So I was recently accepted into the school of communications at the University of Colorado Boulder, which was possibly my top school overall. I was elated to find out that I could go here, only to discover the total price per year, roughly 50,000 dollars. While I have come to expect a higher price for most out of state schools, many of the one’s that I’ve been accepted to have offered me at least 10,000 up front in first year scholarships, yet I didn’t get any from Boulder. While I’m attempting to squeeze as much money as I can from random private scholarships, the price is still a lot to ask for, and though I may not apply for FAFSA aid, I can’t exactly pay that kind of price, as my family has other siblings to put through college as well. My question is, what kind of things does CU Boulder do for out of state students once they actually attend the college. I’ve heard from local students who also go there that they do “a lot for out of state students”, but so far, in my case at least, that hasn’t been the case. Is there any sort of advanced financial aid that the school supplies you with once you actually attend it, or will I just have to scrounge around for this kind of money here?
Why on earth would you not complete the FAFSA and apply for financial aid? It is free and can do nothing but help you, especially with siblings attending college. It took my parents and I literally only 45 minutes to fill out last week even with estimating taxes from the previous year. It is my opinion that not completing the FAFSA is a serious mistake for anyone unless their family is making over 225K a year. If that is the case, no need to fill it out since you are likely not going to receive aid and should be able to afford the 50-60K a year an out of state or private school will be asking for in the comprehensive fee.
As far as the original question regarding scholarships or merit based awards (or advanced financial aid as you refer to it), the school clearly list the merit based scholarships that they offer on their website. If they have not offered anything initially, then you may want to send an email and inquire directly if you qualify for any merit based awards.
Good Luck.
I fully plan on completing the FAFSA, I just Highly doubt that I’ll qualify, but I agree, there’s absolutely no reason not to, but thanks for the tip
Bear in mind that most private scholarships are a one-off. They are not renewable for all 4 years. If u are aready struggling to pay the 1st year, even w private scholarships, it’s likely to be evwn worse in the years after that.
Do not overextend yourself financially. The CC forum is literred w sad tales of students who were in financial denial who could barely afford the 1st year, and had to withdraw to attend a cheaper school.
Colleges will not typically award you more aid than your offer. The offer is the offer. Sometimes continuing students can get small departmental awards. There is no hidden funds going to be showered on you. If you want to know what those students meant, ask them.
When schools have financial policies where they give OOS students merit awards, it is because they need to be somewhat aggressive in attracting students with that profile. Colorado isn’t known for it. Either they are attracting the students they want already or the state don’t want to pay for OOS students.
It doesn’t sound like you are Pell eligible so all your will get from the feds is a student loan. However fafsa only schools use it to calculate institutional aid.
Did you apply for aid when you file out your application? Public colleges usually don’t give any need aid to OOS students but that is the only way to get non merit based aid. Also some of the CU scholarships that you apply for separately have a need component. Did you apply here? Since deadline isn’t till Mar 1 it seems notification is in April.
http://www.colorado.edu/scholarships/cuboulder-scholarship-app
@Topsuns I would send them an email about aid. I live in Oregon so I am OOS. In their acceptance letter they gave me a presidential scholarship worth $15k per year and about a month later the engineering department gave me another $2.5k per year. I also was placed into the honors college but I am not sure if that matters. They may give this scholarship to someone else as I still cannot afford to go to UC Boulder and will be going to University of Texas Austin or Texas A&M. Good luck!
CU Boulder has several merit scholarships that are automatic based on a combination of test scores. If you qualified for one of these, you would have been notified with your acceptance or fairly quickly after. If you chose not to fill out the FAFSA, I would not expect to receive anything besides the automatic merit scholarships.
Link for automatic scholarships: