BY: USA Today

Turns out the ultimate graduation gift – paying the education loan debt of nearly 400 graduates – costs $34 million.

Four months after billionaire Robert F. Smith surprised the Morehouse College class of 2019 by pledging zero college debt, the Atlanta-based historically black, all-male college released more details of Smith and his family's donation.

Not only will the donation pay off student loans, but also loans their parents took out will be included, the college said in a news release Friday about the new Morehouse College Student Success Program.

Smith, founder of private equity and venture capital firm Vista Equity Partners, is worth about $5 billion, according to Forbes. He was the wealthiest African American in the country in 2018.

David Thomas, Morehouse College president, said Smith's gift will be "life-changing for our new Morehouse Men and their families.”

“It is our hope that our graduates will use their newfound financial freedom to pursue their career goals, to lead and serve the community, and to remember the spirit of the gift given to them by paying it forward to support the education of future classes of Morehouse Men,” Thomas said in the release.

Along with his gifts to Morehouse, in 2016, Smith pledged $50 million to his alma mater Cornell University toward the school's college of engineering.