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Comment by jczhang | Hacker News Reader

How do they have the money to do this, sustainably?

One possibility is paying for it from their endowment.

NYU's endowment is $4.1 billion. They make 7.5%/year on that according to this report: https://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/investmentOffice/documen...

That's $300 million/year in growth, not counting donations.

Their medical school apparently has 679 students. At $50k/year each, that's $34 million a year. Or approximately 10% of the appreciation in their endowment.

Maybe they purchased real estate in NYC and are charging companies to rent space there. Historically that's how the Cooper Union has been tuition free (since they own the space under the Chrysler Building) [0].

[0] https://wernercohn.com/Chrysler.html

The article says they believe they can fund the programme in perpetuity with 600 million dollars to invest. The article says they've raised three quarters of that. They have that money by asking people to give it to them.

By creating a giant endowment that can be used to generate cash. In this case, $600 million lump sum.

While I’m glad that billionaires are donating, why should colleges be dependent on the largess of private benefactors to ensure that our healthcare system is sustainable?

we want the most capable doctors. This will help keep more of top candidates from choosing other careers.

I didnt mean to imply that the donors were doing anything wrong, but that the government should do more to make sure that there are enough qualified general practitioners and obstetricians. There is far more of a need for those specialties than higher paying plastic surgeons.

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