The New York State scholarship program—offering free college tuition to New York residents attending CUNY and SUNY schools—is now accepting applications.
The Excelsior Scholarship, originally proposed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, is for full-time students accepted to any SUNY or CUNY two- or four-year college. The free college tuition is for students whose families make $100,000 a year or less. It will go up to $125,000 a year or less in 2019, once the program is fully phased in, reports DNAinfo.
Excelsior Scholarship Requirements
Per the Excelsior Scholarship website, students must:
- Be a resident of New York State and have resided in New York State for 12 continuous months prior to the beginning of the term
- Be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen
- Have either graduated from high school in the U.S., earned a high school equivalency diploma, or passed a federally approved “Ability to Benefit” test, as defined by the Commissioner of the State Education Department
- Have a combined federal adjusted gross income of $100,000 or less
- Be pursuing an undergraduate degree at a SUNY or CUNY college, including community colleges and the statutory colleges at Cornell University and Alfred University
- Be enrolled in at least 12 credits per term and complete at least 30 credits each year (successively), applicable toward his or her degree program
- If attended college prior to the 2017-18 academic year, have earned at least 30 credits each year (successively), applicable toward his or her degree program prior to applying for an Excelsior Scholarship
- Be in a non-default status on a student loan made under any New York State or federal education loan program or on the repayment of any New York State award
- Be in compliance with the terms of the service condition(s) imposed by a New York State award that you have previously received
- Execute a contract agreeing to reside in New York State for the length of time the award was received, and, if employed during such time, be employed in New York State.
Recipients of the Excelsior Scholarship must agree to stay and work in New York State upon graduation for the same amount of time that they received scholarship funds. Failure to meet any of these requirements will result in the scholarship being transferred to a no-interest loan.
The deadline to apply for the Excelsior Scholarship is July 21 and you can do so online.
Certain scholarship funds are available to students who have been enrolled in SUNY or CUNY since 2015, please check the website for further details.
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