NMSU: Up
Went to an “Aggie Experience” open house day here today. Here’s a bunch of info, highlights, and general thoughts:
- there were about 700 people at this open house. Started in the basketball arena with a 1 hour Q&A session with a student panel. That was very informative.
- the day was VERY well organized.
Schedule:
- 9:00 am - check in & breakfast
- 9:45 am - welcome & student panel
- 11:15-11:45 am - choose from 7 different panels: Financial aid overview, pre-health majors, housing & residence life, student involvement & leadership program, Descubre, How to become an Aggie, Aggie Pathway Program
- 11:45-12:15 - choose from 7 different panels: financial aid overview, exploring majors, honors program, student involvement & leadership program, Air Force & Army ROTC, 1st year initiatives, info for school counselors
- 12:15-1:15 - lunch in Taos cafeteria. Food was provided for free. D26 gave the pizza an approval rating. D24 thought the food was fine. DH thought the food sucked.
- 1:15 pm - “Choose your own college: Experience where you will be taking classes and hear from faculty and staff in each college about future classes, research opportunities, etc.” Options were College of ACES, College of Arts & Sciences, College of Business, College of Engineering, or College of Health, Education & Social Transformation
Then starting in the 2:30-3 pm time frame (going through 4:30 pm), there were 6 other things to choose from:
- application assistance - for HS seniors or transfer students
- resource fair
- traditional campus tour (45 min long)
- recorrido tradicional por el campus (campus tour in Spanish)
- student activities tour
- residence hall tours
There were also other live demonstrations and general “stuff” you could choose to participate in:
- wind symphony rehearsal
- university singers rehearsal
- criminal justice - explore a mock crime scene, learn about criminal justice, criminology, and forensics majors
- flambeed desserts - put on by the Hotel, Restaurant, & Tourism Management dept
- nursing demonstrations - there’s a nursing program at NMSU (didn’t know this before today!)
- College of Arts & Sciences
- driving range practice (golf)
We did not stay for the whole day because D26 was antsy and wanted to stop for ramen at our favorite ramen place in Tucson on the way home (we live in the Phx area). D24 was also tired & cranky by 1pm. So we left early and skipped the general campus tour, didn’t even see the dorms either!
However, despite that, it’s definitely on D24’s list. Like our prior tours at ASU & U of A, I made D24 pick a couple of things she liked. She mentioned 3 off the top of her head:
- “the teachers/professors seemed nice”
- “they have New Mexican food here, and New Mexican food is better than Mexican food.”
- “it’s not cold here in the winter.”
Other plusses for us:
- it’s cheap. Since D24 will be an AZ HS grad, she’ll be able to attend NMSU for same tuition as in-state students pay. That’s only $8408/yr.
- the room & board cost for on campus is about the same as just the room at U of A.
- some of the bio professors are working on biomedical research that D24 is interested in
- fewer students, so slightly less competition for research participation than at ASU or UofA.
- the 5 hr drive from where we live didn’t feel far. And El Paso airport is about 45 min-1 hr drive from campus.
- They have an “Osteopathic Medicine Pathway Program” with their DO med school on campus.
- there’s also a early assurance pharmacy program w/UNM’s PharmD program…which would be an option if D24 decides to pursue pharmacy instead of PA.
- they also have masters accelerated programs, where you can earn a bachelor’s and master’s in 5 yr for certain programs and you pay undergrad tuition rates for the master’s portion.
We went to the pre-health info session & the honors college info session. The pre-health advisor was very helpful, very approachable. D24 liked her.
The dean of the honors college did the honors info session presentation. That guy was awesome - Dr Phame Camarena. Seriously, he was great. Talked about how he interviews every potential new professor at NMSU and asks them if an honors student approached them asking to do an honors contract for the professor’s class, what would he/she propose to the student. If the professor says, “Oh, I’d just make them do a 30 pg research paper on top of the regular assignments for the class,” then that applicant is not hired.
The dean talked a lot about enrichment in the honors program and honors classes and how that’s valued over extra busy work. He talked about the 6 unit freshman experience class(es) that all 1st year students have to take and why you should take it as an honors class if you’re in the honors college…then connected that to living in the honors LLC and doing off-campus activities for the 1st year freshman experience class and then pretty soon, you’ve got yourself connected to a community on campus.
This professor was very dynamic. Great speaker. You could tell he really loves what he does. I could see D24 fitting in well in a place like this.
New freshman applicants are eligible for NMSU honors program with 1 of the following:
- ACT composite score of 26 or better OR
- SAT or 1240 or better OR
- 3.75 or higher HS GPA
Must maintain 3.5 min cumulative GPA to continue in the program.
Graduating w/honors @ NMSU requires 18 honors credits. Less than UofA. Perks are the same as at other big schools: early registration, extended library check out times, extra advising, use of honors college building on campus.
He also said that if you don’t get auto-admitted to the honors college but would like to be admitted to it, you can petition him to ask for an exception. And then he said, “And by ‘petition the dean,’ I mean send me a good thoughtful email explaining why you think you’d be a good fit for honors and then I’ll say yes.”
He also said, “It’s not where you go that matters. It’s what you do when you get there that matters.” That is almost spot on with what they say on the ‘Your College Bound Kid’ podcast.
He, too, was very personable, very approachable. Nice guy.
Everybody we encountered… all of the staff, professors, etc…even the dining hall workers…everybody was genuinely nice. Not fake nice, like they had to be this way because it was a big open house day. But the real deal.
Everyone came across as genuinely wanting to help students exceed at NMSU. The student panel at the start of the day talked a lot about that, too. Lots of school spirit. Greek life exists, but it’s not a huge part of the college, so there’s plenty of opportunities to find your own crew of kids if you’re not into joining a sorority or fraternity. This is also an important factor for D24…by comparison, Ole Miss would end up an approximate price per year as NMSU, but Greek life is a major turn off for D24, so we’re not even considering that college.
The admission requirements to get in here are not high. It is not a highly ranked school. But this is honestly a place that I could see D24 doing really well at.
Las Cruces is a quiet college town. About 100,000 people, I think. We went Sun evening to this “Rad Retrocade” place downtown that’s full of 80s and 90s arcade games…that place was fun. It’s not a big downtown. There’s a Walmart and a Target in Las Cruces. Also a Dillards department store and Ross. Many students end up with internships in El Paso. Some professors live in El Paso. The mountains nearby are really pretty.
FYI- NMSU has the same campus safety stuff that other big colleges do…there’s an evening/late night ‘walk you home’ service available.
NMSU is a Hispanic-serving institution. There are a LOT of Hispanic students here. UofA is as well. There’s also an international student LLC. They have scholarships for students from Mexico.
I think this would also be a great school to attend if you’re into veterinary science. They have an animal science major and a LOT of animal science facilities (we drove past them…cattle, goats, horses). Pretty sure there’s also an equestrian team…saw students decked out in equestrian gear on horseback when we were looking for a place to park.
Other fun facts:
- Comp Sci major has something like 5 or 6 different concentrations to pick from
- Electrical engineering major can choose from 5 concentrations
- they also have an aerospace engineering major
- there’s a separate Cybersecurity major that’s different from Comp Sci and also different from IS majors.
- this summer, they’re offering a NMSU professor-led class in Tuscany that’s all about food tourism in Italy. 4 weeks in Tuscany eating Italian food. I’M READY TO SIGN UP RIGHT NOW!