CSI is a low-cost CUNY senior college (~$6,930/yr resident tuition) with essentially NO automatic stats-based merit award — every institutional scholarship flows through one annual, faculty-reviewed CSI Scholarship application that blends academic merit, service, and financial need.
Verified Jun 20264 days ago· CC
Merit tiers3See requirements
Last verifiedJun 2026Analyst CC
Rules that bite at College of Staten Island
The trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook. Each is derived from College of Staten Island's own published policy, not generic advice.
displacementNo published displacement order
College of Staten Island'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 College of Staten Island
CSI publishes no GPA/SAT merit grid that pays you automatically on admission. Every institutional scholarship runs through one faculty-reviewed CSI Scholarship application that also weighs community service and financial need.
Verrazzano admission carries no automatic dollar award. The honors program's own page tells admitted students they are 'strongly encouraged to submit a CSI Scholarship application' — the money is a separate, competitive process.
The CSI Scholarship application is due the last business day of February each year; the next cycle opens in October 2026. Miss it and you forfeit consideration for the entire pooled set of institutional awards for that year.
Awards are scored on academic merit AND College/community service AND financial need together, so a high GPA alone does not guarantee an award.
Most CSI affordability comes from low CUNY tuition plus NY State TAP and the Excelsior Scholarship (free tuition for residents with family income up to $125,000), not from institutional merit money.
Who this school is for
Cost-conscious New York students who want a very low published tuition (CUNY resident rate ~$6,930/yr) and are willing to file one merit-plus-need scholarship application; not a fit for students seeking a guaranteed automatic stats-based merit scholarship.
Tuition / cost of attendance: Approximately $6,930 for 2025-2026. Source
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.
Varies — amounts not published
CSI Scholarship (single annual application — all institutional awards)
ApplicationRenewable
GPA
Minimum 3.0 GPA (some exceptions); matriculated students only; Macaulay Honors College students excluded
Requirements & details+
Eligibility
One application per year; the scholarship office automatically considers the applicant for every scholarship for which they are eligible. Scored by a Faculty Review Committee on academic merit and College/community service, also weighing financial need.
Renewal terms
Renewal terms are not published on the scholarship pages. Most named awards are described as endowed funds where 'the available balance is awarded each year,' so amounts vary by fund and year.
Notes
This is the central pathway for CSI institutional scholarships and is NOT a stats-automatic award — it is a competitive, faculty-reviewed application that explicitly blends merit, service, and need. Categories include Nursing, Engineering, Business, International Travel/Study Abroad, and General Academic Excellence. No per-award dollar amounts are published. Deadline: last business day of February (next cycle opens October 2026).
$7,500…$7,500, $9,000 and $10,000 over three years, plus a $2,000 Discovery Fund
Jeannette K. Watson Fellowship
ApplicationRenewable
View requirements+
Eligibility
Undergraduates with at least four full-time semesters of academic work remaining; U.S. citizens or permanent residents no older than 21; competitive selection.
Renewal terms
Three-year fellowship; stipend escalates each year ($7,500 / $9,000 / $10,000) contingent on continued participation.
Notes
A competitive, application-and-nomination fellowship administered through CSI (not an automatic award). Funds career-building summer internships. Next cycle Fall 2026; contact Michele Callahan, michele.callahan@csi.cuny.edu.
Undergraduates from underrepresented groups pursuing Ph.D.s and college-level teaching; competitive selection.
Notes
A research-pathway stipend (graduate-prep), not a tuition merit scholarship. Listed among the Verrazzano School grant opportunities; administered via the CUNY Graduate Center.
No outside-scholarship displacement or stacking policy is published on CSI's financial-aid pages. The Office of Student Financial Aid page describes federal, NY State, and Excelsior aid but says nothing about how an outside scholarship reduces or coordinates with institutional aid.
CSI's financial-aid page does not state whether a third-party outside scholarship displaces grant, loan, or institutional aid, nor the order of reduction. Because CSI/CUNY institutional awards are largely need- and review-based rather than automatic merit grids, the standard CUNY over-award/packaging rules likely apply — but no public CSI page states this. A family with an outside award must ask the aid office directly.
Lesser-known scholarships at College of Staten Island
Named awards that don’t always surface on the main financial aid page. Each one has its own eligibility rules.
AmountStipends totaling $2,000EligibilityFirst- or second-year undergraduates who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or eligible for full-time off-campus internships.
Two-year fellowship with career workshops and internship access; competitive, not automatic. Next cycle Fall 2026.
Amount$500 (summer/winter CSI-sponsored program) or $1,000 (semester-long CSI-sponsored program)EligibilityVerrazzano School Honors Program members in good standing for at least two semesters who complete their yearly VELA and community-service requirements.
One-time award; tied to a CSI-sponsored study-abroad program, not a general merit scholarship.
Does CSI give automatic merit scholarships to freshmen?
No. There is no published automatic stats-based merit grid. All institutional scholarships are awarded through one annual CSI Scholarship application reviewed by a Faculty Review Committee that weighs academic merit, College/community service, and financial need.
When is the CSI scholarship deadline?
The CSI Scholarship application is due the last business day of February each year. The next application cycle is expected to open in October 2026.
What GPA do I need to be considered?
A minimum 3.0 GPA (with some exceptions). Applicants must be matriculated; Macaulay Honors College students are excluded from this scholarship pool.
Does getting into the Verrazzano School come with money?
Not automatically. Verrazzano admission has no dollar award; admitted students are encouraged to file the separate CSI Scholarship application. Verrazzano does offer small study-abroad scholarships ($500/$1,000) and research stipends (up to $1,000).
How does an outside scholarship affect my CSI aid?
CSI does not publish an outside-scholarship displacement policy. Confirm directly with the Office of Student Financial Aid how a private award is packaged before you count on it.
How College of Staten Island compares across our verified dataset
199 of 751 verified schools in our dataset use unclear or unpublished displacement.
College of Staten Island 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.
College of Staten Island 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.
College of Staten Island 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 College of Staten Island’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.
