Financial Aid & Scholarships

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 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.

• 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.

• 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). 

• 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.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a government-funded student assistance program. Federal Student Aid is responsible for managing the student financial assistance programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. These programs provide grants, loans, and work-study funds to students attending college or career school. Federal Student Aid, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, is the largest provider of student financial aid in the nation. Some colleges use the FAFSA to determine if an applicant is eligible for more need-based financial aid. Students and parents can apply as early as October 1. 

HOW TO APPLY

• 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.

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.

Both the CSS Profile and the FAFSA form can be filed as early as 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.

CSS Profile Tutorial

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): Founded in 1987, the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE, pronounced “woo-ee”) is a regional tuition-discount agreement administered by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). 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 .

BOETTCHER SCHOLARSHIP

The Boettcher Foundation offers a merit-based scholarship that guarantees essentially a full-ride to any 4-year institution in Colorado. The student needs to contact their NMSHS counselor mid-September of their senior year to determine if eligibility, and their entire Boettcher Scholarship application is due to their counselor by late October of their senior year.

OTHER MERIT-BASED SCHOLARSHIPS

Merit-based scholarships may be awarded to a select group of entering Colorado resident freshman students based on a combination of grade point average and test scores. Students are automatically considered for these programs upon submission of an admissions application to the college and usually no additional application is required. Here are a few examples of these resident freshman scholarships:

• CU-Boulder Esteemed Scholars Program
• Colorado Mesa University Merit Scholarships
• Colorado State University Resident Merit Scholarships
• Fort Lewis College Freshmen Tuition Merit Scholarship

In addition to searching for Institutional Aid from colleges of interest, we recommend you search the Naviance scholarship database. Naviance contains many local or regional scholarships from businesses, foundations, and other private donors. Many of these scholarships can be used at any four- or two- year college of your choice. NMSHS counselors recommend that students search Naviance by month to see a list of current scholarships, eligibility requirements, and deadlines. Always verify details directly with the scholarship providers, as deadline dates do change, and those published in Naviance may not be accurate.  

For a complete list of scholarships, or for more detail on any of these listed here or offered at other times, open Naviance and navigate to the Scholarship List, found on the "Scholarships and Money" page under the "Colleges" tab.

In addition to Institutional Aid from colleges themselves, and the local/regional scholarships found in Naviance, you may want to use other scholarship search engines, particularly if you have a very unique attribute for which local/regional scholarships may not exist.    

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
• College in Colorado - not only for Colorado institutions
• Fastweb
• Peterson's Scholarship Search Engine
• Raise.me (for micro-scholarships)
• Scholarship America
• Scholarships.com

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

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.