What You Pay

Advisor helping student in an office


Tuition and fees for Summer Session are assessed separately from the fall and spring semesters.

Tuition and fee rates are determined by your program of study, residency classification, and the number of credit hours in which you are enrolled. The Bursar’s Office website publishes tuition and fees for:

Housing costs may also appear on the tuition and fee bill. See the Housing and Dining Services website for more information on rates for Summer Session.

Tuition and fees are just one part of the overall cost to attend CU Boulder. The full cost of attendance could include expenses such as on-campus housing and food, books and supplies, and items that are not billed by the university, such as personal expenses, transportation and medical insurance. Learn more about the full cost of attendance.

Confirmation Deposits

New degree students must pay a $200 confirmation deposit at least 24 hours before they’re allowed to register for courses. If the student withdraws during their first semester at CU, they are not eligible for a confirmation deposit refund.

Otherwise, confirmation deposits will apply to student accounts during their first semester of enrollment.

If a student withdraws or drops all their classes, the student may need to pay the confirmation deposit again upon returning to CU before they can register for classes, depending on CU Boulder admission policy. Visit the Bursar’s Office website to learn more.

In addition to tuition, students must pay fees each session. See Mandatory Student Fees and Other Fees and Charges on the University Bill. The Athletic Fee, Career Services Fee and Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) Grad Fee are not charged during the summer. Fees are determined by several factors including, but not limited to, session, number of credit hours, residency and graduate status. Fees by session are listed on the reverse side of Summer 2026 Tuition & Fee Rate Sheets.

Students enrolled in summer classes who are assessed full fees will have Rec Center access for the duration of the classes. For example, if a student is enrolled in A Session classes only from May 26 through June 26, they would need to purchase a membership to have access after June 26. Non-fee-paying and base-fee-paying students (e.g., doctoral candidates, graduate status D) can purchase a summer membership.

All students on graduate student assistant appointments of 20% or greater will receive full coverage of mandatory student fees. The exact amount of fees is determined by enrollment level and graduate status. Waivers will apply to the student account when the appointment is applied.

The fees assessed for Summer Session non-degree students depend on whether you are taking main campus in-person or online courses:

  • Students taking one or more main campus in-person classes are charged full mandatory fees per the campus fee schedule. These fees give students access to the RTD bus system and other campus services.
  • Students whose main campus summer schedule consists of only online classes are charged online fees.
  • High school non-degree student fees can be found here.

If you do not plan to utilize the resources covered by student fees, you may follow the instructions on this page to waive the majority of your fees.

The College Opportunity Fund (COF), created by the Colorado Legislature, provides a stipend that pays a portion of total in-state tuition for eligible undergraduate students who attend a Colorado public institution or a participating private institution.

Students may be eligible to apply their COF stipend to their Summer Session tuition if they’ve done the following:

If the student authorizes CU Boulder to apply the COF stipend to their tuition and fee bill, it will do so automatically until the student graduates, revokes their authorization or exceeds their credit limit. Visit the Office of the Registrar’s website for more information, including classes that are not COF eligible.

Summer Session drop and withdrawal deadlines occur soon after the first day of classes.

Please be aware of the add/drop/withdrawal deadlines for each session to avoid being charged for classes you wish to drop. (Please note that some drop deadlines are as soon as the second day of class.)

If you add additional credit hours after your bill is generated, you will be charged for those hours separately. You are not charged for waitlisted courses.

See withdrawal information if you are dropping all your courses in either a specific session or for all of Summer Session.

Students in a double-degree program or double major are assessed tuition for the program of study with the higher tuition rate.