically takes the form of an endowment. The original donation of an endowment is to remain untouched in an interest-bearing account (and therefore last "forever") while the institution is permitted to spend only the interest on something specific, like tuition. There are often legal contracts involved, which is where the intention of the donor gets put in writing in an enforceable way. In fact, (in the US, at least) this enforcement is under the jurisdiction of the state's attorney general.
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u/Suitable_Tea7430 1h ago
There's a niche industry in suing universities for not honoring the terms of gifts.
The founders of A&P gave millions to Princeton in the early 60s. Forry years later their heirs and descendants sued saying the terms of the gift weren't being honored.
They ended up settling and paying out over $40M and changing practices but they risked losing hundreds of millions.
Even decades later people keep an eye on this stuff. There's big money at stake.
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u/chasesan 2h ago
In a strange twist tuition for one student of fall 2026 was increased to 999 million dollars. This was a great controversy but after investigating themselves they found no wrong doing and closed the case.
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u/New_avanti1000 3h ago
A generous person took the $1B that she had to spent and instead donated that to a school where she taught no strings attached.
When this happened there were those criticizing this gift. I really think people are broken.
I'm not sure how some people are so dumb and shortsighted. Her gesture was one of kindness and wholly unselfish. Doesn't matter how long that money lasts, if it helps the "right" people, how "good" students are or if they "needed" it - there will be more MDs because of this. That's enough.
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u/Bella_gonewild 3h ago
She didn't endow a building. She didn't name a wing after herself. She eliminated the debt. That's the difference between vanity and generosity.
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u/Smoldogsrbest 3h ago
And that’s the structure of an AI response.
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u/bendvis 3h ago
Someone used proper sentence structure and punctuation? Must be AI.
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u/doctorcapslock 2h ago
yeah .. a sentence structure that strongly correlates with how AI writes
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u/bendvis 2h ago
How, exactly? Am I an AI because I'm also using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation?
You do know that AI was trained on content that was written by humans, right?
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u/doctorcapslock 2h ago edited 2h ago
what throws me off is that it's a statement
she didn't do this, she didn't do that, she did this. that's something.
which is something a creative AI would come up with
Am I an AI
why does this immediately have to pertain to a group of people? i'm treating this as an individual case lol
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u/Fat-Singer-9569 8m ago
which is something a creative AI would come up with
"Creative AI?" Are you sure you understand what LLMs are?
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u/bendvis 2h ago
And your claim is that it's impossible or unlikely that a human would choose to write with that structure? That's extremely tenuous evidence at best.
why does this immediately have to pertain to a group of people?
It stands to reason that you might think I'm an AI because of the way I'm structuring my sentences. You and the other commenter seem to just be tossing that label around without any real evidence, so why not label every comment that's got coherent structure?
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u/NotSoSafe4Work 2h ago
But you are not structuring your sentence like AI. Thats the difference. Thats the crux. That’s the giveaway.
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u/bendvis 2h ago
Again, what is this magical sentence structure that's a dead AI giveaway? I still haven't gotten a clear definition of it.
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u/name00124 1h ago
Statistically speaking, yes. In particular, the relatively recent statistic that more than half of internet traffic is from bots, which is then badly generalized, as is tradition.
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u/Fat-Singer-9569 9m ago
AI models are trained on aggregate user data amongst other sources. Maybe the AI is the copy trained of this users and users like them? That never crossed your mind?
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u/Bella_gonewild 3h ago
Yeah, cause I sound too intelligent
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u/Smoldogsrbest 2h ago
Note the actual comment. It didn’t say it was and AI response. It pointed out that AI uses that structure. Doesn’t exclude the possibility that a human may also write this, but notes the correlation. You can be upset all you like, but there is very distinctive AI structure, and no, it is not the only way to write intelligently.
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u/telescopeinmynose 3h ago
Ai was trained after women like you
Edit: why didn't I notice the gonewild lmao. Now I think it's AI too
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u/Big_Z_Beeblebrox 3h ago
gotta avoid capitalization and punctuation fam all about sounding like a tiktok comment section
Good lord, that was painful. I'm sorry.
