is there anyone out there who applied for the excelsior scholarship and have not heard anything as of today???
i applied in march, submitted forms and am still waiting!!
It’s a bit of a mess. You can read about it here:
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Aid-official-Excelsior-scholarship-has-lots-of-13124209.php
And here:
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/State-to-college-aid-officers-Don-t-talk-about-13130328.php
Bottom line: FA professionals at each SUNY school are, themselves, confused about the details. The SUNY system created this website for the FA professionals. Maybe there are resources here for you too.
https://www.ny.gov/programs/excelsior-scholarship-answer-center
In any case, call the FA office of your college.
I saw a posting last week on reddit and the poster said they were told to expect to hear around August 18th.
Isn’t it something? NYS can’t even give out free money that it doesn’t have! IMHO, students should be cautious of this entitlement…many don’t believe it will last long because it is simply unsustainable. Keep saving for college New Yorkers!
Empireapple… NY has plenty of money, they just spend it all!
“State Operating Funds spending is $100.1 billion”
“All Funds spending $168.3 billion for FY 2019”
HESC now has a hotline:
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/State-sets-up-website-hotline-for-Excelsior-13144604.php
People complain that there’s no financial aid for the “middle class,” but when a program designed specifically to help those in the middle income group is created there are complaints about that too. SUNY is a public school system. If they’re going to respond to the public’s request to offer grants to middle income families, that money has to come from the state because that’s the source of their funding.
The state Tuition Assistance Program is similar (but with a lower income eligibility cut off and without as many rules attached to it) and it’s been in existence for over 40 years. I don’t see why the Excelsior should be any different.
OP, keep an eye on your school portal for financial aid info. It should be updated soon. Call your financial aid office too. They may have the information but not had a chance to upload it yet.
^^^^ hear, hear!
@mom2twogirls i was the author of that post on reddit. they are currently working on appeals filed last year…that’s right, LAST YEAR!! god knows when they will get to the appeals filed this year (btw, i am an ADA student who filed an appeal with the application), or when they will get to the non-ADA students. all i know that you should, according to HESC, expect some sort of update by august 18th so said the phone recording last week. anyway i checked my HESC account and excelsior is listed as well as tap…no amounts though and i did not yet get a congratulatory email from them. i suggest you check your accounts there and see if excelsior is listed. if so you’re one step closer to the finish line…
How much is your TAP? Are you also receiving PELL?
Remember excelsior is a last payer, which will kick in after you have exhausted your TAP and Pell
NoKilli…New York State is operating with a $4.4 Billion dollar deficit. They do not have money to give away. The state is in serious debt. When your books are in the red, you don’t add another spending program.
@sybbie719 in my case, tap and pell is exhausted, so i expect to get the scholarship with no problem (i am a ADA student and i filed an appeal with my application).
How many years have you received TAP and PEll. Why didn’t you sign up for Acces-VR?
If you have exhausted Pell you are not very the 6 year mark.
@sybbie719 i started attending college in the 70’s. and access-vr was not much help. my only choice besides excelsior is student loans and those were officially discharged in 2013 (my 3 year monitoring period ended in 2016). i really do not want to go the student loan route ever again…unless i am in grad school…
You have to remember that Excelsior follows the same guidelines as TAP. if you have exhausted all of your TAP, it is unlikely that you are going to get Excelsior.
from HESC
If you have been in school off and on for the past 40 years, this may be a problem.
ACCES-VR has changed a lot over the years and will cover up to the cost of SUNY/CUNY tuition. if you want to go to school with no strings, I would definitely go back and check them out
@sybbie719 i filed an appeal regarding this and sent it with the excelsior scholarship application.
they verified and updated my information, so i might beat the odds and get it…we shall see… acces-vr was no help…i tried them last year…
called them today…they said my application reached the credit verification phase…they are waiting for the college to get back to them…
…and HESC is very aware that school starts august 27 for most, so they hired a lot of people this time to deal with the load, so i am hoping i will hear something within the week…
will let you guys know as soon as i get that all-important email from them…
sigh…they are swamped with applications…might be several weeks they said to process any appeals which i filed this time around…bureaucracy at work…sigh…
hopefully i will get an answer before the spring semester starts…
now it’s several months…most likely near the spring semester…it could be sooner, though…but they are backed up.