@DiotimaDM That varies by the day lol. But thanks. Other people are much better at selling me than I am myself, which is why I’d love to send LoRs 
@CharlotteLetter Well, let’s say you had LORs, or even just single sentences or a few words about you written by other people. You could use those in your video as a slide show of some sort, or as little signs like people do in memes sometimes. As you held up each card, you could say something relevant to the person or class it’s from.
E.G. “I know the class was supposed to be about history, but Professor X taught me more about writing than any other teacher I’ve worked with.”
“This one is from Professor Y. I was so fascinated by the mythological references in The Iliad that I bought a copy of Bullfinch’s Mythology and read the whole thing. If you notice that my avatar is an owl, that’s why. Go, Athena!”
This won’t work for your whole video of course, but you could do maybe 30 seconds of it. The quotes will have to be really short, too.
S was awarded the Amigo scholarship yesterday, the OOS tuition waiver. The rest of the NMF offer will arrive once he advances to finalist.
Congrats! I’m now wondering if I’ll hear of any scholarship offers before late January, as the financial aid rep I spoke with said they’d be coming out no earlier than then. It’s probably just different for Amigo, but I can always hope…
Do any of you know if accepting the Amigo scholarship is binding? (If I accept the scholarship, am I bound to attending UNM?) I’m not sure if I’ll be going to UNM, but I don’t want to lose the scholarship. I am also a NMSF so, hopefully, that portion of the scholarship will follow.
Accepting the Amigo is not binding.
Scholarship notifications for in-state residents come out in the spring. For the Regents and Presidential, usually in April. You’ll get notified about the Legislative-Lottery Scholarship when you receive your FA info which can be as soon as January.
Amigo Scholarships are awarded to OOS applicants at the same time they are accepted.
@WayOutWestMom Ok. Regents notifications come out in late January and early February - Presidential in late February, according to multiple FA officers.
I’m not going to get a Lottery Scholarship notification because I haven’t taken the GED yet and I’m a homeschooler. (I take that at the end of high school.) If the Lottery is all I get, my parents also won’t allow me to graduate. (I can graduate if I get any scholarship that pays at least tuition + most fees - so UNM Scholars at least.)
Housing registration opened today.
You have until early May 2018 (exact date TBD) to cancel a UNM housing contract without penalty.
See: https://housing.unm.edu/living-on-campus/contract-cancellation.html
Contact cancellation dates for the 2018-19 school year have not been released, but here’s the schedule for 2017-18:
If you want to live in the dorms, you can apply & pay the $50 non-refundable application fee, then once you have been assigned a room, pay the required deposit. If you do not receive a scholarship that will cover the cost of the residence hall, cancel the contract. You will get your some/all of your deposit back depending on the date of cancellation.
http://housing.unm.edu/living-on-campus/faqs.html
Housing is assigned on a first come-first served basis for new students once all upperclassmen have received their housing assignments.
http://housing.unm.edu/living-on-campus/TC_RP_PC%202017.2018.pdf
Housing apps are open for the Fall of 2018.
We had a great second visit at UNM. I went into things a little worried that something would be different and S would suddenly hate it. Thankfully, I needn’t have worried. S’s opinion actually went UP.
We had absolutely gorgeous weather - cold at night, but gloriously sunny and comfortable during the day. UNM’s many trees were wearing their fall coats in red, orange and yellow. DH and I did the standard walking tour while S met with the EMS department, then we met with a peer advisor in the Honors college and re-toured housing.
EMS visit - UNM has a sim lab full of super-advanced EMS dummies and S was just blown away by them. Apparently, they can do just about anything short of getting up and dancing. They bleed. The can mimic a heart attack. They can be programmed to crash in the middle of grab-and-go simulation. S was in pure heaven.
Honors College - The meeting was with a senior student who knew the programs inside out. In addition to being informative, meeting with a representative student allowed S to get a feel for the kind of person he’d meet in the Honors College. The two of them promptly got into a discussion about Tolkien, the campus Hobbit and Star Wars societies, the Inklings, the wow factor of visiting the actual pub where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis hung out, which English professors on campus are friendly to speculative fiction and which are not, and other geeky subjects. There happened to be a student meeting going on, and S eavesdropped enough to know that yes, those are definitely his people.
