New York Offers Free Four-Year College Studies For Residents

In the Sunday night budget package New York approved cover of four-year college tuition for residents and it becomes the only state in the United States to do so.

Over the period of next three years the program will be rolled out in tiers and it to cover for only those students whose families income make less than $100,000.

It is learned the state’s Excelsi or Scholarship program’s income cap will increase next year to $110,000 and thereafter in 2019 to $125,000.

Governor Andrew Cuomo released a statement mentioning, “With this budget, New York has the nation’s first accessible college program. It’s a different model… Today, college is what high school was – it should always be an option even if you can’t afford it.”

The new budget includes a $7.5 billion for higher education. Even though it’s only an increase by 6.3 percent from that of 2016, but is considered as a record high.

It is revealed about 80 percent of the families in New York with college-age kids could use the Excelsior Scholarship program.

No age limit has been mentioned to obtain the scholarship, but the students need to enroll full-time with an average of minimum 30 credits per year. The students also need to meet the minimum GPA requirement.

New York is also learned to be investing about $8 million in electronic books so that the cost of studies is lowered.