CollegeInvest 529 Scholarship Program Description

The CollegeInvest 529 Scholarship is designed to award scholarships to Colorado residents from low to middle income families who have planned for their student’s pursuit of furthering their education by saving through a CollegeInvest 529 College Savings Account .

Annually, CollegeInvest intends to award 325 scholarships of $2,000 each for a total of $650,000 per year. Applicants with an Expected Family Contribution (“EFC ”) of $15,000 or less, and have been an owner or beneficiary of a CollegeInvest 529 College Savings Account for at least two years will be eligible to apply for the scholarships. Applicants may reapply each year they are in college and meet the eligibility requirements up to a maximum of four years. See the specific eligibility requirements below.

Scholarship Eligibility:

To be eligible an applicant must:

1. Complete an online application after January 1, and prior to August 1, of each year.

2. Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and have an EFC between $0 and $15,000 for the school year applicable to the scholarship year. NOTE: Many factors determine a family’s EFC, but generally, a family of three, with one child in college, and a family income of up to $90,000 a year, and $20,000 in their 529 college savings account, would have an EFC of $15,000 or less.

3. Be a Colorado resident.

4. Enroll in an accredited post-secondary institution (public and private college, university, trade or vocational school across the country) in an undergraduate or graduate degree, or certificate program.

 5. Attend school full-time (12 credits hours or more) at the time the Scholarship is awarded. If the awardee drops out of school or reduces credit hours below full-time status they will not be eligible for additional/subsequent scholarships.

 6. Be the owner or beneficiary of an eligible CollegeInvest 529 College Savings Account. An eligible account must.
       a.   Be open at the time of the Scholarship application.
       b.   Have been open and continuously maintained for a minimum of two years prior to July 1 of the year of the Scholarship award.
       c.   Have a parent or legal guardian as the account owner and the applicant as the beneficiary. The account owner and the applicant can be the same person.

7.   The Scholarship award is for one year only. Students may reapply for each year they are enrolled in a post-secondary institution, and otherwise meet the eligibility requirements but may not receive more than $8,000 in total scholarships.

8.   Only one Scholarship per applicant per year, and no person can be an applicant and a beneficiary of more than one account.

9.   Employees of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, including CollegeInvest, and their children are not eligible for the Scholarship.

Application Process:

The annual application period to apply for the CollegeInvest 529 Scholarship is January 1 thru July 31. Applicants will need to refer to the following items, when filling out the application:

1. CollegeInvest 529 college savings plan account information
2. Student Aid Report(“SAR”) at www.fafsa.gov

Award Process:

Only complete applications received by CollegeInvest after January 1, and on or before July 31 of the year of the Scholarship award will be considered for a Scholarship. The selection will be conducted by CollegeInvest personnel, whose decisions shall be final. There is no assurance that all Scholarships will be awarded each year.

An application is considered complete if all required information has been answered on the online application and a copy of the Student Aid Report (SAR) is attached from www.fafsa.gov. Receipt shall mean submitted via the online application process by midnight on July 31.

Only applicants with an EFC less than or equal to $15,000 shall be eligible. Awardees shall be selected in the following priority:

1. EFC in excess of PELL eligibility* but less than or equal to $15,000.
2. Lowest EFC to highest EFC until all applicants in this range, or all scholarships have been awarded, whichever is first.
3. If there are scholarships remaining after the first two steps, then awards shall be made to applicants with an EFC less than or equal to the PELL   eligibility. Scholarships shall be awarded from the highest EFC to the lowest EFC of all PELL eligible applicants until all the remaining scholarships are awarded up to the total qualified applications.

*PELL eligibility is set by the U.S. Department of Education each year. CollegeInvest will use the most recently published PELL eligibility threshold. Generally, it is approximately an EFC of $5,500.

Award Notification and Acceptance, Withdrawal:

Awardees shall be notified by email of the Scholarship award no later than August 30. Awardees must email their acceptance of the Scholarship award to CollegeInvest no later than midnight on September 15. Awardees must submit a copy of their college registration with the verification of acceptance and ONE of the following: a valid Colorado Driver’s License, or a Colorado Identification Card, or a High School Picture Identification Card.

FAILURE TO CONFIRM ACCEPTANCE AND SUBMIT ALL OF THE REQUIRED INFORMATION BY SEPTEMBER 15TH SHALL RESULT IN FORFEITURE OF THE SCHOLARSHIP.