Dining hall remodel - the dining hall was one of S’s favorite parts of campus, so he was worried that the remodel might have ruined it. There used to be two atrium spaces with trees and plants growing inside them, and those are gone. The space feels colder, more industrial, not so warm or inviting as it used to. The recovered square footage was given to a new chef station where food is prepared to order. S liked that part, so it balanced out fairly well. They preserved some of the hidey-hole spaces he liked, and there seems to be more variety in the food offered.
Housing re-visit - S confirmed his fist and second choice of dorms, and added a third choice. We laughed with each other over the fact that his order of preference is exactly opposite mine, including where we each placed the third dorm that we hadn’t seen the first time. I’m not going to be living there, though, so he gets to pick whatever he likes (even if his mother thinks it’s dark and cramped. Hrmpf! )
For those who have been reading along, Mom thinks Hokona is light, airy and spacious, while Laguna De Vargas dorms are dark and cramped. The windows in Hokona are twice as large as LdV, and the average room in Hokona is at least 10 square feet bigger. Hokona has white walls and cabinets; LdV has dark brown cabinets and gray walls. Alvarado wasn’t quite as nice as Hokona, felt a bit more dated, but still light and airy.
S prefers LdV because pods of three doubles share one bathroom vs community bathrooms in the other two, and because there are more small lounges and study rooms vs. fewer but larger lounges and study rooms in Hokona.
Hokona’s main lounge has floor-to-ceiling windows along one wall, a nice fireplace and pastel furniture with a mid-century modern vibe. It’s easily double or triple the size of a regular living room, and there are separate meeting rooms with long conference tables on each end.
The lounges at LdV are about the size of a small living room with brown, man-cave style couches and a TV on the wall.
Quick update - S made NMF, so he will be attending UNM on their National Merit scholarship. He’s scheduled for orientation and registration in May, right after Memorial Day. We’ll be visiting the Grand Canyon on the way home.
Here’s what we’ve learned so far about hotels and restaurants.
Hotels
If you’re using Hotwire, Priceline or similar, choose the ABQ Sunport Airport zone for the best proximity to UNM. Downtown is next closest, then midtown where you could be up to 7 or so miles away, maybe 20 mins in heavy traffic.
- Baymont Inn & Suites Airport: $50 - $60/night. Decent value for the money, but I wouldn't stay there again. Dodgy-looking area, room was run down. Hotel backs to the freeway. Exterior looked nice save for some wind-blown trash in the parking lot. Lobby and breakfast area were nice, bright, comfortable and tidy, and the free breakfast had hot items (eggs, sausage, waffles, oatmeal) in addition to standard continental fare.
- Days Inn & Suites Airport: $60 - 80/night. Nicer surroundings than the above, nicer rooms, several restaurants nearby. You can book it on Hotwire for closer to $60/night. It's $80 - $100 booking directly or through Expedia. Free breakfast includes hot items like the above, and there's posole (soup) available in the evenings with a slice of bread for a light dinner / snack. This is where we stay when we're not splurging.
- Embassy Suites Albuquerque: $120 - $150/night. Excellent in every way. Super nice rooms, some with knockout views, and the ample breakfast buffet has large selection and higher end items (e.g. bacon, Belgian waffles with strawberries, eggs Benedict) and omelettes made to order. This is where we stay when we splurge.
- Sheraton Airport - Good reviews but I've never stayed there.
- Holiday Inn & Suites Express, ABQ Airport: Also has good reviews but we've never stayed. Probably a good alternative if the Days Inn is booked.
Restaurants
- Standard Diner: A Diners, Drive-ins and Dives place. We had the signature meatloaf, which was very good but just short of outstanding. Menu available online. If you want a place with more local flair, there's a thread here where I asked about places to eat.
- Frontier Restaurant: The big yellow barn across from campus. Tasty, fast causal food with a Southwestern flair at inexpensive prices. Very popular with students, so try it for a slice of campus life. Cinnamon rolls the size of your head (split one). You order at the counter, find a seat and wait for them to call your number. Has a fun, quirky vibe with memorabilia on the walls. Won't win any awards for ambiance or plating, and it can be loud at busy times. S liked it enough that he wants to go back on our next trip. Menu available online.
