Cazenovia College announces scholarship program for first-year students

CAZENOVIA, N.Y. — Cazenovia College plans to offer accepted first-year students merit scholarships totaling between $12,000 and $22,000 as it works to boost enrollment in a competitive college-tuition landscape in this state.

It’s a program the school is calling the “Cazenovia Commitment,” the college said in a news release issued Monday.

The Cazenovia scholarship, when combined with other financial aid, lowers the average cost of attendance to less than $20,000 per year, including tuition, room, board and fees, the college noted.

The scholarships are available to all accepted students, regardless of family income or state of residence.

In addition, Cazenovia is offering the scholarships with “no strings attached,” meaning “no risk” that the school will convert the scholarship to a loan and “no post-graduation residency restrictions.”

The Cazenovia Commitment “isn’t necessarily” a response to New York’s Excelsior scholarship for SUNY students, “but rather a focus on the ways we are competing in a very competitive marketplace,” Timothy Greene, director of communications & marketing at Cazenovia College, said in response to a BJNN inquiry.

Under the Excelsior program, students with total family up to $125,000 per year will qualify to attend college tuition-free at all CUNY and SUNY two- and four-year colleges in New York. The Excelsior Scholarship requires students to stay in New York state after graduation for the same number of years in which they received the scholarship. If not, the scholarship becomes an interest-free loan that needs to be paid back.

“Upstate New York is one of the most competitive higher education markets in the country given the number of colleges and the declining demographic trends for college age students. The Excelsior program was introduced mid-way through the recruitment cycle last year and made it even more competitive. Like many other small private schools, our enrollment was down about 10 percent,” Greene added in his email response.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com