While undergraduates at Tufts are facing the highest costs in Massachusetts, students on the Boston campus must deal with an even higher price tag. Tufts School of Medicine ranks as the most expensive private medical institution in the nation.
In its Annual Tuition and Student Fees Report published in November, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) found that the School of Medicine's 2009-10 tuition and fees came to $54,244.
The next most expensive private school on the list, the medical college at Cornell University, costs close to $3,000 less than Tufts School of Medicine.
Tufts School of Medicine has been the most expensive private medical school nationwide since 2001 except for one year, when Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia charged $268 more for non-resident tuition and fees in academic year 2008-09, according to the report.
AAMC database specialist Susan Gaillard confirmed this information. "[Tufts] has actually had the highest in-state tuition for the past couple of years," she told the Daily.
Tufts' status as a private university and the school's Boston location both contribute to the high costs, according to Christine Fennelly, the director of public relations for Tufts' health sciences campuses.
"Contrary to the many public medical schools [in the country], we receive no support from the state," Fennelly said in an e-mail.
She added that the school's high tuition can also be attributed to not having a dean's tax, which requires physicians affiliated with the school's medical center to give back to the university a portion of their income from seeing patients. Most medical schools outside of Boston receive this tax, Fennelly said, but called it "a long-standing tradition in Boston" for private medical institutions in the area not to require such a payment.
Still, Tufts' tuition weighs in at several thousands of dollars more than other Boston-area private medical schools, like Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine, which cost $45,833 and $49,221 per year, respectively.
Several Tufts medical students believe that the school provides valuable opportunities for students, but question its high costs.
Peter Benziger, a first year medical student, said that had he not received a significant scholarship from Tufts, he would have "more strongly considered cheaper programs."
"The cost of tuition did factor into my decision making, and the fact that I received a scholarship making Tufts a considerably cheaper option favorably influenced my selection," Benziger said.
Alex Kobzik, a second year medical student, felt differently. He agreed that cost might affect a student's decision of whether to attend a school, but said Tufts' medical education was worth the price of tuition.
Though Tufts holds the top spot for the most expensive medical school in the country, this standing does not correlate with rankings on its quality.
In U.S. News and World Report's "Best Medical Schools" report for 2009, Tufts ranked as 40th in primary care and 45th in research. Harvard took first under the research category and 15th in primary care, while BU's medical school is ranked 35th as a research institution. It is not listed under the primary care rankings.
Gaillard, however, questioned whether these rankings reflect the true quality of education at these schools. The AAMC, she said, believes that ranking schools is subjective.
"There's really not a set list of what makes a school better than another, so we just don't rank," she said.
Benziger did not believe that the cost of tuition necessarily equates to a high quality of education. "On a personal level, I think that your education is more about how you learn, how you fit in to the program and what you make of it," he said.
Tufts is taking several steps to reduce its tuition. Fennelly said that starting two years ago the school has increased funding for scholarships eight fold.
She added that tuition at the medical school has increased four percent a year for the past several years and the school has successfully kept this increase stable through the economic downturn.
The medical school is also part of the $1.2 billion Beyond Boundaries capital campaign. According to Fennelly, financial aid is the highest priority in the campaign.
Benziger felt that the university was making an effort to reduce costs for students, but believed that the burden to cut costs should lie with the federal government.
"I think the issue of medical student debt is very serious and should be addressed on a national scale," Benziger said.
