FAFSA and Excelsior Scholarship Applications Open for Financial Aid; SUNY Campuses Ready to Assist With Questions
ALBANY, NY – State University of New York Chancellor John B. King, Jr. today announced that high school seniors across New York State are receiving a community college acceptance letter in the mail from SUNY. For nearly 125,000 graduating New York State students outside of New York City, the letter will confirm they have a spot at their local community college held for them to attend this fall.
“There is a place for every New Yorker at SUNY. While many high school seniors have already accepted an admissions offer to a SUNY campus or other college, many more are still not sure if college is in their future,” said SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. “Receiving a personal acceptance letter tells high school seniors that we are holding a place just for them at their local community college. Thanks to New York’s generous financial aid offerings, SUNY is an extraordinary value proposition, and we want every high school senior and their parents to understand their options.”
New York State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said, “Streamlining the partnership between the Department, P-20, and higher education helps support New York’s students and ensures equitable access. It’s vital to make information available to students and their families so they can make informed decisions that support their post-secondary goals and lifelong learning.”
Sending personalized letters to high school seniors and their parents has been demonstrated to help students make the decision to enroll. In Idaho, which was the first state to do this, their in-state enrollment increased by 12%. This initiative was included in Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2023 State of the State agenda.
The letter from SUNY also includes information about financial aid options. The federal government’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), available online here, is open for students to apply. In addition, New York State’s Excelsior Scholarship application, which opened on May 23, is available online here, and accepted through August 31, 2023.
Currently, 53% of NYS full-time-resident undergraduate SUNY students attend tuition free thanks to the combination of state investment from the Excelsior Scholarship and the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) as well as federal and institutional aid. SUNY’s campuses are ready to assist with any questions.
SUNY is offering direct admission—meaning that a student does not apply to college but can be accepted based on existing information such as their transcripts and high school graduation status. Students graduating with a New York State diploma have met the requirements to enroll in one of 29 SUNY community colleges outside of New York City.
In 2019, the Common Application did a study with several partner institutions where emails were sent to qualified students who had not yet applied to college offering them direct admission. It found that “students who received direct admission, particularly students of color, first-generation, and low-income students, were three to four times more likely to apply to the admitting institution.”
About The State University of New York
The State University of New York, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state’s only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.4 million students amongst its entire portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2022, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit www.suny.edu.
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