Lrt’s take this one step at a time
Op is an OOS attending SUNY Oswego.
Op must be a NYS resident in order to be eligible for TAP and/or Excelsior
Private schools have to op in to Excelsior for NYS residents. Even then, the max you can get for Excelsior a a private school is $3000 and then the school must match the money.
No, the myth about Excelsior is that you and your low income friends from the bronx are uninformed about how Excelsior actually works. As others have mentioned, Excelsior is a last payer award that can only be used for tuition. If your friend from the Bronx with the 25k income is getting TAP and Pell, they are not getting Excelsior because their tuition is already covered by NYS and federal sources.
One of your challenges also is, that you don’t need to be counting other people’s money, because it will only be frustrating for you. You are never going to really know all the details of someone else’s financial situation.
What you have received in scholarships and Pell is 22k. Tuition for OOS students is 24k. You knew going in that you had a short fall on tuition and that you would need to pay room board, books and your day-to-day/ misc. expenses. Financially this is a real stretch for your family if they only make 29k.
Yes, the fact that your dad has a 20k rollover that adds to your family’s income does not help your cause, but if you are OOS and low income, Oswego is really not affordable.
How did you pay for school this year? Do you and your family really want to spend the next 3 years spread so financially thin or you and them taking on all of this debt?
Is transferring to a public school in your home state of Florida and getting bright futures an option?