By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated November 8, 2026
Eleven Colorado institutions hold AACSB-accredited business schools, and this page lists the ACT and SAT scores of the students they admit, what each costs a New York student, and what happens to a freshman who is admitted to the university and not to the business school.
Ten of the eleven report an ACT range, so the table leads with the ACT and sorts by it.
At Boulder and at Colorado State the business school decides at the application, and the student it turns away faces a second door of a 3.2 and a B in four courses at Leeds, or a 3.0 and a B- in economics at Fort Collins.
Table of Contents
- Colorado Business Colleges by ACT and SAT Score
- What Happens If You Get Into CU Boulder but Not Into Leeds?
- Which Colorado Universities Have AACSB-Accredited Business Schools?
- What If Your Score Is Below the Range You Want?
Colorado Business Colleges by ACT and SAT Score
Colorado’s eleven AACSB-accredited business schools run from the Leeds School at Boulder, with an ACT range of 29 to 33, to Colorado State, where no range is reported at all, and the table below lists each with its ranges, cost of attendance, enrollment and admit rate. Ten of the eleven are public, one of the ten is a service academy with no tuition, and the rows are sorted by the midpoint of the ACT composite range, so the order can be checked from the table itself.
| College | ACT composite | SAT Reading & Writing | SAT Math | Business school | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Colorado Boulder | 29 to 33 | 630 to 710 | 610 to 720 | Leeds School of Business | $37,684 | 31,939 | 78% |
| University of Denver | 28 to 33 | 640 to 710 | 600 to 700 | Daniels College of Business | $78,476 | 6,025 | 78% |
| United States Air Force Academy | 26 to 33 | 620 to 710 | 610 to 730 | Department of Management | No tuition, service academy | 4,114 | 14% |
| University of Colorado Denver | 23 to 32 | 490 to 620 | 490 to 600 | Business School | $24,902 | 10,519 | 75% |
| University of Northern Colorado | 21 to 26 | 490 to 610 | 460 to 580 | Monfort College of Business | $29,254 | 5,598 | 86% |
| University of Colorado Colorado Springs | 20 to 26 | 510 to 620 | 500 to 600 | College of Business | $24,595 | 8,697 | 97% |
| Colorado State University Pueblo | 19 to 26 | Does not report SAT data | Does not report SAT data | Hasan School of Business | $23,937 | 3,042 | 95% |
| Fort Lewis College | 18 to 26 | 505 to 605 | 505 to 605 | School of Business Administration | $27,030 | 3,079 | 77% |
| Metropolitan State University of Denver | 17 to 26 | 450 to 570 | 430 to 560 | College of Business | $24,622 | 15,002 | 99% |
| Colorado Mesa University | 18 to 24 | 480 to 590 | 450 to 570 | Davis School of Business | $24,046 | 8,143 | 82% |
| Colorado State University | Does not report ACT data | Does not report SAT data | Does not report SAT data | College of Business | $31,642 | 25,538 | 89% |
Each range covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted that test. A quarter scored below the lower number, and the top quarter scored at or above the upper one. Being under the lower number does not rule a student out, and being just above it is not as safe as it looks. Business school names the AACSB-accredited college or school within the institution that awards the business degree [VERIFY each name on the institution’s site]. The United States Air Force Academy charges no tuition and requires a service commitment after graduation [VERIFY the current commitment]. The cost of attendance shown for a public university is a resident’s.
Schools whose business accreditation comes from another body, or from none, are left off this list and named further down, and so are community colleges and online institutions.
Three things about that table are worth pausing on.
Eleven Colorado institutions hold AACSB business accreditation, and the two public flagships, Boulder and Colorado State, decide at the application whether a freshman is in the business school, and hold a 3.2 and a 3.0 door for the ones they turn away.
Boulder charges a New Yorker $44,918 in tuition, the highest public figure in this series outside California, and Colorado State $34,783, while Pueblo charges $17,944 and the Air Force Academy charges nothing.
