In an unprecedented initiative to reduce debt levels for medical students, Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey S. Flier announced today that the school will eliminate the family contribution starting next year for students whose parents earn less than $120,000 annually.

The move means that the Medical School, one of the largest of the elite medical schools, will have a more generous financial aid program than all but a few of the nation's colleges. The annual cost of attending the Medical School is approximately $65,000, according to school officials.

The initiative represents a 40 percent, or $3 million, increase in Medical School's aid budget, and will affect one third of the 700 MD students, according to a letter Flier sent to the Medical School community today.

Friday's expansion is the latest in a series of aid increases at Harvard schools, including ones at the College and the Graduate School of Design last semester, and an initiative that Harvard Law School unveiled last week.

In an interview Wednesday, University President Drew G. Faust said financial aid was a "high priority."

"We’ve been talking to the deans about how to effectively raise funds across the University for financial aid," Faust said. "It will definitely be a major part of any [capital] campaign as it evolves."

Though medicine has traditionally been a high-paying profession, Flier noted the "recent trend that starting salaries in medicine are lagging increases in educational debt." He has made expanding financial aid a priority since becoming dean last summer, and has said that he has firsthand experience with the costs of medical education because his daughter recently attended medical school.

"I understand Harvard participates in [financial aid] efforts, but it appears to be insufficient," Flier said in an interview last July, shortly after being appointed. "Part of my job as dean is to work to raise the funds so that we can reduce the burden of debt on our graduates."

In addition to eliminating the family contribution for those earning less than $120,000 annually, Flier said in his letter that the Medical School would also no longer take into account the income families set aside each year for retirement.

Flier added that the school will continue its work to become more affordable. Noting that the three components of financing a medical education are the family contribution, the loan package, and institutional scholarships, Flier said the Medical School will now turn its attention to improving loan packages.

—Check TheCrimson.com for more updates.
—Staff writers Clifford M. Marks, Nathan C. Strauss, and Paras D. Bhayani contributed to the reporting of this story.