Billionaire Michael Bloomberg Gives Record $1.8B To Johns Hopkins

BALTIMORE, MD — Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York Mayor, is donating a record $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University in order to ensure the school's admissions process is "forever need-blind" and can admit students based solely on merit.

The gift is believed to be the largest private donation in modern times to higher education, is a landmark in a growing national movement to make elite universities more accessible to students from low-to-middle income families. Bloomberg, 76, wrote in an op-ed on The New York Times that most people likely agree qualified high school student should not be denied entrance to college because of how much a family has in their bank account.

The private donation, believed to the largest to higher education in modern history, will allow the private, Baltimore-based research university to remove loans from financial aid packages for incoming students beginning in the fall. It wall also allow the school to expand grants for those who need it, according to The Washington Post.

"When colleges review applications, all but a few consider a student’s ability to pay," wrote Bloomberg. "As a result, high-achieving applicants from low- and middle-income families are routinely denied seats that are saved for students whose families have deeper pockets. This hurts the son of a farmer in Nebraska as much as the daughter of a working mother in Detroit."

Bloomberg said people should be rewarded based on the quality of their work, not the size of their pocketbook. This "undermines equal opportunity," and perpetuates "intergenerational poverty," he said.

The $1.8 billion donation will be used specifically for financial aid for qualified low- and middle-income students, he said.

University President Ronald J. Daniels said its dedicated financial aid endowment was too small. But not anymore.

“Now, as a consequence of Mike Bloomberg’s extraordinary gift, we will be fully and permanently need-blind in our admissions and be able to substantially enrich the level of direct assistance we provide to our undergraduate students and their families.”

Bloomberg's donation means he'll have given more than $3.3 billion to his alma mater.

According to U.S. News & World Report, Hopkins has about 6,100 undergraduate students and ranked 10th in the news outlet's 2019 edition of Best Colleges. Its tuition and fees are more than $53,000.

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