John Arrillaga, a leading Bay Area real-estate developer, philanthropist, alumnus and longtime supporter of the university, has made a $55 million commitment to the Stanford University School of Medicine that, together with other philanthropic and school resources, will help eliminate medical school debt for qualified incoming students.

Arrillaga’s contribution was made as a challenge gift, which the School of Medicine plans to match through a combination of philanthropic donations and increased institutional support.

In total, $90 million in new scholarship funding is expected to go toward debt elimination for medical students with need over the next 10 years.

“This gift will be life-changing for a large number of our medical students,” said Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD. “We are very grateful to John for this generous donation, which will not only help encourage the most talented and promising students to pursue a Stanford medical school education, but ultimately enable them to choose a career path that is most meaningful to them.”

The Stanford University School of Medicine has long been a leader among peer institutions in addressing the high cost of attending medical school. Thanks to a number of long-established debt-alleviation programs at the school, the class of 2019 graduated with median student debt of just over $89,000, significantly lower than the median national debt of $200,000 reported for that year by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Student financial need is determined by considering the total cost of attendance, inclusive of tuition and living expenses, minus the available family contribution. This gift effectively doubles the amount of assistance that the university can offer to incoming classes, ensuring that qualified students who would otherwise have to borrow money to attend medical school at Stanford no longer have to do so. During the last academic year, more than two-thirds of Stanford medical students qualified for financial support. The university expects this gift, and the additional philanthropic funding made possible by the match, to help expand that assistance to all lower- and middle-income students.

While some U.S. medical schools have recently announced programs eliminating tuition for all students regardless of need, Arrillaga’s intention is to help the university provide a more holistic program that focuses funding on those with established need. “Our hope is to address the rising cost of medical school by eliminating the financial pressure for those students who feel it most,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, the Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine. “Also, because we live in an area with such a high overall cost of living, we appreciate that tuition-free does not necessarily mean debt-free. Merely addressing tuition costs is not sufficient, as students must often take out large loans to cover their room, board and other living expenses. With this extraordinary gift, we are able to structure a program that is inclusive of an individual student’s total need.”