Faced with major economic disruption, New Yorkers are likely to turn to higher education. But while the Excelsior Scholarship program is growing, CUNY students and community college students statewide continue to be underserved.
New Yorkers across the state are confronting growing fears about their economic futures, fueled by the immediate impact of coronavirus and the threat of an impending recession. As job losses mount in the service sector and businesses close, many New Yorkers are likely to respond by opting to pursue a college credential—and with it, a shot at more stable employment down the road.
In this challenging environment, New York State will have to do more than ever to ensure that low-income students can afford to obtain a college degree. But despite its well-intentioned purpose, New York State’s flagship free tuition program—the Excelsior Scholarship—is still serving just a tiny fraction of the state’s lower-income students, limiting the effectiveness of this highly touted initiative.
This first-ever analysis of data from the first two years of the program—2017 and 2018—finds that strikingly few students at the City University of New York (CUNY) and at community colleges across the state are receiving the scholarship. The Center for an Urban Future first analyzed awards from the Excelsior Scholarship’s inaugural year in August 2018. This new report provides the first look at awards from both the first and second year of the program and finds that the results remain cause for concern.
Our analysis finds that CUNY community college students remain particularly underserved by the program. A total of only 335 scholarships, amounting to less than $1.3 million, were awarded to students across CUNY’s seven community college campuses in 2018—just 1 percent of the total funding awarded that year. Just nine students at Hostos Community College and ten students at Bronx Community College received awards in 2018, the lowest numbers of any colleges in the state.
CUNY students received just 4,073 (16 percent) of the 25,100 scholarships awarded in 2018, despite making up 39 percent of the state’s enrolled undergraduate students. Statewide, community college students at CUNY and the State University of New York (SUNY) make up almost half of all students but received just 4,797 (19 percent) of the scholarships awarded in 2018—down from 4,975 (24 percent) in 2017.
Although CUNY students and community college students across the state remain notably underserved by the Excelsior Scholarship, our analysis finds that total awards grew significantly in the program’s second year. The number of scholarships awarded increased from 20,458 in 2017 to 25,100 in 2018—a 22.7 percent jump—and total scholarship funding increased more than 40 percent in the program’s second year. Overall, the share of New York undergraduates receiving Excelsior funding increased from 3.2 percent in 2017 to 4 percent in 2018.
Among our key findings:
Excelsior Scholarship is serving very few CUNY students and few community college students statewide.
CUNY community college students remain particularly underserved by the program. Just 335 scholarships, totaling less than $1.3 million, were awarded to students across CUNY’s seven community college campuses. This represented just 1 percent of the total funding awarded under the program in 2018.
Overall, CUNY students continue to be underrepresented among scholarship recipients in 2018. CUNY students received 4,073 (16 percent) of the 25,100 scholarships awarded in 2018, despite making up 39 percent of the state’s enrolled undergraduate students. The share of scholarships awarded to CUNY students remained unchanged from 2017.
Statewide, community college students at CUNY and SUNY make up 47 percent of all undergraduates but received just 4,797 (19 percent) of the scholarships awarded in 2018. This was down from 4,975 (24 percent of awards) in 2017.
Rates of Excelsior Scholarship awards vary widely by college, with CUNY seeing much lower rates than SUNY.
At four SUNY state colleges—University at Buffalo, Albany, Binghamton, and Stony Brook—more than 1,000 students received Excelsior Scholarships in 2018.
By comparison, only nine students in total at CUNY’s Hostos Community College and ten students at Bronx Community College received scholarships—just 0.1 percent of all students enrolled at these colleges. Six of seven CUNY community colleges received fewer than 100 scholarships, with the exception of Borough of Manhattan Community College, which received 123.
The 25 colleges with the highest share of enrolled students receiving scholarships were all SUNY state colleges. Among them, 16.5 percent of students at Fredonia, 15.6 percent of students at Geneseo, and more than 13 percent of students at Oswego, Brockport, Oneota, and Cobleskill received scholarships.
Of the 25 colleges with the lowest share of enrolled students receiving scholarships, 19 were community colleges. All of CUNY’s community college campuses except Guttman were among the 25 colleges with the lowest scholarship rates.
The number of scholarships fell from 2017 to 2018 at 23 colleges, with declines of 34.4 percent at LaGuardia Community College and 25.9 percent at SUNY Westchester. However, total scholarship funding only fell at six colleges, including CUNY Baruch, down 21.4 percent, and SUNY North Country, down 18.4 percent.
