"When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the Excelsior scholarship program offering free tuition to New York’s public colleges and universities last year, many of New York’s private colleges worried that they would lose prospective students. And, indeed, in November, a survey released by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, which represents private nonprofit colleges in the state, found that freshmen enrollment at the schools by New York residents slipped 6 percent in the fall of 2017.
But in the middle of admissions season, the state’s private schools say their numbers are up, despite the price competition from Excelsior, which the governor last week credited with increasing applications to State University of New York and City University of New York affiliated schools by 10 percent." …