How to apply to Upper School at Colorado Academy Grades 9-12
Thank you for your interest in Colorado Academy. 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. We look forward to getting to know you during the upcoming admission season! Our admission process for the 2024-2025 school year begins in the fall. Prospective families will be able to tour campus and visit CA during our Admission Preview dates in September and October. Please complete this inquiry form to receive registration information when it becomes available.
For the 2023-2024 school year, families are welcome to apply to the wait pool HERE. The Admission team will reach out to schedule a tour/visit for 2023-2024 wait pool applicants, if we anticipate openings. Otherwise, we hope you remain interested in Colorado Academy for a future school year.
Now that the application deadline for the 2023-2024 school year has passed, families are welcome to apply to the wait pool HERE. The Admission team will reach out to schedule a tour/visit for any 2023-2024 wait pool applicants, if we anticipate openings.
Once the Student Form is submitted, you will unlock access to the remaining steps of the application. There is no application fee to apply to CA.
As parents/guardians, your responses on the Parent/Guardian Form will help CA learn more about your child and your family. The Parent/Guardian Form is available once you submit the Student Form.
Recommendation Forms* and the Transcript Request Form are available once the Student Form is submitted. Please send requests to the appropriate faculty/staff members at the applicant’s school:
Current English or Social Studies/History Teacher Recommendation
Current Math Teacher Recommendation
Current Principal/Advisory/Counselor Recommendation
Transcripts from Current and Previous School Year (including recent student testing)
Optional Coach Recommendation
Optional Visual and/or Performing Arts Recommendation
Optional Additional Teacher Recommendation from a current or past teacher
*Colorado Academy is among several Denver-area independent schools using Common Recommendation and Transcript Request Forms to reduce the workload for an applicant’s current teachers and school staff. Once you have created an account in the application portal, you will be able to submit requests for recommendations and transcripts using the common forms.
CA is test-flexible and will accept 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, Pre-ACT, and any state-specific standards-based assessments, 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 has not completed testing within the previous two years, here are some options: -Register for the ISEE or SSAT. -Register for testing with an evaluator from the DATC (Denver Area Testing Consortium).
Our admission process for the 2024-2025 school year begins in the fall. Prospective families will be able to tour campus and visit CA during our Admission Preview dates in September and October. Please complete this inquiry form to receive registration information when it becomes available.
Our admission process for the 2024-2025 school year begins in the fall. Prospective families will be able to tour campus and visit CA during our Admission Preview dates in September and October. Please complete this inquiry form to receive registration information when it becomes available.
With over $5.1 million in tuition assistance each year, CA welcomes students and families from all backgrounds and encourages families to consider CA no matter their income.
The Application for Financial Aid is separate from the Application for Admission, although the timing of both cycles overlaps. 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 2021 and 2022 tax returns. You will also be asked for copies of 2021 and 2022 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 to fill out an additional application through SSS. You will only need to add Colorado Academy as a recipient on your FACTS application.
The deadline for the Financial Aid Application is February 15. We realize that many families have not yet completed their 2022 tax return by this deadline. The Financial Aid Committee will consider an application complete as long as we receive your 2021 tax return and your 2022 W-2 and/or Profit & Loss Statements (if you are self-employed) by February 15. The 2022 tax return should 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 Financial Aid ManagerLisa Dean at 303-914-2516.
In conjunction with other Denver-area independent schools, Colorado Academy sends Upper School admission decisions (Grades 9-12) by email at 4:00 p.m. MST on Friday, February 24, 2023.
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.
They choose CA because the school’s academic training is built upon the three pillars of Academics, the Arts, and Athletics.
Skills and Character Development
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.