Grants & Scholarships

Graduate Financial Aid

Funding from grants and scholarships is applied directly to your educational costs. At the graduate level, most available scholarships are merit-based and are awarded by individual academic departments. For many merit-based scholarships, you're automatically considered when you apply for admission. Some, however, will require a separate application.

Institutional Scholarships

Our graduate departments offer several different opportunities for institutional financial aid. All types of institutional aid at DU are awarded by individual academic units (instead of our office). If you have questions about any of the aid listed below, be sure to contact your graduate department directly.

  • Departmental Grants & Scholarships

    Our individual academic departments offer their own scholarships, which students are generally considered for at the time of admission to their program. These awards can be based on need and/or merit and typically require full-time attendance. To learn more about possible departmental aid, contact your graduate school directly.

  • Graduate Teaching/Research Assistantships

    Assistantships are merit awards that include both a tuition waiver and a living stipend, and incorporate a teaching or research component into your studies. Application and eligibility requirements vary by department and may be part of the application process. Contact your department for more information.

    Learn More

  • Graduate Studies Doctoral Fellowships

    Doctoral fellowships are awarded by academic departments to PhD students enrolled for at least 8 credits per term. Award amounts vary from $1,000 to $5,000 annually.

students walking through campus

Federal & State Grants

Though options are extremely limited, eligible students may be considered for the Federal TEACH or Colorado Graduate grant. To be considered for these, you must file the FAFSA.

  • Federal TEACH Grant

    The Federal Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grant is available to students in the Morgridge College of Education who are enrolled in the Master of Arts in the Teacher Education Program or the Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction program. The maximum amount a student can receive is $3,772 per academic year (after the Department of Education retains its required reduction amount).

    In exchange for receiving a TEACH grant, you must agree to serve as a full-time teacher in a high-need field in an elementary or secondary school that serves low-income students. If the teaching obligation is not fulfilled, the TEACH grant will be converted to a Direct Unsubsidized loan, which must be repaid with interest accrued from the date of the grant's disbursement.

    To apply, you need to submit a FAFSA and be awarded the TEACH grant as a part of your financial aid offer. Entrance Counseling and an Agreement to Serve or Repay (Agreement) must be completed online at www.StudentAid.gov each year you receive the TEACH grant.

    Learn More

  • Colorado "Critical Career" Graduate Grant

    Funding for this grant—provided by the Colorado General Assembly—is extremely limited. If you're eligible to receive this grant, you'll be notified by our office via email—no separate application is required. Award amounts can vary up to $7,000 annually. To be eligible, you must:

    • Be a graduate student enrolled in an approved degree program
    • Be a Colorado resident and submit the CO Residency Form to the Registrar's Office
    • Be enrolled at least half-time
    • Have a FAFSA determined  Student Aid Index (SAI) of less than $7,000
    • Be actively pursuing a degree in one of the following listed critical career fields as determined by the Colorado Department of Higher Education:
      • computer science 
      • technology
      • engineering
      • math 
      • critical foreign languages
      • sciences (life, agricultural, natural, physical)
      • health care

Private Scholarships

Various entities not affiliated with DU offer an array of scholarship opportunities. These sources can include community organizations as well as women's, ethnic or religious organizations. Many of these opportunities are not broadly advertised, so be sure to speak with any such organizations near you, particularly those you're already affiliated with, to see if they offer scholarship funding.

Since these entities are not affiliated with DU, you are encouraged to evaluate each scholarship opportunity. While DU works hard to review outside scholarships before sharing them with students, most of the websites listed below function as search engines. Among other things, beware of applications that only ask for your personal information (such as an email address), require examples of previous coursework, or simply enter you in a type of prize drawing. These scholarships may be ways to mine for data or utilize your work in ways that could violate academic integrity policies.

If you have any questions about a scholarship opportunity, please don't hesitate to contact us at finaid@du.edu.

If you have a scholarship payment, please forward it to the address below. If the external organization requires a billing statement or other verification from the University, please send a copy of the organization’s request to the address below:

Financial Aid
University of Denver
2197 S. University Blvd.
Denver, CO 80208-9403

Once processed, your scholarship will be added to your financial aid award and will disburse to your account in the same way as the rest of your aid.

How Private Scholarships May Affect Your Aid:
Your financial aid eligibility is limited by your cost of attendance and/or your financial need. If you receive additional aid, such as a grant, scholarship or tuition benefit from outside of DU, we will first apply these funds to any unmet financial need, if applicable. However, if you have not applied for need-based aid, then these awards are applied to your account and are limited by your cost of attendance. If the private scholarship(s) causes you to go over your demonstrated financial need and/or cost of attendance, we may have to adjust your aid offer. We will reduce student loans first, then work-study, before reducing any DU scholarships or grants. In some cases, however, additional outside awards that must pay toward tuition charges may result in the reduction of a DU scholarship or grant.

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Financial Aid