Financing Your Legal Education

Financial Aid Basics

Financial aid includes grants, scholarships, work-study, and Direct Unsubsidized student loans.

Submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each academic year. This application becomes available each year on October 1 and uses the prior, prior tax year information. Our Title IV school code is (001370). The FAFSA determines your eligibility for grants, loans, work-study, and external need-based scholarships. You must apply early and correctly to avoid delays in receiving your aid.

Resources:

• FAFSA
• University of Colorado Financial Aid
• Colorado Law's financial aid counselor can be reached at lawfinancialaid@colorado.edu or 303-492-0647.
• Our financial aid counselor has an office within the Law Admissions suite (Suite 103 in the Wolf Law Building) with office hours on Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Loans

CU Boulder participates in the Federal William D. Ford Direct Loan program. The lender is the U.S. Department of Education rather than a bank or other financial institution. You are automatically considered for a Direct Unsubsidized Loan after submitting your FAFSA. 

Loan features

• Unsubsidized meaning that interest begins to accrue on the loan as soon as it is disbursed (while you are enrolled).
• Loan origination fee is 1.057%.
• Repayment begins 6 months after you graduate, drop below half time or withdraw. Federal Student Aid has more information about managing repayment.

Loan Limits
The Juris Doctor (JD) program is considered a professional degree. First-time borrowers after July 1, 2026, enrolled in a professional degree program, are limited to $50,000 per year. Total aggregate borrowing limit per student is $200,000. 

If you previously borrowed federal loans while enrolled in your degree program at CU Boulder, you are considered a repeat/continuing borrower. Your borrowing limit should not change in July 2026. Graduate and Professional students who are continuing borrowers should continue to have an annual loan limit of $20,500 and a lifetime loan limit of $138,500. 

Grants and Scholarships

All admitted students will be considered for scholarships based on their application for admission. A separate scholarship application is not required. If you are awarded a grant and/or scholarship, this money will be credited to your student account at the time of billing. Please contact the Law School Admissions Office with questions about scholarships.

The Admissions Office also awards scholarship money to continuing students each year. In the spring, a list of scholarships is disseminated to all students with instructions on how to apply. Those scholarships are based on a variety of qualifications including, but not limited to, academic merit, financial need, merit & need, or other qualifications as specified. Students are encouraged to apply for all scholarships for which they think they are eligible and qualify. The Admissions Office sends out an email in late winter alerting all students to the scholarship awarding timeline and process.

This information is subject to change without notice. It is intended as a general source of information about financial aid and is in no way intended to state contractual terms.