$1,300+/month will get you a pretty fancy 1-bedroom in/around Boulder, probably with a good chunk left over. Especially if you can find a roommate and split utilities etc. It's hard to beat the quality of education you can get at CU for in-state tuition rates. It's a damn fine school.

Boulder is an expensive place to buy (at least for CO), but it's not bad for renting and aside from housing the cost of living isn't that different from the rest of CO. And if you don't mind not living precisely in Boulder, immediately outside of the city limits prices go waaaay down. Lafayette & Superior are both pretty nice suburbs.