The New York state budget was passed on April 9, allocating $153.1
billion in state funds. Part of the budget was the Excelsior Scholarship.
The Excelsior Scholarship will be available Fall 2017. Students,
whose family income is under $100,000, will be eligible the first year. The
program will expand over the next years to include families making up to
$125,000 a year.
College students who do not receive enough New York Tuition Assistance
Program funds and Federal Pell Grants will be given the Excelsior Scholarship.
However, the scholarship is a Last Dollar Scholarship that will not be
disbursed if the student’s grants surpass the cost of tuition.
Dean J. Reinhart, Ph.D., associate director of admissions at SUNY
Buffalo State –located at 1300 Elmwood Ave., described its impact at the public
institution.
“Over 90 percent of our students would be eligible, potentially.
They’d meet the adjusted gross income as a family. You must keep in mind that
the majority of those students already acquire full TAP, full Pell and this
scholarship is known as the ‘Last Dollar’ in,” he said.
Steve Smith, director of undergraduate admissions at D’Youville
College, questions the effect it will have on his campus, located at 320 Porter
Ave.
“We don’t know what the impact is going to be. We understand that
the nature of the scholarship is a number of requirements that the students
need to fill post-graduation,” he said. “We hope that our array of health care
programs here at D’Youville helps us stay competitive.”
Josh Larcom is a junior health and wellness major at Canisius
College, 2001 Main St. He feels the Excelsior Scholarship would not have
affected his decision to attend a private institution.
“If I were able to go to a SUNY school for free, yeah, maybe I
would’ve thought about it,” Larcom said. “I still think I would have chosen
Canisius.” By Dan Almasi, Nick Fass and
Andrew Kuczkowski
