Prospective Students - Freshman

Many factors are considered in evaluating your application for admission to CU-Boulder. Although your academic performance in high school (your high school GPA and the quality of your course work) is the most important indicator of success, we also consider college entrance test scores (either the SAT or ACT), the trend in your grades, personal essays, and the extent to which the minimum academic preparation standards (MAPS) have been met.

Academic Qualifications
Our academic programs have more qualified freshman applicants than there are openings and admission is competitive. Therefore, only students with the highest qualifications are selected. Go to the qualifications page to view the academic qualifications of the fall freshman class by each college and school. More>>

College Entrance Tests
CU-Boulder requires either the SAT or the ACT for admission consideration. Your highest scores are used in the admission decision. If you take the same test more than once, we combine your scores on each subsection to give you the highest overall score. Results from SAT or ACT tests taken in December or later may be received too late if you wish to be considered for summer or fall admission of the following year. Achievement tests (or the SAT II) are not required.

Minimum Academic Preparation Standards (MAPS)
If you graduated from high school in 1988 or later, we expect you to have completed courses that meet certain minimum academic preparation standards (MAPS) before you enroll at CU-Boulder. More>>

Personal Essays
The personal essay is required. Applications without essays are considered incomplete and will not be reviewed. Your personal essay - consisting of responses to two topics - is the best way for us to learn about you as an individual and to evaluate your academic performance within an appropriate context.