Every CUNY college other than Hunter received a share of the total number of scholarships that was below their share of total state enrollments. By contrast, 27 of the 58 SUNY colleges received a share of scholarships above their share of enrollments.
Among the SUNY colleges with a disproportionate share of scholarships, Albany received 6 percent of all scholarships despite having only 2.2 percent of all enrolled students; University at Buffalo received 7.2 percent of all scholarships despite having 3.5 percent of all students; and Binghamton received 5.7 percent of all scholarships despite having 2.2 percent of all students.
As New Yorkers prepare to face major economic disruption in the weeks and months ahead, thousands are likely to turn to the state’s public colleges to help get a leg up in a difficult economy. In the wake of the last recession, enrollment spiked at colleges statewide as the job market stagnated and more New Yorkers sought out a postsecondary credential to help advance their economic prospects. New York State’s generous tuition assistance programs—including the well-intentioned Excelsior Scholarship—are helping to expand access to public colleges, and these initiatives will be put to the test in the months ahead.
However, our analysis finds that the Excelsior Scholarship falls short of the scale of the challenge and underserves the students most in need of support. In some ways, this reflects the design of the program, with many of the state’s lowest-income students already able to access other forms of tuition assistance and scholarship funding.
At the same time, strict eligibility requirements of the program may be acting as a further barrier to participation. To qualify, applicants must be enrolled in 12 credits per term and 30 credits per year, and must have earned at least 30 credits in any prior years of college study. In part due to this requirement, on-time graduation rates have been higher for Excelsior students than for non-Excelsior students. But this requirement leaves out thousands of the state’s part-time students, many of whom are juggling families and jobs while working toward a degree. While updated data on applications and rejections is not available, our previous analysis found that having insufficient credits was the overwhelming reason applicants were rejected in 2017—accounting for 83 percent of all rejections.
One potential reason that the total number of awards increased is that the income threshold for the program has risen, from $100,000 in 2017 to $110,000 in 2018 and $125,000 in 2019. Governor Cuomo recently proposed raising this threshold further, to $150,000. However, it is unlikely that higher income thresholds will improve access to college funding for students most in need of extra financial support.
Importantly, the program does not address non-tuition barriers to college access and college success. To make obtaining a college degree a reality for far more New Yorkers, further investments will be needed in areas such as transportation, child care, food and housing insecurity, and other basic needs assistance—financial challenges that disproportionately derail lower-income students from the path to a degree.
In the meantime, the Excelsior Scholarship program can be improved with a few key tweaks. Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature should reduce the 30-credit requirement to a regular 24-credit course-load and drop the on-time graduation requirement. The program should be expanded to cover summer enrollment, so students can accrue credits more quickly. And the state’s current Tuition Assistance Program should be expanded to support part-time students, many of whom struggle to receive tuition benefits. By doing so, state leaders can ensure that the New Yorkers whose lives would be most transformed by a college credential have the best chance possible at success.
Methodology
This data brief uses Excelsior Scholarship program data from the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, available here.
Enrollments are calculated as total fall undergraduate enrollments for each college. CUNY fall 2018 enrollment is available here. CUNY enrollment for prior years is available here. SUNY fall 2018 enrollment is available here. SUNY enrollment for prior years is available here.
Our August 2018 report on the Excelsior Program relied on preliminary scholarship data released by the New York State Higher Education Corporation. The new data provides updated statistics on the program for the 2017 year, with 598 fewer scholarships awarded in 2017 than previously estimated.
The new data shows that 805 fewer scholarships were awarded at CUNY colleges than previously estimated, while 207 more scholarships were awarded at SUNY colleges than previously estimated.
The new data shows 622 fewer scholarships were awarded at community colleges across the state than previously estimated, while 24 more scholarships were awarded at senior or state colleges than previously estimated.
