I understand exactly. I am one of those people who does not qualify for the scholarship. This is actually the second time I have been negatively impacted - I enrolled in CUNY as a 17 year old in May when it was free and started classes in September when it cost money. I am resentful that my child is not getting the benefit, but if I was to refuse to send him to a SUNY out of spite, the only ones to be hurt would be my family because we would have to take out loans and/or re-mortgage the house and/or borrow from retirement savings to pay the difference. SUNY would not care whether or not my child enrolled. Making that choice would be irrational. I am not generally irrational in financial decisions. The friends with whom I have discussed this all feel the same way. Our children are going to SUNY schools regardless of whether or not we get Excelsior money. There may be some people who will react as you posit, but those are probably people who didn’t think SUNY was good enough for their snowflake anyway.