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Le Moyne College offers $10,000 scholarship to all NY residents, regardless of income

Tom Magnarelli
/
WRVO News File Photo
Le Moyne College commencement 2015.

Starting next year, Le Moyne College will offer a $10,000 scholarship over four years, to all New York State residents, regardless of income. This comes after the state began its Excelsior Scholarship earlier this year, which offers tuition-free college at SUNY schools for middle class residents.

Le Moyne College opted out of the state’s Enhanced Tuition Award. Private colleges have to match the state award to give qualifying students up to $6,000 a year. Le Moyne College Assistant Vice President of Enrollment Management Bill Cheetham said Le Moyne’s Promise NY program comes with a mentor, internship and job interview in addition to the scholarship. 

“We didn’t just want to help some of the New York population; we wanted to help as many New York students who could be successful at Le Moyne College as we possibly could," Cheetham said. "Some of the limiting factors of the New York program, we made sure we left out.”

Unlike the Excelsior Scholarship, Le Moyne’s program has no residency requirement to stay in New York for a number of years after graduating.

"It's a totally committed to students scholarship, to help their success and to help them have an opportunity to gain a career and a place in the world, not just New York State," Cheetham said.

He said the state’s program can be confusing.

“It’s made it more difficult for families to make decisions based on some of these simple terms that get thrown out there like ‘free,’ which as we know usually comes with some kind of strings attached,” Cheetham said.

Students in Le Moyne’s program are also not required to complete their degree in four years.

Tom Magnarelli is a reporter covering the central New York and Syracuse area. He joined WRVO as a freelance reporter in 2012 while a student at Syracuse University and was hired full time in 2015. He has reported extensively on politics, education, arts and culture and other issues around central New York.