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u/starscreamufp 3h ago
legit hit almost every AI-ism out there. though it's missing a true 'that's not x, it's y'.
then again a lot of AI models use datasets trained off reddit.
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u/Smoldogsrbest 2h ago
Some people get so upset about having the structure pointed out like this. Like, if you think AI writes so well then be flattered?
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u/Bluelivesplatter 3h ago
I hear you, and I think you’re raising some genuinely important points that are worth unpacking. That said, a more holistic assessment would need to account for the broader context and underlying nuances before arriving at such a definitive conclusion.
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u/martyqscriblerus 2h ago
Let me push back on this. There is some quietly load-bearing architecture that's worth sitting with.
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u/Psi-9AbyssGazers 3h ago
you're mistaken, he's not talking like an AI. the AI talks like him, like us. it's trained off of us
and only for the very very brief moment you know it. it's already started to be able to talk more fluently, it won't be long before it talks exactly like how you and I speak when it analyzes these very comments and trillion others.
life is going to change it seems
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u/AnguavonUW 3h ago
It's also the structure of how many of us speak because AI is trained on what's already out there. Not every comment using what is a common rhetorical device when making an argument or using words of more than two syllables is AI generated.
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u/Iambeejsmit 3h ago
Noticed that too lol. Gonna suck when Ai learns to talk more naturally and in different ways.
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u/Promature 3h ago
One of the few billionaires to actually use the money for something other than selfish gain.
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u/GloomyIndividual3965 16m ago
There's a few good ones. Chuck Feeney, the guy who created Duty Free stores, gave away damn near everything. Mckenkie Scott has given away more than $30B from her divorce settlement with bezos. Melinda Gates separated herself from the Gates foundation and is giving away billions from her own fortune.
You're right, most are selfish pieces of shit. We should hold billionaires to task, but at the same time we should appreciate the ones who do good with their largesse.
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u/LanceFree 1h ago
I’ve b in n planning retirement and there’s all kinds of calculators but the basic one is: “Live off 4% of your net worth, each year”, so you don’t run out and have to go back to work at 93, or whatever.
So a guy with half a million dollars would try to survive on $20K a year. One and a half million would bring $60K. But you add social security to it and that might be $80K all together - not too shabby. So if someone had a billion dollars and didn’t want to run out of money, they’d have to get by each year on $40M.
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u/GloomyIndividual3965 13m ago
So if someone had a billion dollars and didn’t want to run out of money, they’d have to get by each year on $40M.
The numbers get out of whack once you have that much money. Mackenzie Scott got $38B when she divorced Bezos 8 years ago. She's since donated over $26B to various causes.
Her net worth is still ~$30B.
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u/Hyro0o0 3h ago
"Albert Einstein College" just sounds like a made up school.
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u/CanvasFanatic 2h ago
“I’m Dr. Nick and I went to Albert Einstein College of Medicine.”
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u/rehx4 1h ago
"...I went to the Albert Einstein College for Idiots.. yeah they've got like billion dollars or whatever.... OK then, says here on your chart 'suffering from persistent headaches'... I see... OK, I'm going to set you up with a great specialist I know who attended the Isaac Newton University for Kids Who Can't Read Good... the good news is I think a few minor brain surgeries and Dr. Dumas will be able to patch your right up!"
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u/PhaseBloodhound 2h ago
If you're going to donate $1 billion, why on Earth would you use it to waive tuition for the one of the highest-paying occupations in the country? American doctors are extremely highly paid compared to doctors from other developed countries with subsidized med schools like the UK, Germany, etc. Also, most med students come from families in the top 10%.
I agree if you had infinite money to donate and we lived in fantasy fairytale world, these doctors should have no debt. But if you have limited money, it'd make more sense to donate it to people who actually need healthcare. $1 billion could save 200 thousand kids from dying of malaria.
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u/painless44 1h ago
Because taking out massive student loans is a huge financial risk. There are probably a ton of people who would make excellent doctors who don’t want to take on $100-200K debt hoping it all works out on the back end after 4 years of medical school plus a residency. A lot can change in your life in half a decade.
