Does CCNY give automatic merit scholarships based on GPA or test scores?

Largely no. The one genuinely automatic award is the Peter F. Vallone Academic Scholarship ($700/year, $350/semester) — no separate application, you're considered when you apply to CUNY — and it requires a NYC high-school 80(B) GPA, NYC residency, and a maintained 3.0 GPA. The biggest merit money comes from competitive admission to the Macaulay Honors College (full NY-resident tuition), not from a posted stats grid.

What's the largest merit award and who gets it?

The Macaulay Honors College tuition scholarship, which covers full tuition (fees and expenses excluded) for four years for New York State residents admitted to Macaulay. It's gated on selective honors admission, not a published GPA/test cutoff.

Do I have to apply separately for CCNY scholarships?

The Vallone award is automatic. For CCNY admissions scholarships (Tuschman and the named/high-school awards), you submit an interest form after you've been admitted, then accept your admission offer by the listed date, and you must submit FAFSA and TAP each year and enroll in at least 12 credits per semester to keep the award.

Can I stack CCNY scholarships with an outside award or Excelsior?

CCNY publishes no general outside-scholarship displacement formula. It does state that if you already receive Excelsior or another 'last-dollar' award, you are not eligible for additional admissions scholarships. Confirm with the financial aid office how a private outside scholarship affects your specific package.

The City College of New York · New York

City College of New York (CUNY) Merit Aid

CCNY is a low-cost public CUNY campus where the biggest merit play is admission to the Macaulay Honors College (full New York State resident tuition for four years); most other named institutional awards are small or unpublished in dollars, and pure-merit auto-awards are limited to the $700/yr Peter F. Vallone Academic Scholarship.

Verified Jun 20264 days ago· CC

Merit tiers61 automatic on stats

Last verifiedJun 2026Analyst CC

Rules that bite at City College of New York (CUNY)

The trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook. Each is derived from City College of New York (CUNY)'s own published policy, not generic advice.

renewalPeter F. Vallone Academic Scholarship Program: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Must maintain continuous full-time (12 credits) enrollment within CUNY and a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0, calculated once a year at the end of the Spring semester. Maximum 6 semesters for an associate degree, 8 semesters for a bachelor's degree. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
displacementNo published displacement order
City College of New York (CUNY)'s policy doesn't specify whether outside scholarships hit loans, grants, or only the COA ceiling. Get a written aid-office answer before chasing private awards.

Common merit-aid mistakes at City College of New York (CUNY)

Assuming Macaulay's 'full tuition' covers your whole bill.
The Macaulay tuition scholarship covers tuition only and explicitly excludes fees and expenses. You still owe the student activity fee, technology fee, and consolidated fee, plus living costs, books, and transportation. It is also limited to New York State residents.
Expecting a published GPA/SAT merit grid like a private college.
CCNY is a low-cost public CUNY campus. Apart from the automatic $700/yr Vallone award, it does NOT publish a stats-based merit scholarship grid — the largest merit money comes from competitive honors admission (Macaulay), not a posted score cutoff.
Treating the Tuschman ($5K/yr) or City College Honors as pure no-strings merit.
Tuschman requires financial need AND service as an admissions ambassador. City College Honors publishes no dollar amount at all — its 'scholarship' value is unspecified. Don't budget around numbers the school hasn't published.
Already holding Excelsior (or another 'last-dollar' award) and still counting on CCNY admissions scholarships.
CCNY states that students already receiving Excelsior or other 'last-dollar' awards are NOT eligible for additional admissions scholarships.
Missing the engineering scholarship's fixed acceptance deadline.
The Grove (GSOE) $6,000 merit scholarship had to be accepted via a form by a hard date (Oct 3, 2025 for that cycle). Miss the acceptance deadline and the award is forfeited; confirm the current-year deadline.

Who this school is for

Cost-sensitive students (especially NYC/NY State residents) who already see CUNY as affordable and want the merit upside concentrated in honors admission (Macaulay full tuition, City College Honors mentoring) rather than a published GPA/test scholarship grid. Strong NYC high-school graduates pick up the automatic $700/yr Vallone award; engineering admits can layer the small Grove (GSOE) merit scholarship.

Institutional merit aid tiers

Every tier below is sourced to the school’s own published financial aid pages. Renewal terms apply only if the student maintains the stated GPA.

