With Monday being the deadline for students to apply for the Excelsior Scholarship, it's now up to the schools to handle the rest of the process.

"We're used to awarding financial aid on a regular basis," said SUNY Poly Vice President for Enrollment Dr. Michael Manning. "Seventy percent of our students have financial aid, have grants, and many have student loans as well. So we have a full office of financial aid that handles all of our financial aid requirements."

Under scholarship guidelines, students are required to take at least 30 credit hours each year - this could lead to a higher rate of students graduating on time.

"I think that's really the highly motivating factor in all of this," said Dr. Manning. "The idea is that the students will have no gap year. They'll continue to get their 30 credits every year, or they'll be ineligible actually. They need to continue on and finish hopefully in the four year time frame."

And schools could already be seeing the effects from this scholarship.

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