Beginning this fall, Houghton College will begin participating in New York State’s increased aid program for private colleges.
“The Enhanced Tuition Awards [ETA] program provides tuition awards to students who are New York State residents attending a private college located in New York State,” according to the Higher Education Service Corporation’s website. “Recipients will receive $6,000 through a combination of their TAP award, ETA award and a match from their private college.”
Because the new aid comes directly from governmental sources, the state retains most of the control over how this program will be realized at Houghton. “New York State sets and determines the criteria for this—Houghton has agreed to selectively participate in this New York State program, but the state ultimately decides the eligibility criteria,” explains Ryan Spear, Houghton’s Director of Admission.
The criteria set forth by the state, as per the ETA website, include restrictions based on annual income, number of credit hours, and status of any existing student loans. Recipients of the increased aid award must also enter into a contract that binds them to “reside in NYS for the length of time the award was received, and, if employed during such time, be employed in NYS.”
The Higher Education Service Corporation’s website also discloses that students receiving enhanced tuition awards can receive the aid for up to two years for an associate’s degree, four years for a bachelor’s, or five years for a special five year program. Each year, the student must be up to date on their FAFSA and TAP online applications.
The state also requires that all beneficiaries are U.S. citizens or qualified non-citizens, “have either graduated from high school in the United States, earned a high school equivalency diploma, or passed a federally approved ‘Ability to Benefit’ test, as defined by the Commissioner of the State Education Department,” and have met all requirements for prior New York State financial aid.
“New York State is in control of the whole process,” explains Marianne Loper, Houghton’s Director of Student Financial Services. “They have a budget of 19 million for students attending private colleges. New York will be determining how those funds will be disbursed to each participating institution and to what students.”
“At this time, schools do not know the criteria the state is using in this process,” Loper continues. While the program does go into effect this fall, New York State is in charge of the entire process. “New York will select students, send the schools a file where we will certify if the student met the GPA and completed credit hour requirement.”
While awards for the current semester have not yet been distributed, the Higher Education Service Corporation’s website states that the deadline for the 2017 ETA Program has already passed. As Loper clarifies: “Students should view this program as a reimbursement program…Fall 2017 awards will be disbursed January 2018, and Spring 2018 awards will be disbursed June 2018.”
While students with income above the $100,000 cut off do not benefit from the $3,000 of state funds, Ryan Spear assures current and potential students that Houghton College “continues to seek opportunities for students to be eligible for aid and to work closely with each family— ETA-eligible or not—as they navigate their financial aid options.”