Ten of the eleven report an ACT range and nine report SAT ranges. Colorado State reports neither and Pueblo reports only the ACT, so a New Yorker with an SAT has nine ranges to read in Colorado, in a state that gives the SAT to its own juniors.
A student can see where his ACT score sits on this ladder in the image above.
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University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder awards its business degrees through the Leeds School of Business, and Boulder reports the highest ACT range of the eleven and charges a New Yorker the most of any public university in Colorado.
ACT composite 29 to 33. Reading & Writing 630 to 710, Math 610 to 720. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 33 on the ACT and 720 on Math. Cost of attendance $37,684, with tuition and fees at $15,666 in-state and $44,918 out-of-state. 31,939 undergraduates, 78% admitted.
A student applies to Leeds by naming business as the intended major on the Common Application, and Leeds decides on that application separately from the university, the subject of the next section. The cost of attendance in the table is a resident’s. A non-resident’s comes to approximately $66,936 once the higher tuition is substituted, and the $44,918 that drives it is $10,746 above what the University of Alabama charges a New Yorker and $5,629 below Berkeley’s figure.
College NameUniversity of Denver
The University of Denver awards its business degrees through the Daniels College of Business, and Denver is the one private university among Colorado’s eleven accredited business schools and charges every student $61,398.
ACT composite 28 to 33. Reading & Writing 640 to 710, Math 600 to 700. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 33 on the ACT and 700 on Math. Cost of attendance $78,476, with tuition and fees at $61,398 for all students. 6,025 undergraduates, 78% admitted.
Denver’s ACT range matches Boulder’s at the top and sits one point lower at the floor, and its Reading & Writing floor of 640 is the highest in the state, 10 points above Boulder’s. A New Yorker pays $16,480 a year more at Denver than at Boulder, and the two universities admit the same share of applicants, 78%.
United States Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs awards its management degree through its Department of Management, accredited by AACSB International with a five-year extension granted in 2021, and the Academy admits 14% of its applicants, the lowest rate on this page by a wide margin.
ACT composite 26 to 33. Reading & Writing 620 to 710, Math 610 to 730. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 33 on the ACT and 730 on Math. No tuition. 4,114 undergraduates, 14% admitted.
The Academy’s 730 Math ceiling is the highest in Colorado, 10 points above Boulder’s, and its ACT floor of 26 is three points below Boulder’s 29 on a range that reaches the same 33. A cadet pays no tuition and owes a term of service as an officer after graduation [VERIFY the current commitment on usafa.edu], and admission runs through a congressional or other nomination as well as the application. The Academy is left out of every tuition comparison on this page because it has no price to compare.
University of Colorado Denver
The University of Colorado Denver awards its business degrees through its Business School, and Colorado Denver reports the widest ACT range in the state, nine points from 23 to 32.
ACT composite 23 to 32. Reading & Writing 490 to 620, Math 490 to 600. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 32 on the ACT and 600 on Math. Cost of attendance $24,902, with tuition and fees at $10,383 in-state and $29,391 out-of-state. 10,519 undergraduates, 75% admitted.
Colorado Denver’s ACT ceiling of 32 is one point under Boulder’s on a floor six points lower, and its SAT ranges sit 120 points below Boulder’s on Math at the floor. A New Yorker pays $29,391, $15,527 less than at Boulder, and the Scorecard’s row for the campus is shared with the Anschutz Medical Campus, so the figures describe the two together.
University of Northern Colorado
The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley awards its business degrees through the Monfort College of Business, and Northern Colorado charges a New Yorker $27,266, the third lowest non-resident tuition of the ten with a price.
ACT composite 21 to 26. Reading & Writing 490 to 610, Math 460 to 580. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 26 on the ACT and 580 on Math. Cost of attendance $29,254, with tuition and fees at $12,416 in-state and $27,266 out-of-state. 5,598 undergraduates, 86% admitted.
