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University of Colorado Boulder
Out-of-State Undergraduate Tuition Guarantee

The University of Colorado Boulder offers a four-year tuition guarantee (also known as flat tuition) for out-of-state undergraduates.

The tuition guarantee makes CU-Boulder's costs more predictable and serves as an additional incentive for students to graduate in four years. Currently two-thirds of out-of-state CU-Boulder bachelor's degree recipients who entered as freshmen graduate in four years or less, as do almost 90% of out-of-state transfers who graduate from CU-Boulder.

New out-of-state undergraduates entering summer through spring period are assigned a tuition group -- also called a tuition cohort -- with group rates guaranteed for them through the summer following the fourth fall term.   See the table below for cohorts with entry dates.

History:  The program was announced in spring 2005.  New and continuing out-of-state undergraduates enrolled in terms through spring 2006 were all placed in tuition "Group A" with published rates for 2005-06 guaranteed for those students through summer 2009.  

Details

• Out-of-state undergraduate students do not need to take any action to participate in the tuition guarantee program.
• Fees, room and board, and other non-tuition expenses are not included in the tuition guarantee.
• The guarantee covers degree- and licensure-seeking undergraduates only.  Class standing at entry is irrelevant; it can be freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, 5th year senior, or  undergraduate certificate student in Education.
• In-state tuition, graduate level tuition, Continuing Education tuition, and study abroad tuition are not covered by the guarantee.
• Each year by June 30 the Board of Regents will set a new tuition rate table. The new rates may be published as tentative well before June 30, at the Bursar's tuition and fee web-site.
• Students will be placed in a tuition guarantee group based on their first term enrolled at CU-Boulder as a degree- or licensure-seeking out-of-state on-campus student. The tuition guarantee group covers both new freshmen and transfers and is not affected by class standing at entry. "On-campus" excludes students on study abroad and students taking only continuing education courses (also called extended studies courses).
• Students covered by the guarantee who transfer to a school or college within CU-Boulder that has a different tuition rate (for example, from Arts and Sciences to Business) will pay the rate for the new school or college listed in the tuition rate table for their guarantee group.
• The fall 2005 out-of-state (or non-resident) tuition rates for undergraduates were guaranteed through Summer 2009 for all degree-seeking undergraduate students paying on-campus out-of-state undergraduate tuition in any term Spring 2006 or before.
• The four-year tuition guarantee program was effective beginning with the Fall 2005 semester.

How the program works

Each tuition guarantee group will have a guaranteed tuition rate table for four calendar years. The following table outlines groups of the undergraduate out-of-state tuition guarantee program through 2012 entry.

• Students entering in summer will be charged for that summer term according to the immediately prior rate table, then move to the rate table associated with their tuition group for fall and subsequent terms. E.g., students entering summer 2012 will pay Table G charges in summer '12, then move to Table H through summer 2016.
• Students will remain in the same tuition guarantee group (i.e., cohort) until the end of the summer term of their fourth year (see table above for term dates). When the tuition rate table associated with any given group expires, students in that group who are still enrolled will be charged the rate of the next group for one year following, incrementing one group or rate table per year. For example, students in group A were charged rate table A through summer 2009, then rate table B for one year ('09-10), rate table C for the following year ('10-11), and so on. Students in group B were charged rate table C for '10-11, table D for '11-12, and so on.
• Continuous enrollment is not required, but the guarantee rate expires in four calendar years regardless of the number of terms a student is enrolled in that period.
• Readmitted students who were enrolled in or before 2005-06 will be treated like others in tuition guarantee group A.
• Students who are admitted for a term but defer enrollment to a later term will be placed in a tuition guarantee group based on their first term of enrollment. For example, a student admitted for fall 2005 who deferred and first enrolled fall 2006 was in tuition guarantee group B.
• In the Campus Solutions student records system, student groups NRGx denote the successive Non-Resident Guarantee cohorts:  NRGA, B, C, D, E, F, etc., plus NRG0 (zero) for the default group charged the rate for students entering that year before the appropriate cohort code is assigned.  Code NRGD is labeled SFFA Non Res Guarantee Group D.  The codes and group assignments are handled by the Bursar's Office.   
• In SIS (the prior student information system) tuition cohort was held in element AA168 (student AU attribute #5, screen 16, translation table AA168; PBA sent list of students to Registration to populate.
• The Board of Regents reserves the right to change tuition rates at any time.

Updated 4-13-11, PBA

Last revision 04/13/11