Cuomo Starts Free Tuition Raffle For Students Who Get COVID Vax

NEW YORK CITY — New York students and their families worried about paying for college have a new shot at a free ride: the coronavirus vaccine.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday announced a free tuition raffle that will be offered to youngsters between 12 and 17 who get — or got — their first vaccine dose.

The raffle starts Wednesday and will run every week until July 7, he said. There are 50 four-year scholarships that will be raffled off, he said.

“We will raffle off, on a weekly basis, full-tuition room and board scholarships to any public college or university for four years,” he said.

The scholarship is the latest incentive offered by the state to boost vaccination rates.

Cuomo said New Yorkers from 12 to 17 now account for 10 percent of the state's positivity rate.

But those youngsters — who only recently became eligible for the two-dose Pfizer vaccine — also have the lowest vaccination rate in the state, he said.

City officials have started outreach to encourage that group to get vaccinated. More than 50,000 youngsters that age in New York City have so far received at least one dose, Dave Chokshi, the city's health commissioner, said.

Full tuition could be an incentive not only for students to get the vaccine, but also their parents, Cuomo said. He said it'll cover a SUNY school, a CUNY school or a community college — any public college or university in the state.

He said 12- to 17-year-olds who already got the vaccine can enter the raffle — in fact, they have more chances to win because their name will be in every weekly drawing from this week to July 7.

And those who haven't can sign up online once they do, he said.

“Once you get a vaccine, you go to a website, you input your information, we’ll do a random drawing every Wednesday from that universe,” he said.

Eligible vaccinated New York youth can sign up here.