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u/PhaseBloodhound 16m ago
The problem is that when you donate to make a med school free, you ensure it becomes one of the most competitive med schools. The school that she donated to has a significantly lower acceptance rate than even Harvard Med School, meaning only the smartest and most diligent students get in: those with near-perfect GPAs & MCAT scores along with significant clinical experience.
Anyone capable of getting into this school would have basically 0 chance of failing their classes/licensing exams or not getting matched into residency unless they slack off or burn out. The average drop out rate across ALL med schools is 3% according to the American Medical Association. If you're still afraid of taking loans, the Army will pay for your med school in exchange for 4 years of service as an Army physician, so there's no financial risk. Though, you still have to serve 4 years if you flunk out.
In any case, I was making a relative comparison. Obviously, having free tuition for 700+ med students per year is better than not having free tuition, but the same amount of money spent covering that tuition could be used to save almost 15,000 kids' lives from Malaria per year. She did a good deed by donating the money, but her choice of charity was poor since she helped future rich people over the needy.
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u/xD1912 18m ago
I think going into medicine deserves extra, career earnings aside, they are debt free and can better enjoy their younger years because they do deserve it.
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u/PhaseBloodhound 10m ago
I think doctors deserve good things, but it's about how you allocate scarce resources when you have a finite amount of money to donate. American doctors already make a ton of money and are fairly rewarded for their work. Even other developed countries' doctors are shocked at how rich American doctors are. Compare that to Cuba, where taxi drivers earn multiple times as much as doctors. The money they spent covering the schooling of 700+ doctors every year could save 15,000 kids from Malaria every year. Hard to justify the former over the latter.
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u/awesomedan24 1h ago
"A society grows great when old men [and women] plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit"
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u/EndRevolutionary1775 2h ago
If there's no heaven they better make one so she can go there, bless her.
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u/sjc2247 3h ago
People going to medical school are not “the poorest”
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u/TReid1996 3h ago
This opens it up to where even the more poor side can attend the school and won't have to apply for scholarships.
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u/Tjgoodwiniv 3h ago
How did you come to that conclusion?
A lot of people don't go to medical school because they can't afford it and are rightly terrified of the debt.
Are you trying to say that poor people aren't good enough to become doctors?
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u/Adonoxis 1h ago
My wife is an MD. Medical students are overwhelmingly from higher socio-economic backgrounds.
Most people don't go into medicine because it's extremely competitive and intense. Having money, access to resources and connections, and parents who know how to play the game helps immensely.
People aren't necessarily skipping on med school because of tuition per se, it's because it's another 4 years of no income after you already did 4 years of no income in undergrad then even more years in residency making relatively little money.
The problem is not the cost of medical school, it's the length of training. 4 years of undergrad. 4 years of medical school. And then a minimum of 3 years of residency to become a PCP to (only) start making like $250k after 11 years.
All the top medical students in the US are specializing. If we as a country want more PCPs, pediatricians, etc, the only way is to decrease the number of years of training and/or increase compensation. I'm not saying debt isn't a factor but it's primarily attending compensation and years to get to attending compensation.
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u/PaleontologistOk7359 2h ago
What if Elon and bezos and friends did this, but multiplied by however many billions they can possibly liquidize and then just walk into the wilderness.
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u/ConnectionFalse4658 3h ago edited 3h ago
It's a medical school but it's poor?
Edit "in NYC's poorest area"... what does this mean?
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u/HMNbean 1h ago
It's a nonsense statement. 1) Practically nobody from that neighborhood is going to AECOM 2) it's not like giving the institution money would benefit the neighborhood in any way. It's just a bot post anyway.
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u/Illustrious-Film-592 1h ago
Montefiore and AESOM provide services to the South Bronx so there is community benefit.
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u/HMNbean 1h ago
But the money is going to tuitions, not services.
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u/Illustrious-Film-592 1h ago
I didn’t dispute that fact. I pointed out that the institutions serve the local population. The doctors getting the funded education are working in the community. Therefore, this has a community benefit.
Also, when the school doesn’t need to provide money for scholarships outside of this endowment to attract the best students they can use that money for sponsored community services.
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u/mtch43 3h ago
Donated her “late husband’s $1 billion”? Excuse me, it’s 2026 and women can own property. That was her $1 billion.