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
The University of Colorado Colorado Springs awards its business degrees through its College of Business, and Colorado Springs admits 97% of its applicants on a Math range of 500 to 600.
ACT composite 20 to 26. Reading & Writing 510 to 620, Math 500 to 600. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 26 on the ACT and 600 on Math. Cost of attendance $24,595, with tuition and fees at $10,149 in-state and $24,336 out-of-state. 8,697 undergraduates, 97% admitted.
Colorado State University Pueblo
Colorado State University Pueblo awards its business degrees through the Hasan School of Business, reaccredited by AACSB International in October 2024, and Pueblo charges a New Yorker $17,944, the lowest non-resident tuition of the ten with a price.
ACT composite 19 to 26. Pueblo reports no SAT range. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 26 on the ACT. Cost of attendance $23,937, with tuition and fees at $9,720 in-state and $17,944 out-of-state. 3,042 undergraduates, 95% admitted.
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Fort Lewis College
Fort Lewis College in Durango awards its business degrees through its School of Business Administration, reaccredited by AACSB International, and Fort Lewis reports the same 505 to 605 range on both sections of the SAT.
ACT composite 18 to 26. Reading & Writing 505 to 605, Math 505 to 605. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 26 on the ACT and 605 on Math. Cost of attendance $27,030, with tuition and fees at $9,958 in-state and $21,526 out-of-state. 3,079 undergraduates, 77% admitted
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Metropolitan State University of Denver awards its business degrees through its College of Business, accredited by AACSB International since 2016, and Metropolitan State admits 99% of its applicants, the highest rate of the eleven.
ACT composite 17 to 26. Reading & Writing 450 to 570, Math 430 to 560. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 26 on the ACT and 560 on Math. Cost of attendance $24,622, with tuition and fees at $11,124 in-state and $30,684 out-of-state. 15,002 undergraduates, 99% admitted.
Colorado Mesa University
Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction awards its business degrees through the Davis School of Business, AACSB-accredited for the first time in February 2025, and Colorado Mesa is the newest accredited business school on this page.
ACT composite 18 to 24. Reading & Writing 480 to 590, Math 450 to 570. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 24 on the ACT and 570 on Math. Cost of attendance $24,046, with tuition and fees at $9,927 in-state and $25,124 out-of-state. 8,143 undergraduates, 82% admitted.
Colorado State University
Colorado State University in Fort Collins awards its business degrees through its College of Business, and Colorado State is the one institution of the eleven that reports no ACT or SAT range to the Scorecard.
Colorado State reports no score ranges. Cost of attendance $31,642, with tuition and fees at $13,373 in-state and $34,783 out-of-state. 25,538 undergraduates, 89% admitted.
Colorado State admits a freshman to the College of Business by holistic review and places the rest in Exploratory Studies: Business Interest, with a 3.000 and a B- in economics as the way in. A New Yorker pays $34,783, $611 above what the University of Alabama charges and $10,135 below Boulder’s figure. The cost of attendance in the table is a resident’s, and a non-resident’s comes to approximately $53,052 with the higher tuition substituted.
Eleven rows say who got into the institution. The next section is about the student who got into the university and not into the business school.
What Happens If You Get Into CU Boulder but Not Into Leeds?
A freshman admitted to the University of Colorado Boulder and not to the Leeds School of Business is placed in the Pre-Business Program and earns a guaranteed seat in Leeds with a B or better in four courses and a 3.2 GPA in his first year, and the same split runs at Colorado State with a 3.0 and a B- in economics.
Leeds decides first, on the application itself. A high school senior applies for direct admission by selecting business as the intended major on the Common Application, with the SAT or ACT optional, a transcript, a letter of recommendation and the essays, and Leeds publishes no GPA or score threshold for that decision [VERIFY on the Leeds admissions page and its first-year selection page]. A student the university admits and Leeds does not, in the program’s words one “who shows academic promise,” is placed in the Pre-Business Program, lives in the Pre-Business residential academic program at Andrews Hall for a one-time $425 fee, and the page promises “Guaranteed admission into Leeds with successful completion of the program”: a B or better in MATH 1112, ECON 2010, ECON 2020 and MATH 2510, and a 3.2 cumulative GPA, with the move into Leeds in the sophomore year [VERIFY on the Pre-Business page].
