Financial Aid & Scholarships
PAYING FOR COLLEGE
- Getting Started
- Scholarships
- Applying for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
- The CSS Profile
- Other Tuition Resources: COF, WUE, Student Loans
- Applying for State Financial Aid (CASFA)
Getting Started
Determining how to pay for college is a challenge for most families and often involves pulling from a variety of sources—from financial aid and loans to scholarships and savings.
- Need-based aid depends on financial need and includes grants, subsidized student loans, scholarships, and work study. Eligibility is based on FAFSA. Some schools also require the CSS Profile.
- Merit-based aid, such as merit awards or merit scholarships, is awarded in recognition of student achievements (e.g., academic, athletic, artistic, etc.). Unlike need-based financial aid, merit-based financial aid does not consider the financial need of the student or family.
The sections below provide information on how you can calculate the cost of college as well as some of the many options to pay for college.
Understanding Cost
The cost of attending college can vary widely, depending on whether the school is a community college, a state university, or a private college or university. Are you in-state or out of state? Will you graduate in 4 years? And it’s more than just tuition, room and board. In general, the total cost of attending college includes:
- Tuition and fees
- Books and supplies
- Room and board (consider area's cost of living)
- Transportation
- Health insurance
- Personal expenses
Depending on the school, your family’s financial situation, your academics, your financial and/or merit aid, the cost may be reduced significantly. When determining what aid you will need to attend, financial aid looks at both direct costs (tuition and fees, on-campus housing) and indirect costs (transportation, personal expenses, books, medical).
Net Price Calculator
Net price calculators are available on a college’s or university’s website and allow prospective students to enter information about themselves to find out what students like them paid to attend the institution in the previous year, after taking grants and scholarship aid into account.
The calculation used by all U.S. colleges and universities is COA - EFC = DN. This is Cost of Attendance minus Expected Family Contribution equals Demonstrated Need.
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Cost of Attendance (COA): All colleges are required to calculate their estimated cost of attendance and have the information readily available. You can generally find it on a school’s financial aid page.
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Expected Family Contribution (EFC): This amount officially determined by filling out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and possibly the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE (depending on the school’s requirements).
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Demonstrated Need (DN): Frequently, Demonstrated Need will be met in a financial aid package from the college, which may include: (1) scholarships and grants (need or merit-based awards from federal, state, school, or other sources that do not need to be paid back); (2) on-campus work study (paying jobs provided by school); and student loans (federally backed student loans that need to be repaid).
Unfortunately, not all schools are able to meet 100% of a student's Demonstrated Need. This may be an important factor when choosing which schools to apply to.
How Much Aid Will I Get?
How much aid you receive will depend on the cost of attendance, your family's financial situation, and how much funding is available. Financial aid can be complicated, but the steps you need to take to apply for financial aid are simple. File the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form and, if necessary, the CSS Profile (College Scholarship Service Profile). Also, search and apply for scholarships. The only way to get financial aid is to apply.
Scholarships
Finding Scholarships
The more scholarship money you earn, the less you will have to borrow by way of student loans (or pay out of pocket); it's free money. Therefore, it’s totally worth taking the time to find and apply for scholarships. The counselors at Boulder High have compiled a list of annual scholarships that students can sift through and apply to. This list can be a good place to start your scholarship journey:
Two Main Sources for Merit Scholarships
1. Private local and national scholarships
- Awarded by private organizations, foundations, individuals, etc.
- See the list of scholarship search engines below.
2. College-based scholarships
- Awarded by colleges for use at that college only.
- Students are automatically considered for some scholarship programs upon application submission. Other scholarships you'll need to apply for. See "Merit Scholarships from Universities and Colleges" below.
- Search on the college's website.
Scholarship Search Engines
Scholarship search engines online are a useful tool in searching for scholarships; however, keep in mind the following:
- You should only sign up for one or two sites.
- You should never have to pay for a scholarship search.
- You may want to set up a secondary email address to use with these search engines because of the ads and spam you will probably receive.
