This is the “gotcha” problem with the stem scholarship. It’s almost as if HESC and the 2nd floor want STEM students to mess up and have to repay this as an un-subsidized loan repayable from the day of each distribution with interest capitalized at graduation… ouch! Its a pretty sweet deal for the state. They make big announcements every year and collect 5-6% interest rate when kids messes up or can’t get a STEM job in NY.
They tried this with Excelsior but backed off due to the public outcry of the terms and made it a 0% 10 year loan if the kid messes up. Also with Excelsior you only need to work a year for each year of the scholarship. With STEM it is 5 consecutive years in NY in an approved STEM job or the entire scholarship becomes a loan. Excelsior is reasonable. I’m not sure we would have taken the STEM knowing what I know now.
12 credits need to be for the primary STEM major
OR
required for the degree (General eds., English/Science/Math requirements, whatever free electives that major permits).
So the high performing students who receive the scholarship and want to dual major or at least have minor and will easily graduate in 4 years because of their AP and DE credits are screwed.
STEM students take note here:
You really need to think of a 4 year course plan in your freshman year to balance out electives.
What my student did is declare a 2nd STEM major and will move that to the primary when she can take 12 credits in that STEM department. When she files for the degree in the final semester, she will move her original STEM major back to primary. She will probably not finish the dual STEM major but should have enough credits for a minor. What really sucks is she can’t take as many social science courses as she would like because she ran out of electives. Some of the SUNY advisers know about this, especially in the honors programs, but it is school specific and my guess is the University centers are more in touch with this problem.