A student who misses that, or who entered another college at CU, applies through Intra-University Transfer. The IUT asks a 3.20 cumulative CU GPA, 24 credits completed or in progress with at least 12 at a CU campus, a B or higher, not a B-, in ECON 2010, ECON 2020, MATH 1112 and an approved statistics course, with three graded attempts at most per requirement and pass/fail attempts counted, and it admits for spring only, with the priority deadline on October 1 and the final on December 20. The page’s own words carry the rest: “IUT admission is granted on a space available basis,” “There are no exceptions to the Leeds IUT requirements,” and “Leeds does not round up GPA or grade(s) for admissions purposes.” An application after the priority deadline is reviewed on space, and the page calls admission then “highly unlikely” [VERIFY on the IUT advising page].
Colorado State runs the same two doors with lower numbers. The College of Business reads a freshman by holistic review, and the catalog names “at least a 3.200 GPA” as the mark of a strong candidate rather than as a floor. A freshman not admitted directly is placed in Exploratory Studies: Business Interest and transfers into the college on a 3.000 cumulative GPA over at least 15 graded CSU credits, a B- or higher in ECON 202 or AREC 202, and a C- or higher in three credits of the listed math courses. Junior or senior status and admission to the college are required before the 300- and 400-level concentration courses, and from fall 2025 the college requires a 2.000 in business and economics courses to graduate [VERIFY on the Colorado State catalog page].
The pattern is the reverse of the earlier pages. On our page on business colleges in Alabama, every Culverhouse freshman enters the same door and meets a 2.5 at 61 hours. On our page on business colleges in Arkansas, every Walton freshman is pre-business and meets a 2.50 after thirteen courses. In Colorado the gate comes only for the student who did not get in the first time, and it reads a 3.2 and four B’s.
| Door | Who | What it asks | GPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leeds, direct | High school senior | Business named as the intended major on the Common Application, tests optional | None published |
| Leeds, Pre-Business | Freshman admitted to CU and not to Leeds | B or better in MATH 1112, ECON 2010, ECON 2020 and MATH 2510, the Andrews Hall program | 3.2 cumulative, guaranteed |
| Leeds, IUT | Any CU student after 24 credits | B or higher in ECON 2010, ECON 2020, MATH 1112 and a statistics course, three attempts, spring entry | 3.20, space-available, no exceptions |
| Colorado State, direct | High school senior | Holistic review | 3.200 named as a strong candidate’s mark, not a floor |
| Colorado State, transfer in | Exploratory Studies: Business Interest student | B- in ECON 202 or AREC 202, C- in three math credits, 15 graded CSU credits | 3.000 |
The image above traces the two doors at Boulder and the two at Fort Collins.
What a Pre-Business student who earns a B- in one of the four courses gets is the end of the guarantee and the start of the IUT, where a B- does not count either and the attempts are counted. What an Exploratory Studies student at Colorado State gets before the 3.000 is the freshman and sophomore business courses and none of the 300-level ones.
The price runs with the pattern. Boulder charges a New Yorker $44,918 in tuition, the highest public non-resident figure in this series outside the University of California, $10,746 above the University of Alabama’s and $5,629 below Berkeley’s, and Colorado State charges $34,783, $611 above Alabama’s. Four years is $179,672 at Boulder and $139,132 at Fort Collins. Pueblo charges $17,944 and Fort Lewis $21,526, and Metropolitan State’s $30,684 is the highest figure among the publics below the two flagships. Denver charges $61,398 to every student. The Air Force Academy charges nothing and admits 14% on a range of 26 to 33, and a cadet owes service after graduation [VERIFY the commitment]. The Western Undergraduate Exchange rate the Colorado publics offer does not reach a New Yorker [VERIFY each campus’s participation and the WICHE list].
