By Dan Murphy
The passage of the state budget April 1 also included funding for the Excelsior Scholarship, initiated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2017, and back for its third year of providing New York students free tuition at SUNY and CUNY colleges and universities. Current the yearly tuition at SUNY is $6,780.
The Excelsior Scholarship was created by Cuomo as a tuition-free college program geared toward middle-class New York families who did not have the financial resources to pay for their child’s college and who made more that would entitle their child to state and federal grants to pay for college. The program provides free tuition to students whose household income falls between about $80,000 and $110,000, and are ineligible for other tuition-assistance programs.
The first-of-its-kind in the nation plan was phased in over three years, beginning for New Yorkers making up to $100,000 annually in fall 2017/spring 2018, increasing to $110,000 in fall 2018/spring 2019, and this year, reaching $125,000 in fall 2019/spring 2020.
The fall 2019 application will be open to students first entering college in the fall 2019 term, current or transfer students who caught up on credits during the past year to meet the credit requirement, and current college students who missed the deadline for the fall 2018 and spring 2019 application. The application deadline is Aug. 15, but applications are available now at www.hesc.ny.gov/pay-for-college/financial-aid.
To be eligible, a student must be a New York State resident, earn 30 credits per year and maintain progress toward graduation, and be in good academic standing, graduate on time with a bachelor’s degree in four years. They must also live in New York and not work out of the state after graduation for the same number of years they receive the award, and students must complete their academic program in four years, unless they are in an approved five-year undergraduate program.
For complete eligibility requirements, visit New York State’s Higher Education Services Corporation’s Excelsior Scholarship page.
The state budget funds the Excelsior Program with $119 million. Last year’s allocation was $118 million. In the first year of the program in the fall of 2017, almost 22,000 students received free tuition. In the fall of 2018, between 22,000 and 25,000 students received the benefit. This year it is expected that 30,000 students will receive the scholarship.
Cuomo championed free tuition at SUNY schools in 2017 as a way to make college more affordable amid growing backlash to soaring student loan debt.
The Excelsior Scholarship helps address other issues concerning college education in New York. First, is helps SUNY address declining enrollment by making colleges more affordable for in-state high school seniors. SUNY estimated that 55 percent of their students (225,000 total) are receiving free tuition in either Excelsior Scholarship, or through the Tuition Assistance Program, Pell grants or other scholarships.
The Excelsior Scholarship is also helping SUNY with retention rates of students and having students graduate on time. SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson said the retention rate among Excelsior recipients in its first year was 10 percent higher than students who did not get the free tuition. Students were also more likely to complete their attempted credits than non-Excelsior students, and were more likely to take 15 credits a semester.
Students at SUNY colleges are receiving Excelsior more than CUNY students. The Center for an Urban Future reports indicates that 6.8 percent of SUNY students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program receive Excelsior.
Students are able to receive Excelsior only if they complete 30 credits per year, making part-time students ineligible. A spokesperson for Cuomo defended the requirement as “incentivizing on-time graduation.”
One Excelsior requirement that has yet to be well-communicated requires recipients who complete less than 30 credits during a full academic year to pay back the second semester of their Excelsior aid.
Another requirement is that students who have already started college must have taken 30 credits per year, or that the 30 credits per year requirement is retroactive.
One other Excelsior unknown is that the free tuition isn’t officially granted until a semester is completed, and that student has completed 15 credits and maintains good academic standing.
Despite all of the concerns, and complaints, the program is another attempt by Cuomo to make living in New York State more affordable to middle-class residents. Senator and Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders came to New York two years ago to recognize the new program and announcement with Cuomo.
For those of us who have a child graduating high school, and who will find it difficult to finance our child’s education and keep them out of debt as much as possible, the Excelsior Scholarship could not have come at a better time.
My daughter, who will be attending SUNY Oneonta in the fall, applied for Excelsior last week and we plan on updating our readers on the progress in the weeks to come.
