Boulder is my dream school, I have my heart set on it. I cannot picture myself anywhere else. I have backup options, but nothing compares to Boulder. Unfortunately, the cost is a hefty one. My family does not struggle with money by any means, but the fact is that it’s just a very expensive school. 50 grand is a lot of money. I filled out FAFSA and they only gave me 1,000 dollars off. I handed in the general scholarship application, and I’m applying to many others within the school that require separate essays. I have also been looking into private scholarships like crazy. However, I’m starting to have negative thoughts and I just feel like nothing is worth it (I’m still going to try, I’m just really drained from all these applications and essays I have to write). The thought of not going to Boulder seriously makes me want to sob and makes me really upset. I just know that this is the school where I belong. What are some other ways I can get money off? What do you suggest I do? I will give anything a try. Thanks for reading 
Where else did you apply? What qualities about Boulder make it your dream school? You are out of state, I assume? Where do you have residency?
My other top choices are PSU, University of Rhode Island, JMU (deferred), and University of Delaware (still waiting to hear back), I got accepted everywhere unless stated otherwise. I am a Pennsylvania resident (I am a CO native, this does not help with residency status, but some scholarships include CO residents and natives). I love Boulder because (obviously) Colorado is awesome and, coming from Philadelphia, I’m ready for a different experience. Academically, Boulder has a plethora of options for my field of study. They are the only school I was accepted to that had a Linguistics major, and they have several study abroad opportunities. You can tell that the school really cares about learning from other countries, which is important to me as I plan on studying language (minor in Spanish).
You can save money after freshman year by renting in Longmont or another surrounding town and bussing into Boulder. CU Boulder is very strong in physics, math, chemistry, biology and OK in Engineering.
Humanities departments in Boulder are substantially weaker than most older east coast state schools, with the exception of music performance, which is well ranked. As much as you seem anxious to get back to Colorado and have a western experience, you may want to find a stronger option in state or closer by, for your chosen major, linguistics, I would look more carefully at Penn State and Rhode Island and find out more about the rank of English, linguistics, philosophy departments. Boulder has had a scandal in the philosophy department recently and many faculty left. Hard to know
what that was really about but the papers reported it as “sexual harassment” on a grand scale. Still Boulder is a great city, with lots to do including theatre, music, food, hiking, Buddhism experiences, political activism and of course skiing close by.
For instance Penn State has a Linguistics Department: http://linguistics.la.psu.edu
Go to Penn State, get a job or go to grad school in Boulder after you graduate.
The only thing with Penn State is that I got into Altoona, not University Park. However, Altoona is the second most populous campus at PSU and only a 40 minute bus ride from Main. Additionally, I got a 16k (4k a year) scholarship from PSU on Saturday so all I have to do is visit Altoona and decide how I feel about it. Also, depending on if I get in, I really liked James Madison; and if I get in, I would heavily consider going there.
I am not sure, but I thought you couldn’t declare residency until 23 years of age or something like that? I could be wrong, though.
We have a similar issue with the school my D has been accepted to. My advice is to go with your parent(s), with prepared supporting documents, and sit down with the FA office. Our numbers on paper look like we could afford the COA but felt there were extenuating circumstances that could possibly be considered for some assistance from the school.
My H visited the school with D and left feeling like there was a good chance we would get help. It’s always best to put a face to the numbers. We felt the visit was well worth the price of the trip. Very productive.