NEW YORK CITY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo's scholarship program offering free college tuition to students attending CUNY and SUNY schools is now accepting applications, state officials announced Friday.
The Excelsior Scholarship, which Cuomo signed into law alongside Hillary Clinton in April, is taking applications from students whose families make up to $100,000 a year — a threshold that will increase to $125,000 when the program is fully phased in in 2019.
To be eligible, students must be New York State residents planning to attend a two- or four-year CUNY or SUNY college and must enroll in classes full-time, taking at least 30 credits per year, according to the requirements.
Undocumented students are not eligible for the program, nor are part-time students.
Excelsior recipients must also agree to continue living in New York State after they graduate for the same amount of time that they received the scholarship while in school, according to the program.
Despite these qualifiers, officials say 84 percent of New York City families with college-aged students would be eligible for the aid, and that 940,000 residents across the state will qualify once the program is fully phased-in.
The deadline to apply is July 21. More details can be found here.
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