@DiotimaDM – I asked in another thread before I found this one. Sorry for cross-posting. My S has been admitted to UNM. He also made NMF. My question is if it is required to name UNM first choice college at NMSC in order to get National Scholars scholarship? He likes UNM but has not decided (still waiting for a couple other schools) so he wants to leave his choice as “undecided”.
It seems your S has got the scholarship; since NMSC only starts to send notices to schools in March, I would guess UNM got their hint elsewhwre. But my S has not heard anything from UNM about NMF (he did get Amigo – we are OOS).
Thanks!
Hi, @SN2010 and welcome!
My S hasn’t been offered the scholarship yet, but we know it will be coming because it’s automatic for all NMF at UNM. The first list goes out to schools March 1, and the list has the names of everyone who’s chosen the school as their number one pick. So if your S’s name is on that list, then UNM will offer him the scholarship.
These lists get updated several times between now and May 1, so there’s no real rush unless one of his other schools has an earlier deadline.
If he’s not sure yet, he can play it a couple of ways.
-
Stay undecided and fill it in later. Not a problem as long as his name is on the final list sent to UNM. I think May 1 is the deadline, but please double check in case I’m wrong.
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Put UNM as #1 now, get the offer in hand and change it later if need be. Making UNM #1 is non-binding, so it doesn’t mean he has to go there. He can change it as many times as he wants until the deadline. Some students rotate several different schools through the #1 position so they can see all of the offers on paper, then they make their final choice right before the deadline.
Either approach works as long as you remember to make your final selection before the deadline.
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@SN2010 - congrats on your son’s Amigo scholarship! Could I ask, if that’s all he gets, do you know how much your total out-of-pockets costs would be? I understand you’re still hoping for more merit, and I hope you get it, but I’m trying to see if the school is affordable for us OOS if that’s the only scholarship my D gets.
Thanks in advance!
https://admissions.unm.edu/costs-financial-aid/index.html
Tuition: $7,146
Room & Board: $9,662 (subtotal $16,808 before books)
Books: $1,102
That leaves transportation and misc., which will vary quite a bit.
The number for room & board is an average, so it’s possible to come in under.
Example: Hokona double - $4890/yr
Cheapest freshman meal plan: $3900/yr - includes unlimited swipes and 24/7 access to the dining hall, plus swipes are accepted at various grab & go locations on campus
Total: $8790, so almost a thousand less than the stated figure for room & board
In the stacking thread, you mentioned a likely $5k scholie. It should stack with the Amigo, so it looks like it would pay most of tuition. 
UNM already sent us a financial aid offer. It doesn’t list the NMF award yet, but here’s what they offered in case it’s useful for your calculations.
We have an EFC of $9,624. They offered us the Amigo, $5,000 in work study, and $5,500 in loans.
@DiotimaDM Thanks so much for the info.
The NMF letter is a bit confusing to me; it seems to say that once they hae send out an offer (from the first choice college), you cannot change your first choice anymore; if you don’t attend that college you’ll not get any scholarship associated with the NMF status. So if he put UNM as #1 now, and UNM offers the scholarship, then he pretty much has to go to UNM or go elsewhere without any benefit from NMF … I guess it is perhaps better to wait a bit longer – since you said the NMF scholarhsip is automatic, it does not seem he has anything to lose by waiting for afew weeks.
The UNM scholarship website lacks detailed info – I was hoping they hae a PDF file with the fine prints …
@Gatormama – Amigo is really just a non-resident tuition waiver; it shows up on financial sheet as merely $200 (because this is the amount you actually will get). The in-state “cost of attendance” is $22,436 (in which “tuition and fees” is $7,354), so $22,236 is the figure you (and we) need to come up with beyond Amigo.
@SN2010 - He’ll be fine if he waits. If it would make you feel better, you can call NMSC to confirm. 
@DiotimaDM thanks for the detailed cost info. You beat me both in speed and in quality