Supporting First-Generation Students

Enrollment, Retention & Graduation

Fall 2023 Highlights

  • The six-year graduation rate for first-generation students who entered CU Boulder in 2017 and graduated in 2023 or earlier was an all-time high of 67%, exceeding the six-year graduation rate of 65% set in the fall semesters of 2014, 2015 and 2016.
  • For first-generation students entering CU Boulder in 2022, the one-year retention rate was 84% – 6 percentage points higher than the previous year and the highest since 2017.
  • The "third fall" retention rate for first-generation students who entered CU Boulder in 2021 was 70%, down three percentage points from the previous year.
  • Of the total 7,546 first-year undergraduate students enrolled at CU Bouder in fall 2023 – 16% (1,214) were first-generation students, according to fall 2023 student census data.

Find more information about the Fall 2023 Census and other student data on the Office of Data Analytics website.

Financial Aid & Affordability

  • CU Boulder disbursed more than $183 million in financial aid to 12,339 resident undergraduate students in 2022-23, including 3,137 first-generation students.
  • CU Boulder disbursed $157 million in financial aid to 7,383 nonresident undergraduate students, including 805 first-generation students.
  • CU Boulder offers a first-generation scholarship to undergraduate residents who have financial need and whose parents do not have bachelor’s degrees. Scholarship recipients must participate in the Center for Inclusion and Social Change’s First Generation Scholars Program. Approximately 500 to 600 first-generation students benefit from the scholarship each year.
  • First-generation students may also qualify for automatic scholarships awarded at the time of admission, and they can apply for scholarships through the CU Boulder Scholarship Application throughout their CU career.

Find more information about scholarships, grants, work-study and other financial aid on the websites of the Office of Financial Aid and the Center for Inclusion and Social Change.

Precollege Support

The CU Boulder Office of Precollege Outreach and Engagement supported 4,247 Colorado middle and high school students, including 3,983 first-generation students, between 2017 and 2022, introducing them to academic communities and practices that will help them succeed at CU Boulder or at another academic institution in Colorado or beyond.

  • Precollegiate Development supported 1,850 Denver-area middle and high school students between 2017 and 2022, and 92% of them identified as first-generation students.
  • Partnership Outreach program supported 2,020 students in rural Colorado between 2017 and 2022, and 95% of them identified as first-generation students.
  • Precollege Bridge program supported 127 Colorado students who participated in a precollege program and chose to attend CU Boulder between 2017 and 2022, and 92% of them identified as first-generation students.
  • CU Upward Bound program supported 250 high school students from Native American and Indigenous communities in Colorado and in four surrounding states between 2017 and 2022, and 98% of them identified as first-generation students.

Find more information about precollege programming on the Office of Precollege Outreach and Engagement website.

Academic Support, Affinity & Belonging

  • Between 2018 and 2022, the Center for Inclusion and Social Change provided programming to 729 first-generation students based on five key areas the students said they would like to learn more about during their first year on campus.
  • A cohort of 142 first-generation students, or 97.7%, “strongly agreed” that the center’s academic success workshops provided them with study techniques and strategies that improved their academic experience, according to a 2022-23 survey.
  • A total of 3,565 first-generation and other students participated in dozens of affinity and community-building programs at the center between 2021 and 2023. The center also hosts meetings for all first-year, first-generation students to support their transition into their second year of college and their persistence to graduation.
  • The participation rate for students who met all requirements in programs managed by the First Generation Programs and Enrichment Office was 93% in 2022-23.
  • The retention rate for first-generation, first-year scholarship recipients who met all requirements and returned to CU Boulder in the fall of their second year was 88.7%.
  • The retention rate for first-generation, first-year scholarship recipients who did not meet all scholarship requirements in their first year – but still returned to CU Boulder in the fall of their second year – was 90.8% in 2022-23.

​Find more information about building community and a sense of belonging among students on the websites of Student Affairs and the Center for Inclusion and Social Change.