Full tuition for New York State res…Full tuition for New York State residents (fees and expenses not covered)

Macaulay Honors College — Tuition Scholarship

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Eligibility

Admission to the Macaulay Honors College (selective; separate honors admission). Tuition scholarship available only to New York State residents as defined by CUNY; must complete the FAFSA and a NYS TAP application.

Renewal terms

Covers four years of undergraduate study; also covers a limited number of summer/winter classes between the start of year one and the end of the 8th semester. Does not include fees. Renewal/GPA terms are set by Macaulay and not stated on this page.

Notes

This is the single largest merit award available through CCNY, but it is gated on competitive Macaulay admission, not on a published GPA/test cutoff. Non-NY-residents do not get the tuition scholarship. The package also includes a Cultural Passport and access to the Opportunities Fund (study abroad / internships / experiential learning).

Source

$700 per year ($350 per semester)

Peter F. Vallone Academic Scholarship Program

AutomaticRenewable

GPA: Graduate from a NYC high school with at least an 80 (B) GPA; maintain at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA in college

Requirements & details

Eligibility

US Citizen / Eligible Non-Citizen; resident of New York City; enroll at a CUNY college full-time within one year of graduating high school; attend CUNY before any other postsecondary institution

Renewal terms

Must maintain continuous full-time (12 credits) enrollment within CUNY and a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0, calculated once a year at the end of the Spring semester. Maximum 6 semesters for an associate degree, 8 semesters for a bachelor's degree.

Notes

Genuinely automatic merit award — no separate application; students are considered when they apply for admission to CUNY. State-funded NYC residency award (administered system-wide), not a CCNY-specific competitive scholarship. The 80(B) requirement is a high-school admission threshold, not a stat that scales the amount.

Source

$5k per year over four years

Tuschman Family Scholarship (Ambassador Program)

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Eligibility

Promising incoming students with financial need who can serve the college as admissions ambassadors. Not pure merit — financial need is a stated criterion and there is a service requirement.

Renewal terms

Described as '$5k per year over the course of 4 years.' Service obligation as an admissions ambassador; specific renewal GPA not stated on the page.

Notes

Mixed merit/need plus a service obligation. Incoming students submit an interest form after being admitted to CCNY. Note the general admissions-scholarship eligibility rules: submit FAFSA and TAP each year, enroll in at least 12 credits/semester, and students already receiving Excelsior or other 'last-dollar' awards are NOT eligible for additional admissions scholarships.

Source

$6,000 total…$6,000 total, paid over three years ($1,000 year 1, $2,000 year 2, $3,000 year 3)

Grove School of Engineering (GSOE) Merit Scholarship

ApplicationRenewable

GPA: Maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 at the end of each academic semester

Requirements & details

Eligibility

Matriculated undergraduate in a Grove School of Engineering major; recipient must accept the offer by the stated deadline

Renewal terms

Must maintain full-time enrollment (minimum 12 credits) as a matriculated GSOE-major undergraduate making satisfactory progress, with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 at the end of each semester. Funding is forfeited for withdrawing from a semester, dropping below full-time, or taking a semester off (absent an approved medical/family emergency), and for academic-integrity or disciplinary violations.

Notes

Small departmental award structured to escalate each year ($1,000 → $2,000 → $3,000). The 2025 cycle required accepting the offer by Friday, October 3, 2025, 11:59 PM EST — a fixed acceptance deadline that, if missed, forfeits the award. Engineering applicants should confirm the current-year version of this scholarship and its acceptance deadline.

Source

Amount not published…Amount not published (priority registration, intensive mentoring, and 'scholarship')

City College Honors Program

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Eligibility

High-achieving students across all disciplines; selective honors admission

Renewal terms

No renewal terms published; no dollar amount published.

Notes

The official page lists the benefit only as 'scholarship' alongside priority registration and intensive mentoring; it does NOT publish a dollar figure. Treated as a benefit/honors track rather than a quantified merit award — ask the honors office for the actual stipend/scholarship dollar value.

Source

Varies — amounts not published

City College of New York Scholarship Program (general institutional awards)

ApplicationRenewable

View requirements

Eligibility

Open to entering freshmen, transfer and continuing students; selection criteria may include academic performance, test scores, creative promise, financial need, campus involvement, community service, volunteer activities, or leadership

Renewal terms

No amounts, GPA cutoffs, or renewal terms published on the catalog page.

