College In Colorado

You can find out how much it may cost you to attend college in the state of Colorado by using the Financial Aid Award Estimator or accessing each college’s financial aid page. If you are interested in attending college outside the state of Colorado, on the Colleges Outside the State of Colorado page is a link to other states' sites — you can use your CollegeInColorado.org username and password to access any of these sites. Alternatively, navigate to Choices® Planner  from the Home page, then when in Planner, click on the Learn tab.

While each college's Cost of Attendance (COA) is different, costs include tuition and fees, allowances for books, housing, personal items and transportation, as well as costs for child care and those related to disabilities if applicable.

Tuition and fees are direct costs of attending school and usually must be paid (or payment arrangements made) before you begin the first day of classes. If you will live in a residence hall, you will also have to pay college room and board expenses up front. Other items, such as personal expenses, transportation and in some cases, housing, are indirect costs for which you can budget over the academic year. You should also consider planned expenditures that are not included in a COA such as car payments and spring-break trips.

When you look at a college's COA, remember that it's possible that your actual expenditures may be less than the school's estimated COA. For example, you may be able to save on books by buying used books instead of new, or share the cost of an apartment with a friend.

You can afford higher education but you need to understand the cost of your education first.  Take a peek at what colleges and universities in Colorado are currently charging for tuition, fees, room and board and then check out different types of financial aid that will assist you.

In general, if you are an undergraduate student under the age of 24, you are considered a dependent student for financial aid purposes. See the definition of Independent Student for exceptions to this rule.

Money you receive to help pay for your college expenses is considered financial aid. There are different types of financial aid available from different sources with varying requirements.

There are two broad categories of financial aid ; merit-based aid and need-based aid. You may be eligible for merit aid because of a particular skill, achievement, talent or characteristic. Merit aid is usually given in the form of scholarships and is considered "gift-aid" because it doesn't need to be paid back. You may be eligible for need-based aid if the expected family contribution (EFC) calculated in your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) indicates you cannot afford to go to college using only your own or your family's financial resources.

Almost every student is eligible for some form of financial assistance for college — grants, scholarships, loans or some combination of these. In order to be considered for federal and state funding as well as some institutional and private funding, a student must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid ( FAFSA) every year. You must be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen to complete this application process.

Financial need is determined by subtracting expected family contribution (your EFC) from the cost of attendance (COA) at the college you will attend.

No. This calculation represents you and your family’s ability to help pay educational expenses during the current year. It is calculated from the information you submit when you complete and file your FAFSA and is used to determine your eligibility for need-based financial aid. Colleges often offer an unsubsidized loan and/or parent a PLUS loan to replace the EFC.

Upon application to a college, most colleges require students to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

The earliest you can complete the FAFSA is January 1st of the year in which you intend to begin fall classes. However, you should begin researching scholarships much sooner so that you can plan to met the requirements of those in which you are interested.

Once you do complete and submit the FAFSA, the U.S. Department of Education will send a Student Aid Report (SAR) to you. Review the SAR carefully to make sure all of the information on it is correct. If corrections do need to be made, call the financial aid office at your college first. They may wish to make the corrections or they may ask you to make them.

If you have a Federal Student Aid Personal Identification Number (PIN), you will be able to sign the FAFSA electronically. If you are a dependent student, your parent should also obtain a PIN. Apply for the FAFSA Pin on the
U.S. Department of Education’s PIN Website.

After the financial aid personnel at your college receive your FAFSA information, they may request additional documentation from you to verify accuracy of the information. Each year, thirty percent of FAFSA applications submitted are randomly selected by the U.S. Department of Education for this process.

The college financial aid office determines your cost of attendance (which is an estimate of the amount it will cost for you to attend college that year) and reviews your Free Application for Federal Student Aid results to calculate your financial need.

Your official offer of student aid from a college or university, community college or career or technical school will be in the form of an award letter or notice. While you can apply for financial aid before you complete admission applications, schools may not make an official offer of aid until you are accepted for enrollment.

Explore every opportunity for financial aid; scholarships, grants, work-study, and loans and make sure you complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in a timely manner.

Probably. Grants and scholarship funds are rarely large enough to cover your entire cost of attendance (COA).

No. Accepting a student or parent loan is always optional. You need not be afraid of student loans, but you do need to plan ahead and be wise when accepting them. If you borrow more than necessary while in college, you may find it difficult to repay your loans after you graduate. Better understand your alternatives by running the SLOPE Calculator and reading the Loan Repayment Guide.

Because scholarships recipients are selected for a wide variety of reasons (including superior academic or athletic performance) it is helpful to research these opportunities as early as 8th grade — well ahead of when you actually need to apply for the scholarship.

Since completing the applications for scholarships can be very time consuming, you will want to begin applying shortly after you start your senior year in high school.

We store hundreds of scholarship listings on this Website and provide additional links to free scholarship search services. Also, check with your college to see if there are scholarships ( institutional scholarships) for which you should apply.

The Hope Scholarship is actually a tax credit from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that is available for the first two years of an undergraduate program for each student in a taxpayer's family.

The Lifetime Learning tax credit is similar to the Hope Scholarship credit except that the student may be attending any grade level.

Federal Stafford Loan payments begin six-months after you graduate or drop below half time attendance.

Federal Perkins Loan payments begin nine-months after you graduate or drop below half-time attendance.

Monthly payments for PLUS Loans (loans parents can borrow for undergraduate students) begin after the loan is fully disbursed while the student is in school.

Terms and conditions vary for private alternative loans, so review provisions in the promissory note to find out when payments start.

Yes. You can deduct the interest you have paid on your student loans when you file your federal tax return. There are limits on how much you can deduct, so talk with your tax advisor or the Internal Revenue Service for further information.

Consequences of defaulting on your student loans are serious and can affect your lifestyle for many years.  Among other ramifications, you will immediately owe up to 25% more because of collection charges, you can be sued for the entire amount of your loan including unpaid interest, collection charges, court costs and attorneys fees, your credit rating will be severely damaged, you will not be eligible to receive further federal financial aid unless you make satisfactory arrangements to repay the amount due on your defaulted loans and you may become ineligible for assistance from federal benefit programs (business and home loans, public assistance, etc.).

There are loan repayment options available to help you not default on your loans, but it is up to you to take advantage of these options. Your lender is willing to work with you to help you make your monthly payments by allowing you to suspend your payments for a period of time (either through deferment or forbearance) or to consolidate your loans, but you must initiate this assistance by contacting them to let them know your situation.