As seniors enter college application season, an opportunity has been presented to all students wanting to go to college here in Colorado. This offer is called the Colorado Promise. It ensures that tuition and fees for their first two years of college in the form of a yearly refundable tax credit can be covered if they have a family income of $90,000 or less. 

Students must enroll in the program within two years of completing high school.  In order to participate, students will have to fill out the FAFSA and CAFSA each year of college.  Students will need to complete at least six credit hours (or two classes) each term to be elibible.  Upon completion of their college schedule, students must earn at least a 2.5 GPA.  Then, students fill out their tax forms to be reimbursed for all expenses outside of their individual scholarship and grants.

The program was set up by the Colorado legislature and governor. On its website, they declare, “We believe education beyond high school is an opportunity that all Coloradans should have, and finances should not be a barrier to pursuing your goals.”

Some students are very excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to see how it applies to them and furthering their education. Pyper Mathias, a junior who is already prepping her college plans, loved this, saying, “I think any opportunity for students to get to go to college is so good. As someone who is a little bit more worried about tuition costs, this feels like a huge relief.” 

Junior, Logan McGonigal agreed saying, “In my opinion this is really great, however in my opinion it should be open to more than just low income students.” 

He went on to say, “In order for students to want to go to college and for numbers to continue to increase, we need a way to get them there whether that’s through funding or any other type of way” 

Keira Klinger on the other hand, disagreed saying, “To me, I think to expand this would be taking away opportunities from students already having doubts about college. I think this program is fantastic the way it is and truly can help expand numbers without any changes especially for students here in Greeley who could really benefit from this program and what it already holds.” 

She went on to agree with Mathias saying, “I agree with what Pyper had to say, as someone who is already so invested in how I’m getting through college this is absolutely a beautiful program. However it would be really cool to see it expand past just Colorado schools.” 

“Without knowing about this, I don’t think I would be as confident walking into college as I am knowing about it,” Klinger added.