This spring semester, the UCCS Graduate School is expecting 166 students to graduate, 160 with master’s degrees and 6 with doctoral degrees, according to Kim Paine, the student success and admissions coordinator for the graduate school.
Students can attend graduate school to earn their master’s or doctoral degree after earning their bachelor’s degree. According to Paine, people with doctoral and master’s degrees are generally paid better than those without.
Graduate school typically lasts 2-to-6 years and consists of lectures and research
UCCS has 37 master’s and 11 doctoral programs. A master’s program is typically 30 credit hours and some are 36. Most of the doctoral programs are either 60 or 101 credit hours.
Graduate students usually take six or nine credit hours each semester, or two to three classes. According to Janel Owens, the graduate school assistant dean, graduate level courses are often more work than undergraduate courses.
When taking a six-credit hour semester, tuition ranges from $4,444-$6,783 for Colorado residents and $8,818-$9,384 for non-residents, according to the graduate school website.
If the student takes nine credit hours, tuition increases to between $6,393-$9,902 for Colorado residents and $12,954-$13,803 for non-residents.
Internationally, some programs accept students with tuition waivered, meaning students do not pay tuition, although they may still pay student fees. Colorado military can apply for state-based tuition waivers.
Not all programs are fully funded, and no UCCS programs are, but most offer aid and aid opportunities. For example, the UCCS Psychology PhD guarantees admitted students $22,000/year. Doctoral programs are more likely to be funded than master’s
Graduate students can also apply for federal student loans, scholarships, grants, work-study programs, employer tuition assistance and fellowships for financial aid.
Fellowships are merit-based programs awarded based on an individual’s contribution to a field or expected contribution. Learning institution departments and external agents award fellowships. They range in aid dramatically.
UCCS has several merit-based scholarships and fellowship applications for graduate students, including the Lind scholarship and First-Year Graduate Fellowship for Research Excellence, according to the Graduate School website.
UCCS also offers seventeen accelerated master’s programs (AMP), which allow undergraduate students to take graduate level courses to earn their bachelor’s and master’s degrees simultaneously. These programs typically take 5-6 years to complete.
There are 1,858 students enrolled at the Graduate School, according to the spring 2026 demographic report.
Further information on UCCS Graduate School can be found here.
Students walk campus. Photo by Jade Esquibel.