OP would have received a Woodward or Presidential scholarship at UNM had he/she attended last year. However, both scholarships apply the lottery scholarship first and then these school scholarships pay the difference. My D attends UNM on a Presidential scholarship. The Lottery Scholarship paid $4600 of the $8000 Presidential this year, so those freshman scholarships are no longer an option since the OP took a gap year and can’t get the lottery money now.
D is in the honors college and really enjoys those smaller classes. She lives on campus in beautiful new housing and had a great freshman year with pretty great professors overall. I don’t feel that her education there was bad in any way. It’s a shame that the OP took a gap year and missed out on a free college education. I can see why the parents don’t want to go into debt over something that could have been free.
Having said that, I would recommend the OP attend UNM as it is much more affordable. Having a large debt for a sociology degree is not wise. The OP will then need to take out even more loans to attend grad school in order to make that degree worthwhile.