I’m currently a sophomore at a SUNY school and am receiving the NYS STEM Incentive scholarship that covers tuition. One of the conditions of the scholarship is that I’m taking at least 12 credits applicable towards my degree. I’ve gone over my major requirements, and I will be completely finished with all requirements by the end of my junior year, but I will still have like 12 credits left to reach 120. I can do a Applied Math and Statistics double major for 15 additional credits since there is so much overlap with computer science.
Does anyone know if the STEM scholarship covers that? I can’t find any info about it online.
@sybbie719 would probably know for sure, but if I remember correctly the STEM and Excelsior Grants only pay for one major. Have you tried calling them to ask?
While this is really going to be a school specific question, it is unlikely that the additional credits will be covered because they are not required for the degree.
This is the “gotcha” problem with the stem scholarship. It’s almost as if HESC and the 2nd floor want STEM students to mess up and have to repay this as an un-subsidized loan repayable from the day of each distribution with interest capitalized at graduation… ouch! Its a pretty sweet deal for the state. They make big announcements every year and collect 5-6% interest rate when kids messes up or can’t get a STEM job in NY.
They tried this with Excelsior but backed off due to the public outcry of the terms and made it a 0% 10 year loan if the kid messes up. Also with Excelsior you only need to work a year for each year of the scholarship. With STEM it is 5 consecutive years in NY in an approved STEM job or the entire scholarship becomes a loan. Excelsior is reasonable. I’m not sure we would have taken the STEM knowing what I know now.
12 credits need to be for the primary STEM major OR
required for the degree (General eds., English/Science/Math requirements, whatever free electives that major permits).
So the high performing students who receive the scholarship and want to dual major or at least have minor and will easily graduate in 4 years because of their AP and DE credits are screwed.
STEM students take note here:
You really need to think of a 4 year course plan in your freshman year to balance out electives.
What my student did is declare a 2nd STEM major and will move that to the primary when she can take 12 credits in that STEM department. When she files for the degree in the final semester, she will move her original STEM major back to primary. She will probably not finish the dual STEM major but should have enough credits for a minor. What really sucks is she can’t take as many social science courses as she would like because she ran out of electives. Some of the SUNY advisers know about this, especially in the honors programs, but it is school specific and my guess is the University centers are more in touch with this problem.
@NoKillli , thanks for pointing out the issues. For future students, is there any reason why would someone take the STEM scholarship over excelsior, assuming one falls below the excelsior income limit?
Okay, that’s kind of what I figured. Since I will need to take 12 more credits to reach the 120 credits required for the degree in addition to the credits required for my major, it looks like the scholarship will cover it.