The one business degree Colorado licenses is accounting. The Colorado State Board of Accountancy lets a candidate sit for the CPA exam with a bachelor’s degree and 120 semester hours, including 27 hours of accounting with 21 above the introductory level and a 3-hour audit course on U.S. auditing standards, and 21 hours of business, and licenses on 150 hours with 33 hours of accounting, 27 above introductory, 27 hours of business, all four parts of the exam, 1,800 hours of qualifying work experience and a written ethics exam [Colorado State College of Business page, VERIFY on dpo.colorado.gov/Accountancy]. Alabama asks 150 with 33 in accounting, Arizona 150 with 36, Arkansas 150 with 30 to sit, California 150 with ethics study, and Alaska a bachelor’s from 2026. Colorado is the first on these pages to count experience in hours rather than years.
Take a New York student with a 1300 on the SAT, 650 on each section, and a 3.5 GPA. At Boulder he is inside the 610 to 720 Math range and the 630 to 710 Reading & Writing range, the university admits 78%, and Leeds decides on the same application. If Leeds says yes he is a business major on arrival. If Leeds says no and the university says yes, he spends his first year in Pre-Business and needs a B in four courses and a 3.2 for the guaranteed seat, and a 3.20 and the IUT in the spring of his sophomore year if he misses it. At Colorado State there is no range to be inside, the university admits 89%, the College of Business reads him holistically, and if it says no he is Exploratory Studies: Business Interest until a 3.000 and a B- in ECON 202. At Colorado Denver he is inside 490 to 600 on Math and 490 to 620 on Reading & Writing, admitted at 75%, at $29,391 a year. Four years of tuition is $179,672 at Boulder, $139,132 at Fort Collins and $117,564 at Denver. The score decided the first door at Boulder, and the second door, if he needs it, reads a 3.2.
The honest version is that neither Leeds nor Colorado State publishes the share of business applicants admitted directly, or how many Pre-Business and Exploratory Studies students reach the college. Leeds publishes no first-year threshold, and Colorado State’s 3.200 is an example and not a rule. IUT seats are counted nowhere a family can read. The Academy’s price is not zero in any ordinary sense. The page does not say which business school is better. It says who gets in at the application and what the ones who do not must do next.
Families reading the IUT rules frequently ask whether a 3.19 is close enough.
Does Leeds Round Up a 3.19 to a 3.20?
No, the Leeds School of Business does not round a 3.19 to a 3.20, and its Intra-University Transfer page says so in two sentences: “Leeds does not round up GPA or grade(s) for admissions purposes” and “There are no exceptions to the Leeds IUT requirements.”
The same page says a B- does not satisfy a requirement that asks a B, that pass/fail attempts count toward the three allowed per course, and that an application after the October 1 priority deadline is reviewed only if space remains, with admission “highly unlikely.” A student who wants Leeds and did not get it on the first application has one guaranteed path, the Pre-Business year, and the IUT is the path for everyone else [VERIFY].
One school, three doors, no rounding. Which schools hold the accreditation is the next section.
Which Colorado Universities Have AACSB-Accredited Business Schools?
Eleven Colorado institutions hold business accreditation from AACSB International, ten public and one private, and the list below names each with its city and the school that awards the business degree [VERIFY all eleven on the AACSB directory before publishing].
- The University of Colorado Boulder awards its business degrees through the AACSB-accredited Leeds School of Business.
- Colorado State University in Fort Collins awards its business degrees through its AACSB-accredited College of Business.
- The University of Colorado Denver awards its business degrees through its AACSB-accredited Business School.
- The University of Colorado Colorado Springs awards its business degrees through its AACSB-accredited College of Business.
- The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley awards its business degrees through the AACSB-accredited Monfort College of Business.
- The University of Denver awards its business degrees through the AACSB-accredited Daniels College of Business.