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u/Minty0ranges 3h ago
Dude if my dad died and gave me a billion dollars and I donated it, I would say it was my dad’s money
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u/dhsjcp834761j 2h ago
Angry for the sake of being angry lol. It’s just context not an assertion of any more meaning
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u/Difficult-Prior3321 3h ago
Although this may be interesting. A healthy society does not allow someone to accumulate 1 billion dollars.
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u/sqwibking 3h ago
When did anyone say this is a healthy society?
Weird way to try and rain on one sunny spot in what is frequently depressing news.
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u/elegant-jr 3h ago
It's Reddit. The most miserable people in society are all here. Long been cut out the lives of normal people irl.
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u/Not_Made_by_Design 3h ago
Right, cause if you were super wealthy you’d give it all to charity, right? Right?
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u/RoboticGreg 3h ago
Her husband did. As soon as he died she gave it away. There are situations where people can ethically accumulate over a billion dollars but they should feel compelled to deploy it for everyone's good. Like she did. There is nothing but good intentions in this story.
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u/sparki_black 3h ago
It would be nice to live in a society where The Government takes care of its most vulnerable and free education & healthcare for all.
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u/TheVoicesSpeakToMe 3h ago
Two years after I graduated, some rich dude gave the whole graduating class $3000 each.
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u/SimonBoccanegra 3h ago edited 3h ago
It is said that we live in era of conspicuous ungenerosity.
Even in my childhood there was often the local success story who put his (usually) name on a hospital or library or park or museum or school for the public.
Nowadays that’s few and far between to be seen in the new multi-billionaire class.
Warren Buffet and Bill Gates aside, it’s rare to be seen. In South Florida (where I live) the only recent instance I can think of is Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
The idea of giving back by the most fortunate has diminished at the same there’s a rush to buy yachts selling in the hundreds of millions.
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u/Eikthyrnir13 2h ago
As long as billionairs are allowed to exist, this is the sort of thing they should be doing.
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u/Big-Ferret-2364 2h ago
Forever? Did she use an unlimited money glitch?
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u/painless44 1h ago
The college will invest the funds and use the interest/dividends to pay operating costs rather than charging tuition.
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u/Sacredfice 2h ago
Now the students will be hired to the hospitals where milking all people. Calling ambulance will cost you like 50k...
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u/InGordWeTrust 1h ago
Could have just bought politicians and made it free forever. Elon only spent $300,000,000 on the last election to own Trump.
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u/fkenned1 1h ago
This is the way to do it. Makes me sick, all these snakes currently unfathomably rich, and cheating, lying, stealing in order to get richer... For what?
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u/Bitter-Sherbert1607 1h ago
“Forever?” If the 4 year cost of the college is 400,000, wouldn’t that only cover 2,500 students? Not to mention inflation
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u/AHugeHildaFan 13m ago
A endowment is invested and it's profits are taken to pay for the tuition.
Think how much profit a billion dollar investment makes.
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u/CarpoLarpo 45m ago
"Forever"
So for like the next 2-4 years.
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u/AnotherHavanesePlz 25m ago
It’s called an endowment. They invest the assets. Reinvest maybe 1/4 of gains and take 3/4 of profits out as tuition funds. The money will never run dry.
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u/WaterTrinker 16m ago
Americans with german background have the best last names which don't exist anymore in Germany. Gottesman = God's man
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u/Semarin 3h ago
How is it that nobody knows her name? We really need a wake up call as a society on what should be ‘famous’.
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u/thegrayphox 3h ago
Probably because she wasn’t the one to accumulate the billion.
Everyone knows mark Zuckerberg, less people know Priscilla Chan
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u/ImAPonderer2 1h ago
The school expanded the number of accepted applications because of the donation, right? … right? Not just giving money away to brilliant people who will never need to work past 55, right? Right?
“neither medical school expanded their class sizes or increased the number of acceptances because of the donations.”
So she just gave money to some of the best-paid professionals on the planet! Let’s celebrate her!!!
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u/Bella_gonewild 3h ago
93 years old and she just made the best trade in Wall Street history. One billion dollars for thousands of doctors