DIME Denver was a for-profit college located in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. It was a branch of the Detroit Institute of Music Education (DIME). The college offered certificate and bachelor's degree programs. In March 2016, DIME announced a partnership with

Metropolitan State University of Denver Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver or Metro State) is a public university in Denver, Colorado, United States. It is located on the Auraria Campus, along with the University of Colorado Denver and the Community College of Denver ...

after previously partnering with

Falmouth University Falmouth University is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth C ...

for accreditation. The financial agreement between DIME and Metropolitan State University was never publicly disclosed. The partnership with Metropolitan State University allowed DIME students to receive BA degrees through Metropolitan State University while paying the higher DIME tuition. DIME students paid significantly higher tuition than the regular Metropolitan State University rate. The cost of attendance to attend DIME Denver was $15,356 for the 2019–20 academic year. DIME Denver was announced in November 2016 in a pop-up location in the basement of the Tivoli Student Union on the

Auraria Campus Auraria Campus is an educational facility located near downtown Denver, Colorado in the United States. The campus houses facilities of three separate universities and colleges: the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver), Community College o ...

. Students began attending DIME Denver in Fall, 2017. Enrollment numbers never reached expectations which led to financial problems for DIME and MSU Denver. In June 2020, Larry Sampler, MSU's chief operating officer, stated that "per an independent marketing study done in 2019, the financial prospects for the partnership going forward were impossibly dire. As of 2019, enrollment at both DIME locations produced only 168 students in 2019, fewer than half the 349 students required for the partnership to break even. Consolidated financial data for both DIME locations showed that in June of 2019 total tuition received was under $2M, while expenses were almost $4M. And, per projections agreed by both MSU Denver and DIME, these numbers were not expected to improve significantly in the coming years." On March 16, 2020, MSU notified DIME and the DIME students that they were ending the partnership between the two colleges. On June 3, 2020, the founders of DIME Denver announced that the college would permanently close immediately. The DIME founders claim that MSU Denver “voluntarily breached” their agreement by refusing to adhere to the 360-day notice period of termination. In a statement they stated, “On March 16th 2020, as the COVID 19 lockdown began, and without prior notice to DIME Directors or senior management, Metropolitan State University of Denver unilaterally announced by email to all DIME students and faculty that they were ending the MSU Denver at DIME partnership agreement. Consequently, DIME has been forced to close DIME Denver."

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* {{coord, 39.729252, -104.999580, type:edu_globe:earth_region:US-CO, display=title Schools in Denver For-profit music schools in the United States