If CollegeInvest determines that an awardee does not meet all of the scholarship criteria, the award notice may be withdrawn at any time.

Alternates:

Should an initial Awardee forfeit their Scholarship and/or not qualify for the Scholarship, CollegeInvest will select an Alternate Scholarship Awardee. The selection will be consistent with the criteria used to determine the initial Awardee. Alternates will be notified by email of the Scholarship award no later than September 20. Alternate Awardees must email acceptance of the Scholarship and the required additional information (see requirements for initial Awardees above) to CollegeInvest by midnight on October 5. Alternate Awardees must submit a copy of their college registration with the verification of acceptance and ONE of the following: a valid Colorado Driver’s License, or a Colorado Identification Card, or a High School Picture Identification Card.

FAILURE TO CONFIRM ACCEPTANCE AND SUBMIT ALL OF THE REQUIRED INFORMATION BY OCTOBER 5TH SHALL RESULT IN FORFEITURE OF THE SCHOLARSHIP.

If CollegeInvest determines that an Alternate Awardee does not meet all of the criteria, the award notice may be withdrawn at any time. CollegeInvest retains the right to select additional Scholarship Awardees after September 20 if there are remaining funds available.

Scholarship Disbursements:

Scholarship awards will not be disbursed until Awardees/Alternate Awardees send in their verification of acceptance along with a valid copy of their college registration with the verification of acceptance and ONE of the following: a valid Colorado Driver’s License, or a Colorado Identification Card, or a High School Picture Identification Card. Once these items are received and verified, and so long as the award notice has not been withdrawn, Scholarship payments will be disbursed directly to the 529 college savings account listed on the application, by midnight on October 31.

Terms and Conditions

Release of Liability:

By applying for this Scholarship you agree to release and hold harmless CollegeInvest and its affiliates, agents, suppliers, distributors and advertising or promotional agencies from any and all liability, claims or actions of any kind whatsoever for injuries, damages or losses to persons and property which may be sustained in connection with the receipt, ownership or use/misuse of the Scholarship award. Except where prohibited by law, the submission of an application for a CollegeInvest 529 Scholarship constitutes permission to use an awardee’s name, hometown, likeness, comments or interviews without limitation, for promotional purposes, without further permission or compensation.

Except for information the applicant has consented that it may be disclosed (including based on the prior paragraph), CollegeInvest does not disclose, sell, rent, trade, or otherwise provide non-public personal information that we have about you or your Scholarship application. CollegeInvest will only disclose non-public personal information to third parties as is necessary to process your CollegeInvest 529 Scholarship.

Authorization Statement:

By submitting this application, I authorize CollegeInvest to release information provided by me to post-secondary institutions for the purpose of determining scholarship eligibility, and to third parties as is necessary to process my scholarship application and to conduct marketing and evaluation activities.

I recognize that records pertaining to students are generally required by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g (FERPA) to be held confidential by post-secondary institutions, but that such records may be released upon consent or under certain limited exceptions which include release in connection with application for or receipt of financial aid , such as the CollegeInvest 529 Scholarship.

To the extent that my consent may be required, and to facilitate consideration of my application for the CollegeInvest 529 Scholarship, I hereby give my consent to the post-secondary institution I plan to attend,  to release my education records as described below to CollegeInvest for the purpose of determining my eligibility for  the CollegeInvest 529 Scholarship:

All documents/information regarding enrollment records, admissions records, financial aid and transcript records
that are in the possession of the post-secondary institution.

I understand that this information may be used only for the purposes for which the disclosure is made and that it will be protected in a manner that does not permit my personal identification to be accessed by anyone except authorized agents and representatives of CollegeInvest. I further understand that this consent will remain in effect until revoked by me, in writing, and delivered to CollegeInvest or the post-secondary institution. Should I revoke this consent, I acknowledge that I will no longer be eligible for a Scholarship award.

Furthermore, I acknowledge and accept that if I am awarded a CollegeInvest 529 Scholarship, the Scholarship shall be deposited into an account that I have no authority or control over how the funds are used unless I am the Account Owner. The Scholarship is for the purpose of paying my education expenses, and it is my understanding that the Account Owner of the CollegeInvest 529 account intends to use the Scholarship funds for this purpose.

These terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.

I   have   read   and   understand   the   program   description.

Questions for us:

Call:        800-478-5651
Email:     scholarship@collegeinvest.org