Table 1: Total Enrollment and Awards by College Type
2017
2018
Undergraduate Enrollment
Excelsior Awards
Share
Undergraduate Enrollment
Excelsior Awards
Share
CUNY
Community Colleges
95,951
356
0.4%
95,073
335
0.4%
Senior Colleges
148,469
2,994
2.0%
149,878
3,738
2.5%
CUNY Total
244,420
3,350
1.4%
244,951
4,073
1.7%
SUNY
Community Colleges
209,233
4,619
2.2%
199,661
4,462
2.2%
Senior/State Colleges
181,952
12,489
6.9%
182,080
16,565
9.1%
SUNY Total
391,185
17,108
4.4%
381,741
21,027
5.5%
All Community Colleges
305,184
4,975
1.6%
294,734
4,797
1.6%
All Senior Colleges
330,421
15,483
4.7%
331,958
20,303
6.1%
New York State Total
635,605
20,458
3.2%
626,692
25,100
4.0%
Table 2: Growth in enrollments, awards, and award funding, 2017-2018
2017-2018
Enrollment Growth
Award Growth
Funding Growth
CUNY
Community Colleges
-0.9%
-5.9%
55.5%
Senior Colleges
0.9%
24.8%
42.0%
CUNY Total
0.2%
21.6%
43.1%
SUNY
Community Colleges
-4.6%
-3.4%
14.6%
Senior/State Colleges
0.1%
32.6%
50.4%
SUNY Total
-2.4%
22.9%
43.2%
Community Colleges
-3.4%
-3.6%
17.2%
Senior Colleges
0.5%
31.1%
49.0%
New York State Total
-1.4%
22.7%
43.2%
Table 3: Enrollment and Awards as a Share of Total
2017
2018
Share of Enrollments
Share of Awards
Share of Funding
Share of Enrollments
Share of Awards
Share of Funding
CUNY
Community Colleges
15%
2%
1%
15%
1%
1%
Senior Colleges
23%
15%
14%
24%
15%
14%
CUNY Total
38%
16%
15%
39%
16%
15%
SUNY
Community Colleges
33%
23%
17%
32%
18%
14%
Senior/State Colleges
29%
61%
68%
29%
66%
71%
SUNY Total
62%
84%
85%
61%
84%
85%
Community Colleges
48%
24%
18%
47%
19%
15%
Senior/State Colleges
52%
76%
82%
53%
81%
85%
New York State Total
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Table 4: Enrollment and Awards by College
2017
2018
Undergraduate Enrollment
Excelsior Awards
Share
Undergraduate Enrollment
Excelsior Awards
Share
CUNY Community Colleges
BMCC
26,932
97
0.4%
26,506
123
0.5%
Bronx
10,935
10
0.1%
10,519
10
0.1%
Guttman
1,066
36
3.4%
955
37
3.9%
Hostos
7,211
11
0.2%
7,331
9
0.1%
Kingsborough
15,034
43
0.3%
15,051
38
0.3%
LaGuardia
19,373
61
0.3%
19,300
40
0.2%
Queensborough
15,400
98
0.6%
15,411
78
0.5%
CUNY Senior Colleges
Baruch
15,253
345
2.3%
15,024
349
2.3%
Brooklyn
14,689
315
2.1%
14,978
388
2.6%
City
13,210
293
2.2%
13,186
363
2.8%
Hunter
16,844
545
3.2%
17,212
769
4.5%
John Jay
12,916
361
2.8%
13,319
456
3.4%
Lehman
11,978
163
1.4%
12,639
230
1.8%
Medgar Evers
6,652
54
0.8%
6,638
52
0.8%
NYCCT
17,279
179
1.0%
17,269
204
1.2%
Queens
16,680
346
2.1%
16,620
452
2.7%
Staten Island
12,509
249
2.0%
12,211
305
2.5%
York
8,393
144
1.7%
8,495
170
2.0%
Professional Studies
2,066
-
0.0%
2,111
-
0.0%
Labor & Urban Studies
-
-
0.0%
176
-
0.0%
SUNY Community Colleges
Adirondack
3,892
140
3.6%
3,727
145
3.9%
Broome
5,624
201
3.6%
6,507
222
3.4%
Cayuga County
3,784
63
1.7%
3,775
65
1.7%
Clinton
1,583
39
2.5%
1,376
60
4.4%
Columbia-Greene
1,623
32
2.0%
1,578
41
2.6%
Corning
3,834
88
2.3%
3,424
77
2.2%
Dutchess
9,061
146
1.6%
8,582
138
1.6%
Erie
11,135
281
2.5%
10,529
255
2.4%
Fashion Institute
8,661
292
3.4%
8,555
330
3.9%
Finger Lakes
6,353
215
3.4%
5,944
168
2.8%
Fulton-Montgomery
2,403
75
3.1%
2,451
77
3.1%
Genesee
