We invite you to step inside our Upper 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 now open. 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.
Families may schedule the Student Interview through the calendar link received after submitting the Application form:
Student Interviews take place between October 1 andJanuary 31 and last 20 to 30 minutes.
Due to health protocols, Student Interviews are scheduled through Zoom with a member of the Admission Committee.
Prior to their Interview, the applicant should spend 20 minutes exploring the CA website.
The interview is a great way for the applicant to learn more about CA, so please bring questions!
Two short writing prompts will be emailed to the applicant and parent/s after the interview takes place.
Please contact Lisa Dean at 303-914-2516 with any questions.
Throughout the admission season, applicants will also have the opportunity to participate in virtual events with current CA students, alumni, and faculty. Check the Admission Calendar for a current list of these events.
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, HSPT, 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 about yourself 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 and should be submitted no later thanJanuary 15. 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.
Parents may schedule an optional Parent Interview through the calendar link received after submitting the initial Application form. Prior to the Parent Interview, please spend 20 minutes exploring the CA website. This will allow the focus to be on your student.
Parent Interviews take place between now and January 31 and last approximately 40 minutes.
Due to health protocols for the pandemic, all Parent Interviews are scheduled through Zoom.
Only one parent needs to attend the Parent Interview, although we welcome all parents.
For families applying to more than one division (i.e., Lower, Middle and Upper School), one Parent Interview may be scheduled for all applicants; please allow for additional time.
Please contact Lisa Dean at 303-914-2516 with any questions.
Throughout the admission season, prospective parents will also have the opportunity to participate in virtual events with current CA students, parents, and faculty. Check the Admission Calendar for a current list of these events.
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 those apply.
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 and she will help you or direct you to the appropriate Financial Aid Director.
In conjunction with other Denver-area independent schools, Colorado Academy sends Upper School admission decisions (Grades 9-12) by email at 4:00 PM on Friday, February 19, 2021.
Heidi Chesley
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Director of Upper School Admission & Financial Aid
At CA since 2013, Heidi Chesley is Director of Upper School Admission & Financial Aid. Before joining the CA community, she served as a Partner in the Boston office of the international law firm, McDermott, Will & Emery LLP, and as a Partner in Gordon & Rees LLP in Denver.
Chesley has also worked as Director of Admission at The Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Conn., and as a Director and Teacher for Citizen Schools Program, an after-school apprenticeship and mock-trial program for inner-city students in Boston, Mass. She received her BS in Finance and Marketing from the University of Colorado at Boulder, her MA in American Studies from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and her JD from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass. Chesley is also a Boettcher Scholar.
New Family Social & Upper School Course Registration
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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.