DENVER — On the fifth annual Colorado Free Application Days, Colorado students submitted almost 64,000 admission applications to local colleges and universities.
All application fees are waived during Colorado Free Application Days, which ran from Oct. 18-20 in 2022. In total, this saved students more than $2.7 million.
The Colorado Department of Higher Education, which oversees the free application days, said it saw a 2% increase in applications — which totaled 63,976 — over last year's campaign. Of those nearly 64,000 applications, 45% were submitted by students of color and 34% were submitted by first-generation students, according to the Department of Higher Education.
Colorado State University in Fort Collins led with 11,344 applications, followed by the University of Colorado in Boulder with 10,481 applications, and the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs with 5,621.
“This program continues to bolster the number of applications that students submit to institutions year after year,” Gov. Jared Polis said. “Education is one of the pillars of society, especially when we think about creating a strong workforce, so we must continue to support all of our learners in their educational endeavors.”
Colorado Free Application Days helps to boost the rate of people going to college in the state, while pursuing the Department of Higher Education’s goal of erasing equity gaps.
In the five years since the free application days began, students have saved more than $10 million in application fees, said Dr. Angie Paccione, executive director of the department.