by our College Data Analytics TeamMany students will never be charged the full, advertised sticker price of a school. Instead, they will be given a financial aid offer that will include a combination of scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study. The total price of attendance at Colorado Mesa University can feel overwhelming, but bear in mind that many students receive some sort of financial aid.
What financing options does Colorado Mesa offer you, and what will you qualify for? Keep scrolling for more information. Keep going to discover what amount of financial assistance could be accessible to you.
How much aid you qualify for depends largely on your family’s financial circumstances. The figures below will help you estimate the aid you might receive from Colorado Mesa University.
Aid such as grants, loans, work-study, and scholarships helps colleges decrease the real cost of attendance for most students. Note that some aid is more valuable than the rest, and individual awards are far from uniform.
Looking at the entering class at Colorado Mesa University, 91% of new full-time first-years were awarded at least some aid roughly 1515 incoming students).
| Type of Aid | % of Freshmen Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 84% | $8,285 |
| Institutional grants & scholarships | 57% | $4,797 |
| Federal Pell grants | 35% | $5,664 |
| State/local grants | 43% | $5,158 |
| Federal student loans | 39% | $5,025 |
The best aid is gift aid: grants and scholarships that carry no repayment obligation. At Colorado Mesa, roughly 67% of the undergraduate population received grant aid that averaged $9,096 (across roughly 5863 awardees).
| Award | % of Undergrads Receiving | Average Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grant or scholarship aid (all sources) | 67% | $9,096 |
| Federal Pell grants | 28% | $5,792 |
| Federal student loans | 31% | $6,374 |
For students living on campus and receiving title-IV aid, grants averaged $8,943.
Because need-based aid scales with family income, what students actually pay differs sharply across income brackets.
| Family Income | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| $0 – $48,000 | $11,631 |
| $30,001 – $75,000 | $13,342 |
| Over $75,000 | $19,495 |
These figures reflect what title-IV aid recipients pay after grant and scholarship aid is applied.
The net price strips out grant and scholarship aid from the sticker price to show roughly what families really pay.
| Cohort | Average Net Price |
|---|---|
| On-campus title-IV students | $15,103 |
| Off-campus title-IV students | $15,331 |
For a personalized estimate based on your family’s financial situation, use Colorado Mesa’s online cost calculator: www.coloradomesa.edu/financial-aid/resources/financial-aid-calculator.html.
The median federal debt load at Colorado Mesa comes to $11,000 in federal loans.
| Metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Median federal debt (all student-aid borrowers) | $11,000 |
| Median federal debt (graduates only) | $22,000 |
| Typical 10-year monthly payment (graduates) | $233.24/mo |
Under a standard ten-year plan, the median graduate’s monthly payment lands near the figure above.
A single median figure conceals how much debt outcomes differ student to student. Use the percentiles below to see the debt range at Colorado Mesa.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,750 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $24,250 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $36,140 |
Debt outcomes are not uniform — they shift with income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Debt by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $12,000 |
| Middle income | $12,000 |
| High income | $10,950 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $11,042 |
| Continuing-generation students | $11,000 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $10,750 |
| Independent students | $14,750 |
The figure below distills the debt data into a single burden category for Colorado Mesa.
The Stafford loan program is the largest source of federal direct loans to undergraduates. Below is the annual Stafford program activity at Colorado Mesa:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Stafford loan recipients | 28449 |
| Total Stafford loan amount | $496,823,886 |
GI Bill and DoD Tuition Assistance are the two federal aid programs targeted at military-affiliated students.
Post-9/11 GI Bill activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| GI Bill recipients | 183 |
| Total GI Bill amount | $1,332,747 |
| Average GI Bill amount per recipient | $7,283 |
DoD Tuition Assistance activity
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| DoD Tuition Assistance recipients | 9 |
| Total DoD amount | $37,444 |
| Average DoD amount per recipient | $4,160 |
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.