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Community-college Pell-grant share in Colorado

Community colleges in Colorado ranked by Pell-grant share — the percentage of undergraduates who received a federal Pell Grant in the most recent reporting year. Pell share is a useful proxy for the share of the student body from lower-income households and for the institution's experience serving students who depend heavily on need-based federal aid.

  1. Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts-BoulderBoulder, CO59%
  2. Apex College of Veterinary TechnologyColorado Springs, CO40%
  3. Colorado Academy of Veterinary TechnologyColorado Springs, CO40%
  4. Bel-Rea Institute of Animal TechnologyDenver, CO38%
  5. Lamar Community CollegeLamar, CO29%
  6. Colorado School of TradesLakewood, CO28%
  7. Community College of AuroraAurora, CO16%
  8. Colorado Northwestern Community CollegeRangely, CO14%
  9. Spartan College of Aeronautics and TechnologyBroomfield, CO12%

How to interpret Pell share

The federal Pell Grant is the largest need-based grant program in U.S. higher education. Eligibility is determined by the FAFSA and is based primarily on family income and assets relative to the cost of attendance. A community college with a high Pell-grant share is, by construction, an institution whose student body skews toward lower-income households. That is not a quality signal in either direction on its own — many of the strongest community-college transfer pipelines in Colorado run through institutions with high Pell shares — but it does indicate where institutional services such as emergency aid, child-care subsidies, food pantries, and need-based scholarships are most likely to be developed and well-resourced.

If you are eligible for the Pell Grant, the practical implication is that several of the community colleges on this list will be tuition-free for you after the grant is applied, with state aid and institutional aid often covering most of the remaining cost of attendance. File the FAFSA as early as possible in the academic year — it determines eligibility for all major federal need-based programs, and many state aid programs in Colorado use the FAFSA as their qualifying application as well.