How to Apply to Middle School at Colorado Academy Grades 6-8
For the 2021-2022 school year, the application portal is open for students interested in applying to the wait pool.
We invite you to step inside our Middle School Virtual Tour Experience and spend 20 minutes exploring. You will gain great insight into the CA community and culture and be guided on how to apply.
Below is the Applicant Checklist if you are ready to start the process.
For the 2021-2022 school year, the application portal is open for applicants to the wait pool. Once you submit the initial Application form, you will then receive access to the Applicant Checklist which outlines the remaining steps of the process.
As parents, you can provide us with insights about the applicant that no one else can. Your statement will help us learn more about your child and your family. The Parent Statement Form is available to you once you submit the initial application form.
The Admission Office will contact families to schedule an interview if we anticipate wait pool movement. The short writing prompts and instructions are listed in the applicant checklist.
Please contact Paige Siemers at 303-914-2512 with any questions.
Recommendation Forms and the Transcript Request Form are available once the student's Application form is submitted. Please send requests to the appropriate faculty/staff member at the applicant’s school:
Current Humanities Teacher Recommendation
Current Math Teacher Recommendation
Current Principal/Counselor Recommendation
Transcripts from Current and Previous School Year including recent student testing
Optional Coach Recommendation
Optional Arts Recommendation
Optional Teacher Recommendation (from a current or past teacher)
Submit results from any standardized testing or educational evaluation that a student has completed in the last two years. Examples include the WISC, DAS, CogAT, Stanford Binet, MAP testing, ERB, ISEE, SSAT, PSAT 8/9, and Pre-ACT, among others. There is no need for the applicant to take more than one test, and the Admission Committee does not prefer one test over another.
If the applicant does not have recent testing, here are some options: -Register for the ISEE or the SSAT. -Register for testing with an evaluator from the DATC (Denver Area Testing Consortium).
Videos provide the Admission Committee with additional insight into an applicant's personality, strengths, talents, skills, and/or challenges.
For the Applicant:
Please upload a short video to the application portal and addressoneof the prompts below. We prefer a video that is 90 seconds or less. No special equipment is needed other than a smart phone; videos should be authentic, simple, and student-made.
Videos may be serious or funny. Thank you and have fun!
Tell us (or show us) how you would contribute to the CA community.
Tell us about something new you would like to try and why.
Tell us how someone else—a friend, classmate, sibling, grandparent, cousin, neighbor or pet—would describe your personality and character. You may include another individual in your video, and be sure to include yourself as well.
Tell us (or show us) what you have learned about yourself during the COVID pandemic.
With over $4 million in tuition assistance each year, we welcome students and families from all backgrounds and encourage you to consider CA no matter your income.
The Application for Financial Aid is separate from the Application for Admission, although the two cycles overlap. Families who wish to apply for tuition assistance should submit an Application for Financial Aid through SSS (School and Student Service for Financial Aid).
We recommend starting the application after January 1 as it is helpful to have end-of-year tax documents available as you are completing the form: START APPLICATION
Within the SSS portal, you will be asked to upload copies of your 2019 and 2020 tax returns. You will also be asked for copies of 2019 and 2020 W-2 and K-1 statements, if applicable.
CA prefers the SSS application, but, if you've already submitted a financial aid application for another school through FACTS, there is no need for you to fill out an additional application through SSS. You will just need to add Colorado Academy as a recipient of your FACTS application.
The deadline for the Financial Aid application is February 15. We realize that many families have not yet completed their 2020 tax return by this deadline. The Financial Aid Committee will consider your application to be complete as long as we receive your 2019 tax return and your 2020 W-2 and/or Profit & Loss Statements (if you are self-employed) by the February 15 deadline. The 2020 tax return should then be submitted as soon as it is completed.
Completing the Financial Aid application by the deadline allows the Financial Aid Award to be communicated at the same time as the Admission Decision.
Questions? Contact Lisa Dean at 303-914-2516; she will help you or direct you to the appropriate Financial Aid Director.
In conjunction with other Denver-area independent schools, Colorado Academy sends Middle School admission decisions (Grades 6-8) by email at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, February 24, 2021.
Before joining the CA community in 2018, Karen Chavez served as a college counselor at KIPP Colorado Schools, where she guided low-income, minority, and first-generation college-bound students through the college application process. Continuing her passion to give back to her Southwest Denver community, she has served as a lead teacher for Horizons at CA during its summer enrichment program. Chavez has also worked as a Selective Mutism Program assistant at the Child Mind Institute in New York and as a team leader at NYU Jumpstart, a program that serves young children in low-income communities. She received her BS in Applied Psychology from New York University and is fluent in English and Spanish.
New Family Social & Upper School Course Registration
1/2
Why Families Choose CA:
Balance and the Whole Child
They choose CA because the school’s academic training is built upon the three pillars of Academics, the Arts, and Athletics.
Skills and Character Develoment
They choose CA because of our focus on children’s social and emotional development, and for the way that we infuse our teaching with these 21st century skills: critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, cultural competence, and character development.
Kindness, Courage, and Inclusivity
They choose CA because we believe children must learn and practice kindness, courage, and how to be inclusive, and for the way that we welcome students from across the Denver metropolitan area, from all backgrounds, cultures, faiths, and means.
A History of Place and Purpose
They choose CA because of the school’s more than 100-year history in which there is an ethos of leadership, service, confidence, and fortitude.