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College Opportunity Fund (COF)

The College Opportunity Fund (COF), created by the Colorado Legislature, provides a stipend to eligible undergraduate students. The stipend pays a portion of the total in-state tuition when attending a participating college.

For the 2024-2025 academic year, the COF stipend will lower the tuition bill of eligible students by $116 per credit hour. You may receive the COF stipend for up to 145 total credit hours.

To get started, complete the two-step process below:

  1. Apply on the COF website

Apply Now on the COF website: https://cof.college-assist.org/

You only need to apply for COF once. If you already have a COF account, you may see a message that says “account already exists under this ID.”

  1. Authorize COF in The Rock

Use the COF tool in The Rock to authorize use of the COF stipend at RRCC

Once you’ve authorized RRCC to request the COF stipend, that should carry over each semester. However, you should review your tuition bill each semester to ensure the COF stipend has been applied. If you’ve already authorized RRCC to request the COF stipend, you may see a message that says “no changes were made” if you try to authorize again, which is okay.

Once you’ve completed the COF process (applied and authorized) and registered for classes, it can take about 3-5 business days for the COF stipend to appear on your tuition bill. If you don’t see the COF stipend within this timeline, feel free to reach out to student.records@rrcc.edu(link sends e-mail) for assistance.

More Information

Further information on the COF stipend including eligibility requirements and FAQs can be found here: https://cof.college-assist.org/(link is external).

Waiver Options

If you've already used the 145 total COF hours, there are three waiver options: 

If you have already earned a bachelor’s degree, you may qualify for an additional 30 undergraduate hours granted by COF. To get started, email an unofficial copy of your bachelor’s degree to student.records@rrcc.edu(link sends e-mail) and state that you’re pursuing the post-bachelor waiver process for COF. Make sure your transcript includes your name, degree conferred, date of conferral, and name of your college or university. If approved, post-bachelor’s hours have no expiration date and can be used for any COF-eligible credits at any eligible institution.

If you’re ineligible for or have already used the post-bachelor’s waiver, an institutional waiver is another option. RRCC can issue a one-time, one-year institutional waiver. This waiver may award up to 60 total credit hours, but these must be used at RRCC over three consecutive semesters. Any unused hours will expire at the end of the third consecutive semester.

To request an institutional waiver, complete this waiver form institutional waiver form and email it back to student.records@rrcc.edu. You can also drop it off at the Student Records office on the Lakewood campus.

If you are ineligible/exhausted the post-bachelor waiver and institutional waiver, you can apply to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) for a waiver. The law allows for CCHE to grant waivers to a student:

  • If there are extenuating circumstances related to the student's health or physical ability that restrict a student's ability to complete the degree program within the 145-credit-hour limit;
  • If the degree program, as approved by the college or CCHE, requires more hours to complete than the 145 credit hour limit allows;
  • If the student is enrolled in a specific degree program and CCHE approves and the college changes a specific program's degree requirements or standards; or
  • If requiring that an eligible undergraduate student pay the full amount of total in-state tuition for credit hours that exceed the limitation causes substantial economic hardship for the student or the student's family.

Please contact Student Records to see which waiver you are eligible for and to start the process Student.Records@rrcc.edu.