Does Colorado College have a reputation for generous financial aid as compared to other highly competitive private LAC’s? And is it just as good generosity-wise for ED2 candidates who apply for finanical aid? Does anyone know?
From what I know, in general, Colorado College is not very generous with financial aid. It seems to be a common notion on these threads that if you aren’t applying for financial aid, your chances of getting in are a lot higher. Obviously it depends on a lot of factors, but overall I don’t think I would call them generous. I have also seen statistics that show how wealthy the student body is which means not a lot of students got any aid/significant amounts of aid. I don’t mean to discourage you, and with financial aid you can never really know, but that’s just what I’ve seen.
32% of students at CC receive financial aid averaging about $49,000 according to US News. But not clear as to what portion is grant aid versus loans.
Another chart shows that 31% received grant aid money equal to a 66% discount leaving a cost of about $24,000 for one academic year.
Without including travel & personal expenses, the COA per academic year at CC is about $70,000.
There are websites which help calculate the EFC ( Effective Family Contribution.) From what I have heard, CC provides virtually that exact amount to any admitted student. There are a handful of academic scholarships - many of which kick in during Years 2 to 4. But in terms of demonstrated need, you would be well advised to find an EFC website ( The ACT people have one) which will provide a reasonably good estimate.
I think what @KoloradoKid is talking about is the net price calculator. Here a link to CCs NPCs (https://www.coloradocollege.edu/admission/financialaid/net-price-calculator-myintuition/) They have 2 that you can fill out. We found that they were not very accurate for us. The NPC said my daughter would get good financial aid, but they gave her no need based aid. When we showed them what their NPC calculated and the difference from what they actually said she would get, they basically told us too bad. That was our experience.
the problem with NPC for us is we own a business. my understanding is that the NPC is often very inaccurate for people who own a business, and that the federal EFC calculators are absolutely useless and irrelevant for people who have income from an owned business but are applying to private colleges that use college board profile (like Colorado College)
@splokey , yep, that is true. We own business also. The college board NPC for CC is pretty detailed, but was still not accurate at all. And, sadly, owning a business is really bad for trying to get financial aid from CC. Sorry.
ugh… my kid just applied ED2. ED2 seemed necessary due to the greatly better odds of acceptance as compared to RD. I do know that if there is an acceptance, if the finaid isn’t good we are allowed to back out on that basis, but this is the first time we ever applied for finaid for any of our kids and we’ll have no way to know if it would be way better at some other (private, wealthy colleges with reputation for generous finaid) schools applied to RD - or not. and if there’s an acceptance, to tell my kid no to the first choice that is preferred eons above all the other places applied to, is going to be hard. especially because the older siblings were able to go to their equally expensive top choices in the past, without any hinderance regarding the financial factor. 
@pcmom1 , can you tell me - if you had experience to compare - was the need-based financial aid offer at other colleges significantly better (while owning a business) at other college(s) your kid got into ?
@splokey, most of the schools she applied to offered her a lot of merit aid with no need based aid. However, the school she ended up at offered her great need-based aid, and they don’t give merit aid to any students. We even went back to CC to ask them for some need based aid based on what their NPC said they would give us and they told us no. Sorry. Hopefully they will be more generous to you. My son is a senior at CC and has loved it there. He did not get any need based aid either, but was awarded the Barnes Scholarship for Math, so it worked out great for him and us.
@pcmom1 , could you say which school your daughter went to where you got the great need-based aid ? it might help me judge whether it is one of, or similar to one of, the RD schools that my kid applied to and could possibly factor into a decision to pull out of the ED2 at colorado college (switch it to RD) if we had at least some semblance of a basis- like your experience - to make a wild guess based on. (I’m really struggling with the dilemma over this situation.) (If you prefer not to put it here publically, I would be so grateful if you, then, maybe consider to only pm it to me!)
@splokey , my daughter is freshman at Carleton College. so far, she is very happy with her decision.
Sheesh. D applied RD to CC–she submitted her app super early (October). Just today we got an email requesting tax returns and W2s (even though we completed CSS and FAFSA long ago). The email stated that they will not review her admission application until all of these docs are submitted. I know that CC is not need-blind, but no other school (she’s applied to 9) has this requirement. I suppose it must be about yield protection? It’s left a bad taste…she has a very strong app and has already been accepted to a comparable school with substantial merit aid, in addition to a state flagship with a full tuition scholarship (we will not qualify for any need-based aid). It will be interesting to see how this plays out…CC was at the top of her list early on; we visited twice, including once to the invitation-only Colorado Scholars program.
@Labmama , wow, that makes it sound like financial considerations are an extremely significant factor in their admissions decisions. I agree that, for a relatively elite college, it doesn’t come off with a great taste.
@hopefulmom123 because she applied SCEA elsewhere, which restricted her from applying EA at CC.