High school seniors all across New York State just walked down the aisle and grabbed their hard earned high school diploma. Many may choose to not further their education right away while others may learn a valuable trade. According to data collected by UnivStats, with almost a 70% acceptance rate, over a million New Yorkers attend college each year. There are over 100 public schools in New York. 64 of those schools are SUNY campuses. 

The State University System of New York (SUNY) is a popular place for students to continue their education. Attending SUNY schools is no even close to the most expensive option. The most costly university in New York State is actually right here in the Hudson Valley. An academic year at Vassar College is about $60,000.

Meanwhile, the average cost of a SUNY college bachelor's degree program is around $22,000 for in-state residents. Out of state residents have to almost pay $10,000 more the same program. According to an audit by the New York State Comptroller's Office, they found that SUNY schools have been letting students self report their residency and there's apparently very little verification to make sure their residency status is accurate and honest.

The audit looked into 7 SUNY locations for the 2020-2021 school year including Binghamton, SUNY at Geneseo , SUNY Downstate Sciences, SUNY at Plattsburg, Buffalo,  Empire State College and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

The audit randomly picked just over 1,000 student applications and found that 35% of them did not have proof that they were residents of New York State. The small sample size for the audit was from a much broader 150,000 students from those schools. This means that these SUNY schools could have undercharged students by over a million dollars.

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