5,906
141
2.4%
5,530
120
2.2%
Herkimer County
2,632
94
3.6%
2,398
91
3.8%
Hudson Valley
11,020
367
3.3%
10,896
386
3.5%
Jamestown
4,463
89
2.0%
4,476
117
2.6%
Jefferson
3,460
119
3.4%
3,277
100
3.1%
Mohawk Valley
6,506
147
2.3%
6,317
150
2.4%
Monroe
12,907
353
2.7%
12,273
307
2.5%
Nassau
19,059
255
1.3%
17,406
207
1.2%
Niagara County
5,439
179
3.3%
5,047
172
3.4%
North Country
2,006
19
0.9%
1,978
15
0.8%
Onondaga
10,659
264
2.5%
9,834
237
2.4%
Orange County
6,601
120
1.8%
6,617
112
1.7%
Rockland
6,950
115
1.7%
6,859
96
1.4%
Schenectady County
6,588
78
1.2%
5,231
67
1.3%
Suffolk County
26,756
435
1.6%
26,078
463
1.8%
Sullivan County
1,565
28
1.8%
1,534
28
1.8%
Tompkins Cortland
2,632
63
2.4%
2,373
59
2.5%
Ulster County
3,560
65
1.8%
3,554
71
2.0%
Westchester
12,571
116
0.9%
11,535
86
0.7%
SUNY Senior/State Colleges
Albany
13,508
1,174
8.7%
13,598
1,516
11.1%
Alfred State
4,188
376
9.0%
3,737
437
11.7%
Binghamton
13,724
1,072
7.8%
14,021
1,419
10.1%
Brockport
7,180
703
9.8%
7,057
939
13.3%
Buffalo State
8,527
582
6.8%
8,082
687
8.5%
Buffalo University
21,020
1,496
7.1%
21,612
1,814
8.4%
Canton
3,183
168
5.3%
3,216
249
7.7%
Cobleskill
2,297
225
9.8%
2,332
305
13.1%
Cornell Statutory
5,852
8
0.1%
5,968
18
0.3%
Cortland
6,346
610
9.6%
6,343
819
12.9%
Delhi
3,467
264
7.6%
3,238
300
9.3%
Empire State
9,810
54
0.6%
9,327
50
0.5%
Envir Sci & Forestry
1,791
79
4.4%
1,825
129
7.1%
Farmingdale
9,552
412
4.3%
9,916
539
5.4%
Fredonia
4,393
568
12.9%
4,431
730
16.5%
Geneseo
5,524
588
10.6%
5,494
857
15.6%
Maritime
1,641
58
3.5%
1,586
70
4.4%
Morrisville
3,063
211
6.9%
2,986
218
7.3%
New Paltz
6,733
539
8.0%
6,692
739
11.0%
Old Westbury
4,635
229
4.9%
4,784
305
6.4%
Oneonta
5,940
565
9.5%
6,046
797
13.2%
Oswego
7,125
699
9.8%
7,081
955
13.5%
Plattsburgh
5,351
342
6.4%
5,297
578
10.9%
Potsdam
3,321
210
6.3%
3,298
370
11.2%
Purchase
4,063
291
7.2%
4,134
461
11.2%
Stony Brook
17,293
831
4.8%
17,474
1,074
6.1%
SUNY Poly
2,179
128
5.9%
2,256
175
7.8%
Upstate Medical
246
7
2.8%
249
15
6.0%
New York State Total
635,605
20,458
3.2%
626,692
25,100
4.0%
This data brief was made possible thanks to support from The Clark Foundation for ongoing research on improving college access and student success. General operating support for the Center for an Urban Future has also been provided the Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation. CUF is also grateful for support from Fisher Brothers for the Middle Class Jobs Project.
Center for an Urban Future (CUF) is an independent, nonprofit think tank that generates innovative policies to create jobs, reduce inequality and help lower income New Yorkers climb into the middle class. For 20 years, CUF has published accessible, data-driven reports on ways to grow and diversify the economy and expand opportunity that are anchored in rigorous research, not preconceived notions about outcome. Our work has been a powerful catalyst for policy change in New York City and serves as an invaluable resource for government officials, community groups, nonprofit practitioners and business leaders as they advocate for and implement policies to address some of New York’s biggest challenges and opportunities.