- Metropolitan State University of Denver awards its business degrees through its AACSB-accredited College of Business.
- Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction awards its business degrees through the AACSB-accredited Davis School of Business.
- Colorado State University Pueblo awards its business degrees through the AACSB-accredited Hasan School of Business.
- Fort Lewis College in Durango awards its business degrees through its AACSB-accredited School of Business Administration.
- The United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs awards its management degree through its AACSB-accredited Department of Management.
Accreditation matters for a reason that is easy to miss at seventeen. Business itself is not a licensed profession, and the one business degree that leads to a license, accounting, leads to it through the state board rather than through the school. A CPA in Colorado normally needs 150 semester hours with 33 in accounting and 27 in business, the Uniform CPA Examination, 1,800 hours of experience and an ethics exam, and may sit for the exam at 120 hours with 27 accounting hours and 21 business hours [VERIFY on the board’s site]. AACSB status matters on the way there because business schools use it to decide whose courses they will accept in transfer.
Regis University’s Anderson College of Business and Colorado Christian University hold business accreditation from the ACBSP rather than AACSB [VERIFY both]. Western Colorado University, Adams State University and Colorado State University Global award business bachelor’s degrees without AACSB accreditation [VERIFY each]. The Colorado School of Mines awards economics degrees and no bachelor’s in business, and Colorado College awards no business degree.
Nothing on this page ranks the eleven. They are eleven schools with the same accreditor, two flagships with two doors each and nine with one, and the pages for business colleges in Utah and business colleges in New Mexico carry the neighbors a student looking at Colorado is likely comparing.
What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
In Colorado the highest floors with a price attached are Boulder’s, 29 on the ACT and 610 on Math, and the Air Force Academy’s floors are 26 and 610. Metropolitan State’s 430 on Math is the lowest. A student under the floor he wants is not ruled out, because a quarter of admitted students were there too. He is in the quarter that needs the rest of the application to carry more.
The first step is finding out where the score actually is, section by section. A free diagnostic SAT gives a Math score that can be set directly against Boulder’s 610 floor, and the score is optional at Leeds, so a student sends it when it helps and withholds it when it does not.
The Math section rewards the same handful of topics on every test date, and a student who knows which of them he is missing can close a gap of 50 to 100 points in weeks rather than months. The method is on our page on improving your SAT Math score, and at Boulder the same algebra fills MATH 1112, Mathematical Analysis in Business, one of the four courses a Pre-Business or IUT student must bring back with a B.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Each range in the table covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted that test, so a quarter of admitted students were below the lower number and a quarter were at or above the upper one.
A range describes the students who chose to submit at all. Where a school is test-optional, as Leeds is, the range describes the submitters, and the submitters are the students whose scores helped them. More on what SAT score you need for college and on test-optional colleges.
Should You Take the ACT Instead?
Colorado gives the SAT to its public school juniors as the state test [VERIFY current Colorado statewide testing], and the ACT column leads this table only because one more school reports an ACT range than an SAT range.
A New York student who holds an SAT should send it to the nine schools that publish an SAT range and read Pueblo’s 19 to 26 through a concordance rather than take the ACT for one school’s sake. Neither flagship’s second door reads either test.
Business Programs in Nearby States
Colorado borders Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, and each has at least one AACSB-accredited business school [VERIFY the lists before linking].
See business colleges in Utah, business colleges in New Mexico, and business colleges in Arizona.
Business Colleges in Other States
We publish the same breakdown for business programs in every state.
See business colleges by state for the full list.
Glyn Caddell
Glyn Caddell holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from NJIT and has been tutoring New York City students since 2008. He founded Caddell Prep in 2012 and is the author of Digital SAT Math Secrets: Lessons & Tricks to Quickly Improve to a Perfect 800 on the Math Test, which contains over 900 practice problems and is used in Caddell Prep’s SAT math classes. He is founding president of the Staten Island Technical High School alumni association and teaches every lesson on this site personally.
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