“The Cazenovia Commitment” program designed to increase affordability, enrollment

Cazenovia College has announced the availability of new scholarships for first-year students that will help decrease the overall cost of attending its institution.

The new “Cazenovia Commitment” program offers merit scholarships to accepted first-year students ranging from $12,000 to $22,000. This funding, when combined with other financial aid, lowers the average cost of attendance to less than $20,000 per year, including tuition, room, board and fees, according to a statement from the college.

These scholarships are available to all accepted students, regardless of family income or state of residence. In addition, there are no strings attached — with no risk that a scholarship will be converted to a loan — and no post-graduation residency restrictions.

“As the U.S. News and World Report #1 Best Value school in the North, we are now even better,” said Ron Chesbrough, president of the college. “With increased affordability, our quality education is accessible to more students.”

The increased scholarships are offered in response to both an increasingly competitive marketplace for higher education in the Central New York area and the need to compete with the free state college tuition program (The Excelsior Scholarship) announced this year by New York state, said College communications director Tim Greene.

“This prog focuses on those ways we are competing: the higher scholarships, plus the attributes of the quality education we provide, small class sizes, internships, personal attention, study abroad, Division III athletics and a welcoming community,” he said.

More information is available at cazenovia.edu/commitment.