College Opportunity Fund

• The College Opportunity Fund (COF) is a trust fund created by the Colorado Legislature that provides a tuition stipend to eligible undergraduate students. The stipend pays a portion of your total in-state tuition when you attend a participating college.

• All students must create a COF account directly through the COF website: https://cof.college-assist.org/

• Please see the COF website (https://cof.college-assist.org/) for the current stipend amounts for public colleges and universities.

• Students must be classified as an in-state resident for tuition purposes and as an undergraduate student. Please see Tuition Classification Information for more details. All newly admitted students must complete a Tuition Classification Form.
  • International students are ineligible for in-state tuition and thus cannot receive COF.
  • DACA and ASSET students may be eligible if they have graduated from a Colorado high school or completed a high school equivalency exam in Colorado, such as the GED, and have 12 months of physical presence in the state. ASSET students must complete an affidavit with COF directly to obtain a COF ID. These students must also submit correct residency documents and COF ID to the Registrar’s office. Please review the revised 2022 ASSET legislation document or contact our office to determine if you are eligible for COF.

• Students must register for the courses prior to the course census date. Courses registered for after census date will not be covered by COF. Please see Course Deadlines and Short Course deadlines for more details.

• Students must authorize the funds in their myUCCS portal at least one week before the end of the semester.

• Students must have enough remaining COF hours either from their allotted 145 lifetime or through a waiver/extension.

• Courses must be main campus courses. Courses taken through the Academic Outreach (Extended Studies) are not eligible for COF funds.

• Students receive a total of 145 hours (credits) worth of COF funds during their entire undergraduate career to use at any public Colorado institution.

• • For example, if a student uses 10 COF hours at another public Colorado institution prior to UCCS, they will have 135 hours remaining when starting at UCCS.

•  Students who graduate with an undergraduate degree and want to continue as an undergraduate student will receive another 30 hours of post-baccalaureate COF hours in addition to any remaining hours of the original 145 they may have.

• No, your COF account is valid at all public higher education institutions in Colorado. You must verify that your information with UCCS matches your COF account, confirm that you have enough remaining hours, and authorize the funds in your myUCCS Portal.

• Students who have used all their allotted 145 COF hours and need additional hours to complete an undergraduate degree can submit a waiver through the Office of the Registrar. These one-time institutional waivers will apply additional COF hours to 3 consecutive semesters (365 days, including summer semester) as needed. These waivers are semester based, meaning any amount of credit hours taken within the selected semesters will be covered by COF funds, as long as the courses are COF eligible courses.

  • COF waivers must be submitted and approved by the last day of the semester to receive additional hours for that semester.

• After a student submits the waiver through the Office of the Registrar Student Forms page, it is routed to the student’s Academic Advisor for approval. Once approved and processed the additional funds will show on the student’s bill overnight.

  • If a student is approved for an institutional waiver and stops attending/graduates during the 365-day waiver period, the waiver will be finished.

• After this 3 semester institutional waiver period, if a student needs additional hours they must apply for an extension directly through the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

• • Students can only submit a CDHE waiver after using an institutional waiver through UCCS Office of the Registrar.

Important: Before authorizing you COF, you must:

• Be fully matriculated
• Meet all eligibility criteria listed above
• Have personal information in UCCS records matching information in student's self-created COF account
  • Social security number, first name, and date of birth

Steps:

1. Login to your myUCCS portal

2. Click on the Student Financials (Bursar) tab

   

3. Select Authorize COF 

   

    

4. Select the semester and click Update Authorization

   

5. Make your selection:

   • Select one of the two options: Authorized or Refused Authorization. If you select Authorized, this will remain on your record and you will not be required to update authorization in the future unless you choose to do so or you ever need to be readmitted to the University. 

   • You will be asked to 'confirm' and 'submit' again after this screen

• Students only need to authorize COF during their first semester at UCCS. This must be done at least one week before the end of the semester.

• • Only if a student is readmitted to the University or the student manually changes their authorization status to ‘refused’ in their portal, will COF need to be reauthorized.

• Students have the option to view and change authorization, if needed, at any time during the semester. This can be accessed in the myUCCS portal through the ‘Student Financials’ tab then the ‘Authorize COF’ tile (see ‘How do I authorize’ above) OR after registering for a course in the portal (see below):

  

• Students have the option to view and change authorization if needed during a semester.

• • This can be accessed in the myUCCS portal through the ‘Student Financials’ tab then the ‘Authorize COF’ tile (see ‘How do I authorize’ section above)

• • Or after registering for a course in the portal 
     

• Eligibility criteria must be met, please refer to the sections above.

• • If any account information has been recently updated, please wait 48 hours before attempting to authorize in the student portal.

• A COF account must have been created by the student.

• • Students must wait 48 hours after account creation before attempting to authorize.

• Students must be fully admitted and matriculated.

• • New students should wait until after their orientation appointment to be certain.

• Students who have not authorized COF funds and have recently made any change to their personal information with UCCS or their self-created COF account, must wait 48 hours before attempting to authorize.

• Personal information in the student’s UCCS account must match the student’s self-created COF account before authorization. This is how the UCCS and the state’s COF database communicate with each other.

• • COF accounts can be updated by logging in to the COF College Assist website. UCCS information can be updated by completing the appropriate form found on our Student Forms page. Information needing to match includes:

1. 1. 1. First name

1. 1. 2. Date of Birth

1. 1. 3. Residency Status

1. 1. 4. Social Security Number (SSN)

NOTE: Students must work with COF directly to update their SSN in their self-created COF account. UCCS can under no circumstances share a student’s SSN. Students without their SSN listed in their UCCS records should contact the Office of the Registrar. 

* COF Phone Number: 720-264-8550 *

NOTE: Students without an SSN who are eligible for COF should contact the Office of the Registrar to discuss.

• There most likely is a mismatch with your personal information or eligibility between your UCCS records and your COF account (see previous section).


• Students who have already authorized their COF and have recently made any change to their information with UCCS or COF account will not have to re-authorize their COF funds. If information matches between COF and UCCS then the revoked status will go away after 48 hours.


• Please contact the Office of the Registrar to verify your information if unsure.

• No. To receive the COF stipend for a course, students must register for the course by the course’s census date.

• Any course dropped before the course’s posted census date will not use any of the student’s COF hours. A course dropped after census date will receive a ‘W’ grade and will use up COF hours. The COF hours for a withdrawn course will not go back to the student’s account.

• Visit the College Opportunity Fund website: https://cof.college-assist.org/  
• Contact our office:

Email: registrar@uccs.edu

Phone: (719) 255-3361

Chat: See the 'Live Chat' icon to the right of this page 

In person: Main Hall, suite 108 (https://map.uccs.edu/)