Notes

This is an umbrella description of a pool of institutional scholarships, not a single named award. No dollar amounts are published; selection mixes merit and need. Named awards listed on the admissions-scholarships page (Olinger Lindner, Nurick Lester, Tashlick, Rosenthal Walnick, Weiss, Epstein, plus high-school-specific awards such as Jack Feinstein/Brooklyn Tech, Celia Portnoy/Stuyvesant, Brodsky/Bronx Science) likewise publish NO dollar amounts.

Source

Outside scholarship stacking policy

CCNY publishes no general outside-scholarship displacement policy on its merit pages. The one explicit stacking rule found is a 'last-dollar' exclusion: students already receiving Excelsior or other 'last-dollar' scholarship awards are NOT eligible to receive additional admissions scholarships. How a private outside scholarship interacts with need-based aid is not published and should be confirmed with the financial aid office.

The only published interaction rule is exclusionary, not a displacement formula: holding a 'last-dollar' award (Excelsior, etc.) makes a student ineligible for additional CCNY admissions scholarships. No statement was found on whether a private/third-party outside scholarship reduces institutional or need-based aid.

Source

Lesser-known scholarships at City College of New York (CUNY)

Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.

Named CCNY admissions scholarships (Olinger Lindner, Nurick Lester, Tashlick, Rosenthal Walnick, Weiss, Epstein)

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityListed among CCNY admissions scholarships; criteria not detailed on the public page.

No dollar amounts published; require submitting an interest form after admission. Confirm amounts with the scholarship office.

Source

High-school-specific scholarships (Jack Feinstein/Brooklyn Tech, Celia Portnoy/Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech-CCNY, Stuyvesant-CCNY Honors, Brodsky/Bronx Science)

AmountAmount not publishedEligibilityGraduates of specific NYC specialized high schools.

Described without dollar amounts. Pipeline awards tied to specific feeder high schools.

Source

City College of New York (CUNY) merit aid FAQ

Does CCNY give automatic merit scholarships based on GPA or test scores?
Largely no. The one genuinely automatic award is the Peter F. Vallone Academic Scholarship ($700/year, $350/semester) — no separate application, you're considered when you apply to CUNY — and it requires a NYC high-school 80(B) GPA, NYC residency, and a maintained 3.0 GPA. The biggest merit money comes from competitive admission to the Macaulay Honors College (full NY-resident tuition), not from a posted stats grid.
What's the largest merit award and who gets it?
The Macaulay Honors College tuition scholarship, which covers full tuition (fees and expenses excluded) for four years for New York State residents admitted to Macaulay. It's gated on selective honors admission, not a published GPA/test cutoff.
Do I have to apply separately for CCNY scholarships?
The Vallone award is automatic. For CCNY admissions scholarships (Tuschman and the named/high-school awards), you submit an interest form after you've been admitted, then accept your admission offer by the listed date, and you must submit FAFSA and TAP each year and enroll in at least 12 credits per semester to keep the award.
Can I stack CCNY scholarships with an outside award or Excelsior?
CCNY publishes no general outside-scholarship displacement formula. It does state that if you already receive Excelsior or another 'last-dollar' award, you are not eligible for additional admissions scholarships. Confirm with the financial aid office how a private outside scholarship affects your specific package.

How City College of New York (CUNY) compares across our verified dataset

199 of 751 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.
City College of New York (CUNY) is in a recognizable cluster (199 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
199 of 751 verified schools publish no clear displacement order.
City College of New York (CUNY) is one of them. The right move is the aid-office email script below, not a guess.
669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
City College of New York (CUNY) is one of them. The cohort minority (82 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against City College of New York (CUNY)’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

Compare with similar schools

Baruch College merit aid — New York public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
Hunter College merit aid — New York public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
John Jay College merit aid — New York public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.
Lehman College merit aid — New York public university — compare automatic merit, amounts, and stacking.

Keep exploring City College of New York (CUNY) merit aid

City College of New York (CUNY) scholarship stacking — Whether outside awards land as upside or quietly displace institutional aid.
Does City College of New York (CUNY) displace outside scholarships? — The dollar math on a $5,000 outside award, plus peer schools that handle it differently.
City College of New York (CUNY) four-year renewal rules — GPA floors, credit-hour pace, and the renewal cliffs that knock awards out by sophomore year.