Colorado College supplemental essays
Yes, but every one is optional. Colorado College prints one supplemental essay in 2026-27 and requires none of them. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
That is one supplement plus the Common App personal statement: two pieces of writing in all. Early Decision closes November 1, 2026, Early Action closes November 1, 2026 and Early Decision II closes January 15, 2027, with the rest in the table below. The prompts carry this limit: 300 words. Every Colorado College prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it, checked against the college’s own admissions page.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 1, 2026 |
| Early Action | November 1, 2026 |
| Early Decision II | January 15, 2027 |
| Regular Decision | January 15, 2027 |
Checked against www.coloradocollege.edu/admission/apply/supplemental-essay.html. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Optional · 300 words
One of the benefits of Colorado College's Block Plan is the opportunity to immerse yourself fully in a single subject for 3.5 weeks. We see this as the luxury of focus, the joy and value of directing your full attention to one thing. Tell us about a time when you experienced this kind of deep focus in an academic or extracurricular setting. What were you doing, and how did it turn out?
Colorado College states that optional means optional here: skipping it will not count against you. You may also upload a project, performance or paper as the outcome.
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Your Colorado College checklist
One supplement, optional. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 1, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- SupplementOptional300 words
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Getting into Colorado College
Colorado College admits 18.5% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1230-1460 on the SAT and 29-33 on the ACT.
About 1 in 5 applicants are admitted, at a college of 2,014 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1230 | 1340 | 1460 |
| SAT reading and writing | 640 | 680 | 730 |
| SAT math | 590 | 660 | 730 |
| ACT composite | 29 | 31 | 33 |
What SAT score do you need for Colorado College?
A 1460 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1340 at their midpoint, and a 1230 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 29, 31 and 33. A quarter of an enrolled class scoring under the 25th percentile is not a rounding error, so a score below the range is a reason to strengthen the rest of the application rather than a reason not to apply.
US Department of Education, College Scorecard (2026-09-17). Percentiles describe students who enrolled, not everyone admitted. SAT totals are the reading and math bands added together, which is how every source in this market reports them and is an approximation of about 10 to 20 points, because the two sections are correlated.
- What SAT score do you need for Colorado College?
- Colorado College sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1230-1460 on the SAT: a 1230 sits at the 25th percentile, 1340 at the median and 1460 at the 75th. A score at or above 1460 is a clear strength in the application; below 1230 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures Colorado College reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Colorado College?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 29-33 on the ACT, with a composite of 31 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 29. Reported by Colorado College to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Colorado College?
- The honest answer is that the federal data behind this page does not contain one. Colleges report their admit rate and their enrolled students' test scores to the Department of Education; they do not report a GPA distribution, so any site quoting an exact average GPA for Colorado College is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Colorado College admits 18.5% of applicants, and the more selective a college is, the closer to the top of the class its admitted students sit and the more the strength of your course load counts alongside the number itself.
- How hard is it to get into Colorado College?
- Colorado College admits 18.5% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 5 applicants. At that rate no set of numbers makes admission likely, a perfect one included, because the college turns away far more qualified applicants than it takes. Strong grades and scores get the application read; the essays, the recommendations and what you have actually done decide it from there.
What Colorado College costs after grant aid, by family income, from the same federal data.
Sort your whole college list into reaches, targets and likelies, or find colleges that fit your GPA and test scores. Both are free and neither needs an account.
Colorado College essay questions, answered
- Does Colorado College have supplemental essays?
- Yes, but every one is optional. Colorado College prints one supplemental essay in 2026-27 and requires none of them. Every prompt is printed in full on this page. Word limits: 300 words.
- How many essays do you write for Colorado College in 2026-27?
- One supplement, plus the Common App personal statement.
Schools with similar admit rates
Colorado College admits 18.5% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Babson College (17.1%), Denison University (17.4%), College of the Holy Cross (17.6%), Vassar College (18.6%), University of Miami (18.9%), Carleton College (20.4%).