Cleveland Clinic will pay tuition for med school students

Following a practice that is growing increasingly common, the Cleveland Clinic says that it plans to pay the entire tuition bill for the 32 students entering its medical education program later this year. The program, the Lerner College of Medicine, is offered at Case Western Reserve University. The new policy has boosted applications to what already was a competitive program; more than 1,400 students applied for the 32 slots. Leaders with Cleveland Clinic said that they're establishing the scholarships to make sure students feel free to go into academic and research-oriented medicine rather than opting for the highest-paying specialties possible.

In taking this step, the Clinic is following in the footsteps of other institutions, including Mayo Clinic, which lets about 60 percent of students attend tuition-free, and the University of Central Florida, whose new med school will start out in 2009 with students getting not only free tuition, but also their living expenses paid. Also, Harvard University recently announced that it would eliminate the $12,500 per year family contribution expected for med students in families with incomes of $120,000 a year or less.

To learn more about this trend:
- read this Cleveland Plain Dealer article

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