How much does CU Boulder cost in 2025-26?

Published annual cost is $34,310 for Colorado residents, $64,452 for non-residents, and $66,552 for international students. CU's Tuition Guarantee locks the tuition portion for four years; housing, food, and fees continue to adjust annually.

CU Boulder· Renewal Rules

Keeping CU Boulder’s Merit Aid for Four Years

What the financial-aid office actually requires after freshman year: minimum GPA, credit-hour pace, and the cliffs that quietly downgrade families mid-degree.

Verified May 20268 days ago· CC-1

At a glance

Renewable tiers: 2 of 2
One-time tiers: 0
Tiers with published renewal terms: 2
Renewal risk profile: moderate

Renewal risk profile

CU Boulder's renewal bar is achievable for steady students but isn't generous. Most awards require a cumulative GPA in the 3.0–3.4 band plus full-time enrollment. Audit the strictest tier on this school's list before assuming the four-year value is locked in.

Automatic Consideration Scholarships: Full-time enrollment
CU Boulder Scholarship Application (competitive layer): See notes

Renewal terms by tier

Automatic Consideration Scholarships
Amount varies; tier names and dollar values not publicly published
To keep it: Renewal terms vary by individual award; verify in the offer letter. Most CU awards require continued full-time enrollment and minimum GPA.
Source: https://www.colorado.edu/scholarships/prospective-first-year-students
CU Boulder Scholarship Application (competitive layer)
Amounts vary by individual scholarship
To keep it: Renewal varies by donor restriction; verify in the offer letter.
Source: https://www.colorado.edu/scholarships/prospective-first-year-students

How families lose this aid

Skipping the December 1 CU Boulder Scholarship Application.
Most named CU scholarships live behind a single supplemental application that opens December 1. Admitted students who don't complete it lose access to dozens of donor and departmental awards, including some of the most generous ones, even with strong academic profiles.
Assuming the Tuition Guarantee covers total cost.
The CU Boulder Tuition Guarantee locks the published TUITION rate for four years — it does not lock fees, housing, food, or any other indirect cost. Families modeling four-year totals should still inflate housing, food, and fees year over year.

Renewal questions families ask

How much does CU Boulder cost in 2025-26?: Published annual cost is $34,310 for Colorado residents, $64,452 for non-residents, and $66,552 for international students. CU's Tuition Guarantee locks the tuition portion for four years; housing, food, and fees continue to adjust annually.

Rules that bite at CU Boulder

The renewal trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook, derived from CU Boulder's own tier rules and not generic advice.

renewalAutomatic Consideration Scholarships: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewal terms vary by individual award; verify in the offer letter. Most CU awards require continued full-time enrollment and minimum GPA. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

How CU Boulder compares across our verified dataset

133 of 150 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
CU Boulder is one of them. The cohort minority (17 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.

Sources used on this page

Every renewal claim is checked against CU Boulder’s own published materials.