Scholarships & Grants
Scholarships are a great way to help you pay for college! Last year alone, CCA Foundation awarded over $500,000 in scholarships to students. You could be like Nereida Arroyo-Ramirez, who had the cost of her entire education at CCA covered by scholarships and grants. Read Nereida's story.
Types of Scholarships
- CCA Foundation scholarships: The Summer and Fall scholarship application period opens on April 1 and closes on May 31. To receive priority for summer scholarships, please submit your application by May 1. The Spring scholarship period opens on October 1 and ends on November 30.
- Click here to identify and locate your student email to assist with creating a scholarship application account.
- CCA Institutional scholarships and grants: Scholarships and grants are available year-round.
- Colorado Community College System scholarships: Applicants for the 2022-2023 aid year have been selected. Applications for 2023-2024 will be available March 1, 2023 through April 15, 2023.
- Other/private scholarships*: Please check individual scholarships for due dates.
How to Apply for Scholarships:
- Review scholarship and eligibility requirements.
- Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). CCA school code is 016058. Some scholarships do not require FAFSA. Please view the Financial Aid web page for more information.
- Complete the scholarship application. For CCA Foundation scholarships, you only need to fill out one application to apply for all CCA Foundation scholarships.
If you are a DACA or Asset student, please view the DACA and Asset Student Information web page for more information.
FAQs
CCA offers institutional scholarships, awarded year-round on first come, first served basis.
The CCA Foundation has two scholarship application cycles per year, one for summer/fall and one for spring. With one general application, you could be awarded from any of the 50+ opportunities provided by community donors.
The CCCS Foundation has one application cycle. The application will be available from March 1 – April 15 to apply for scholarships for the following academic year's fall/spring semesters.
Not associated with CCA, but still worth the effort, are external/private scholarships.
Application materials can be submitted via email to the financial aid inbox (FinancialAid@ccaurora.edu), to the scholarship advisor (Nicole.Stoodley@ccaurora.edu), the scholarships email (Scholarships.CCA@ccaurora.edu), or in person to the CentreTech campus Financial Aid Office.
Wait 24 hours for the lock to remove itself. After this time, choose “trouble signing in” on the sign-in page and then select password reset to use a new password to sign in.
If you still cannot access your account, please email Scholarships.CCA@ccaurora.edu.
Not anymore. Our institutional and Foundation scholarship applications no longer require a letter of recommendation.
Apply for CCCS Foundation Scholarships from March 1 – April 15th for the following academic year.
Apply for CCA Foundation Scholarships for summer and fall semesters between April 1 – May 31 and October 1 – November 30 for spring scholarships.
Apply at your earliest convenience for Institutional Scholarships and Grants, as these are awarded first come first served as long as funding is available.
Apply for private/external scholarships all year round.
If you have been selected to receive a CCA Foundation scholarship, offer notices will be sent from the Scholarship advisor to your student email in late May for summer awards, July for fall awards, and January for spring awards.
If you have submitted an Institutional scholarship or grant application, you will receive confirmation of its approval or denial within two weeks of submission.
There are post-acceptance requirements that must be completed before the scholarship will disburse to your student account balance. You will have two weeks after the offer date to complete these requirements, which include a few forms and a thank you letter.
Scholarships, like financial aid, will disburse to your student account balance after the census date for that semester (approximately two weeks after the start of classes).
Launch Your Future is a scholarship for recent high school graduates.
Aurorian is a scholarship for students who are returning to CCA after a 3+ year absence from formal education.
Advance is a merit scholarship for high-achieving high school graduates or continuing CCA students.
You cannot be awarded multiple Institutional scholarships, so please apply for the most applicable.
We ask you to share your story with application essay responses. We would like to get to know more about you. Essays are a large part of your application score for the CCA Foundation. Answer the essay prompts with adequate detail, including explanations and a brief narrative. Make sure to answer all essay prompt questions and utilize available rubrics to guide your responses. The exact rubric the reviewers are using is available to you as well: https://ibb.co/L9nQXBQ
Your application is competitively scored by multiple reviewers who utilize a rubric. Your score will come from a combination of points earned from your academic history and your essay responses. The exact rubric the reviewers are using is available to you as well: https://ibb.co/L9nQXBQ
Apply for as many scholarships as you can! You can receive scholarship money up until you reach your cost of attendance (what the institution calculates it costs a person to be a student for the school year).
The CCA Foundation scholarships average $750 per semester. Most of these recipients are awarded one scholarship, though there are students who have received multiple Foundation scholarships in one semester.
Institutional scholarships (Launch Your Future, Aurorian, and Advance) disburse up to $4,000 per academic year ($2,000 per fall/spring semester), though the award prorates at less than 12 credit hours enrollment.
Institutional grants disburse at various amounts, depending on how many classes you are enrolled in.
Private scholarships are awarded by entities outside the institution. Organizations around the country offer scholarship opportunities. These opportunities exist year-round with various deadlines, application requirements, and award amounts.
We suggest you use the following resources to find applicable private scholarships: https://ccaurora.academicworks.com/opportunities/external
External scholarship search engines--Scholarships.com, Fastweb, Cappex, Niche, Chegg, Scholly
If you are awarded a private scholarship, the awarding party typically sends a check to CCA indicating whose account it should be applied to, for which semester, and for how much.
Private scholarships posted to our external listing have been vetted as safe options.
We suggest you do NOT apply for scholarships that require payment to apply.
Red flags that the opportunity is not legitimate include: misspellings on the site, application dates that do not match up, requirement to submit a video, guarantees of winning, gathering very personal information such as SSN or bank account details.
Scholarships through the institution will be applied to your financial aid award package and will disburse directly to your student account balance. As financial aid, scholarship funds in excess of account charges will be issued to you as a refund. Please utilize refunds from the institution for educational purposes, such as transportation, books and supplies, room and board.
CCA Institutional scholarships and grants are awarded on a first come, first served basis as long as funding is available. Historically, students who are eligible and apply for/in the fall semester are awarded, while those applying after census day in the spring semester may not be awarded due to full allocation of aid year funds.
The CCCS Foundation is awarding around 300 scholarships throughout the 13 community colleges in the system. Last year, over 10% of recipients were from CCA with awards ranging from $1,000 - $5,000.
The CCA Foundation has about 50 scholarships to award from the general application. Over 300 CCA students are awarded each semester with an average scholarship amount of $750, though funding depends on the availability of scholarship money in each opportunity’s account and the number of applications received.
Once you are enrolled for your very first semester, you will be provided a CCCS email account. You can still apply with the CCA Foundation application before you are enrolled or have received a school email, just use the personal email from your admissions application to apply if you do not yet have a student email.
Please enroll in classes before you submit a CCA Institutional scholarship or grant application for the semester you are applying for.
We would like to review your most recent educational transcript, whether that is from high school or at the college-level. If you have taken any for-credit courses at CCA, you have a CCA unofficial transcript available on the My CCA portal to use for your applications.
When we ask for transcripts, we are looking for an indication of GPA, not just a listing of the courses you are taking or have taken.
The disbursement of your scholarship may be dependent on pending requests in your financial aid file. Please contact financial aid (303-360-4709) to inquire about financial aid form requests.
You may not be in the minimum number of required credit hours for your scholarship. Institutional scholarships will not disburse at less than 6 credit hours enrollment.
Your scholarship may have disbursed but prorated to a lesser amount than the original award maximum. Institutional scholarships prorate at less than 12 credit hours enrollment per semester. Some CCA Foundation scholarships, such as COSI, prorate as well according to your enrolled hours.
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