Some Useful Sites
- CareerOneStop Scholarship Search
- College Board's scholarship search
- Fastweb
- Going Merry Scholarship Search
- Peterson's Scholarship Search Engine
- Raise.me (for micro-scholarships)
- Scholarship America
- Scholarships.com
- Scholarships Opportunities List via CU Boulder
Additional Search Tips for Private Scholarships
Investigate other sources for scholarships:
- Employers of parents and relatives
- Clubs (Elks, Rotary, etc.)
- Sports organizations
- Religious organizations
- Volunteer organizations
Check specific college websites for private scholarships:
- For example, go to CU's "External Opportunities" Scholarship List
Merit Scholarships from Universities and Colleges
1st Tier: Automatic Scholarships
- Your College Admission Application serves as the scholarship application for scholarships you are automatically considered for (e.g., CU Esteemed Scholar Awards).
2nd Tier: General scholarship application
- Complete an additional application for multiple scholarships.
- For example, CU-Boulder Scholarship Application is due Nov 1- March 13. (Note: Some scholarship applications are due as early as February 15!)
3rd Tier: Department scholarships
- Academic departments and colleges at individual schools also offer scholarships (e.g., CU Leeds School of Business, Engineering (BOLD), Liberal Arts (Norlin Scholars Program).
- For these, you may need to contact the department directly for information on scholarship opportunities, application requirements, and deadlines, or find information online.
Applying for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a government-funded student assistance program. These programs provide grants, loans, and work-study funds to students attending college or career school. Some colleges use the FAFSA to determine if an applicant is eligible for more need-based financial aid.
How to Apply
- The FAFSA form opens in the fall. You will need an FSA ID, which you can get at fsaid.ed.gov, to electronically sign the FAFSA.
- Then, file the FAFSA online at fafsa.ed.gov. Gather your information beforehand: social security number, tax information (income and assets, taxed/untaxed), and school information.
- The FAFSA is a free form. You do not need to pay anybody to file the FAFSA.
The CSS Profile
In addition to completing the FAFSA, some schools may also require the CSS Profile (College Scholarship Service Profile). The CSS Profile is an online application to determine eligibility for non-federal financial aid, and it is administered by the College Board. For an overview, check out the College Board presentation or start with the CSS Profile Application Page. To determine eligibility for need-based financial aid, the CSS Profile goes into more detail than the FAFSA. You will need the following documents: your most recently completed tax returns, W-2 forms and other records of current-year income, records of untaxed income and benefits, assets, and bank statements.
The CSS Profile can be filed starting October 1 and should be completed as soon as possible to take advantage of aid that is distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. All schools have their own deadlines in place for the CSS, but many require students to file the profile two weeks before the college's priority admission application deadline.
Other Tuition Resources: COF, WUE, Student Loans
Colorado Opportunity Fund (COF): The COF is a fund created by the Colorado Legislature to provide a way of distributing Colorado tax dollars to the colleges in Colorado, by creating a stipend for each resident undergraduate student who attends a participating college or university. There is no income qualification, and the students can be part-time or full-time. It is recommended that all students pre-register for this stipend, even before knowing if they will be attending a college in Colorado. The stipend is paid on a per credit hour basis for up to 145 credit hours. If you are a Colorado resident at least 13 years old, register for the Colorado College Opportunity Fund (COF).
Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE): WUE enables students from one of 16 WICHE states and territories in the Western U.S. to enroll as nonresidents in 160+ participating public colleges and universities and pay 150 percent (or less) of the enrolling school’s resident tuition—which annually saves students an average of $9,610 each on the cost of nonresident tuition.
Student Loans: Click here to visit the Federal Student Aid site for information on Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans, Federal Parent PLUS Loans, and Private Loans .
Applying for State Financial Aid (CASFA)
In September 2020, the Colorado Department of Higher Education announced a new online application that allows Colorado students who have historically not qualified for federal aid to complete an application for state financial aid. The Colorado Application for State Financial Aid (CASFA) opens October 1 and is available here. More information on the CASFA can be found here: https://highered.colorado.gov/casfa.