Landmark $1 billion gift from alum Michael R. Bloomberg for graduate financial aid
Dear Johns Hopkins Community,
I am thrilled to share some exciting news with you.
Johns Hopkins has received $1 billion in new funding to support financial aid for students in our university’s graduate schools. This remarkable gift comes from Bloomberg Philanthropies and builds on the landmark commitment made by Michael R. Bloomberg, Engr ’64, in 2018 to provide financial aid for our undergraduate students—which allows us in perpetuity to accept incoming students without regard for their ability to pay and without requiring them to take out loans for their education.
As a result of this latest transformative gift, beginning in fall 2024, our School of Medicine will be tuition-free for students from families earning under $300,000, and students from families earning up to $175,000 will receive a full ride, support that includes both tuition and living expenses.
Extraordinary talent resides in every community and with people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, yet the destructive burden of debt has long been a barrier to pursuing a medical education. This barrier is particularly daunting for students from low-income and middle-class families, who are too often dissuaded from even considering a career in medicine or research. By reducing financial obstacles to individual opportunity, we can open our doors more widely than ever and fuel the excellence, innovation, and discoveries that redound to the benefit not only of the students but of society as a whole. And by bringing new and varied perspectives to bear on our most complex health challenges—from chronic disease to entrenched inequities—we can do even more to improve health and save lives.
We are also thrilled that beginning in the fall this gift will boost financial aid for a number of our flagship degree programs in other divisions, reflecting the broader aims for graduate education articulated in the Ten for One. That includes future nurses and public health practitioners at our School of Nursing and Bloomberg School of Public Health, as well as students pursuing selected graduate degrees offered by our schools of Education, Engineering, Business, Arts and Sciences, and Advanced International Studies; the Peabody Institute; and the upcoming School of Government and Policy. And as we look to the future, the gift will support the development of a program to send more impact-focused interdisciplinary leaders into the worlds of research, industry, and government through innovations in PhD education and training.
Mike Bloomberg has often spoken about the critical role that his Johns Hopkins education played in his life. He recognizes that higher education is a powerful engine of economic mobility, allowing individuals from diverse economic backgrounds to pursue their dreams and contribute to society. He has said, “I came to Johns Hopkins from a working-class family, whose father never made more than $6,000 a year. Through a federal scholarship program and a job on campus, I was able to attend a university that opened doors for me I never imagined possible.” Today, his gift helps open new doors for another generation of leaders in research, education, and patient care and positions our university to attract the brightest minds to our community of scholars, innovators, and problem-solvers.
On behalf of the entire Johns Hopkins community, I share our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for our alumnus and friend Mike Bloomberg. It is with joy and determination that we will continue to fulfill the great promise of Johns Hopkins to serve our students, our nation, and the world.
Sincerely,
Ron Daniels
President
