Tuition at CUNY is $6330 for the 4 year colleges and $4300 for the 2 year colleges(today) Again, as long as your family income is below 80k and you are a NYS resident, granted while you will not get the full $5165 in TAP, but you will receive a TAP award.
People who are full pay taking out loans to attend CUNY fall into the following categories;
They are not Citizens or permanent residents making them ineligible for federal or state aid
They have parents who are not NYS residents making them ineligible for NYS aid ( your parents must physically living in NYS)
Yes I CUNY the first year you had to pay tuition and they introduced TAP
Their family has an income where they may not be financially eligible for TAP or Pell, or their income at a level where they are receiving TAP or PELL
At the CUNY community college if you are in ASAP as long as you receive at least $5 in either TAP or PELL , your tuition fees, books and metro cards are covered.
What bureaucrats are making mistakes regarding eligibility ? You file the FAFSA and the TAP forms. You meet the economic guidelines for federal or state aid or you don’t. There has never, Even a time since they have been awarding TAP that it was not funded by the state. If your friend had regents scholarships that did not get paid out and as a result had to take loans then they were not eligible for or their income kep them from receiving federal or state aid ( which are entitlements if you are eligible and meet satisfactory academic progress)
You really got stop listening to these friends, because many of them do not know what they are talking about.