College Opportunity Fund
The College Opportunity Fund (COF) stipend provides a tuition stipend to resident students. The amount of the per-credit-hour tuition stipend is set annually by the General Assembly and pays a portion of students' total resident tuition. Students must sign up for COF once to create a lifetime account and then authorize the state to pay the student's portion each semester in the form of a COF stipend. Students can authorize the COF stipend each semester when registering for classes. Students who fail to sign up for the COF lifetime account or fail to authorize the COF stipend are responsible for paying the entire tuition amount. The Department of Higher Education will accept billing appeals from students who believe there was a mistake made with their College Opportunity Fund (COF) stipend billing after the student has tried to resolve the issue with FRCC. To file a COF appeal with the Department of Higher Education, go to https://highered.colorado.gov/programs-services/the-college-opportunity-fund.
The College Opportunity Fund allows all resident students to apply the COF stipend to up to 145 credit hours of an undergraduate degree. If a student applies the COF stipend to 145 credit hours and has additional credit hours to complete a degree, the student may apply for a one-time waiver to receive additional COF credits. Students seeking this waiver must meet with an Academic Advisor to complete the waiver requirements. Requirements include an academic plan, personal statement and institutional COF Waiver form. The Chief Academic Officer will make a determination and communicate the decision to the student within 30 days.