Cost of Attendance
Books and Supplies $1,126.00
Miscellaneous $2,124.00
Room and Board $9,864.00
Tuition and Fees $7,354.00
Transportation $1,892.00
Loan Fee $76.00
Total: $22,436.00
I suspect the numbers on financial aid website is from last year (slightly lower).
@DiotimaDM NMSC says they will send the first batch on 3/1, then send more out “periodically” until May 31st. BUt any change has to be (1) before May 1st and (2) before a college-sponsored scholarship is offered. So we could wait until May 1st to get out of “undecided”. (I was worried that if the number of scholarhsips is limited, then they may run out before he commits …)
UNM is a nice school. I would probably make the commitment now. But I am not going to college … 
@DiotimaDM and @SN2010 - thanks so much for the helpful information! It makes sense that Amigo is simply an OOS tuition waiver; don’t know why I didn’t figure that out, but glad I know now.
The school is a real possibility for us - can’t wait to see how it all shakes out!
S’s NMF scholarship hasn’t shown up in his financial aid portal yet, so yesterday I emailed the scholarship contact at UNM, and today I followed up with a call to the financial aid office.
Scholarship admin assured me that they have all of the paperwork and the scholarship is a done deal. Financial aid hadn’t heard anything about it as of this morning, but the rep called the scholarship admin and together they said to check back if it wasn’t in his portal by Friday.
I’m pretty patient about bureaucracy, but they got the first list from NMSC a month ago. Since there’s a May 1 deadline for S to change his school of choice in the NMSC portal if something goes pear-shaped, I want the offer to be official, in writing, in his portal, and accepted well ahead of the deadline. This is not something we want to be sweating in the last week of April, you know?
Anyhow, I’m sure it will go fine, but I’ll keep everyone posted.
Woot! S’s NMF award finally showed up in his portal. We can rest easy now. 
Re: the delay…
Welcome to the Land of Mañana…
LOL! In Brazil, everything was “after lunch.” If someone told you they’d get to something after lunch, it might mean 2pm. Or 6 pm. Or sometime next week…
S, the hubs and I will be back in ABQ end of May for S’s orientation. When S is done, we’re headed to the Grand Canyon on the way home.
Let me know if anyone has any questions.
@DiotimaDM - anything you can glean or notice about the theater program (tech, not acting) – and I know you’ve already been hugely helpful, so don’t feel like I forgot … but updated/additional insights are always welcome. I’m still here, still hoping my D gets over her “I don’t wanna go far away” thing.
@Gatormama Any specific questions?
One thing about UNM is that students get lots of opportunities that would normally go to grad students because UNM doesn’t have a grad program for theater tech. They also get calls from local theaters when a job opens up that a student might fill. Some of these are short term gigs for 2-6 weeks, some are at the opera in Santa Fe, and some are permanent positions.
They also have lots of paid work for work study kids. There are non-work study jobs, too, so a student with tech experience who wants a job should be able to find one.
@DiotimaDM - hmm, maybe number of students in the department (hard to find; you can get # of graduates from CDS, but not total number); are there the occasional master class, things like that. I’m not sure if I was able to find the # of productions a year, but I should be able to grab that someplace. I don’t know anything about facilities, so wouldn’t even know what to ask.
I swear, I am not even a theater OR tech person and I wanna go to this school. lol
I will see what I can do.
S moved in Monday night. He says he’s already making friends, and his dining hall faves so far are the Hawaiian pizza and apple juice. He did a circuit of campus today to locate all of his classrooms, and he’ll be picking up his last few books, clicker and some access codes in the next few days.
Hawaiian pizza? What’s wrong with this kid? He needs to be ordering the 505 (pepperoni & green chile) pizza. Or at the very least an Albuquerque Turkey.
LOL! I’ll suggest those to him. 
He’s loving it so far, and it’s such a good feeling to see him so happy.
S has settled in quite nicely. His first week of classes went well, and he LOVES his Honors College lit class. He auditioned for two plays over the weekend, and he’ll find out about casting next week.
The only hitch so far is that the bookstore credit NMFs are supposed to get, equivalent to the cost of an iPad, hasn’t materialized. He’s checking on it, but it means he had to buy books out of his bursar account. All in all, not a huge deal since he can use the credit next semester.
S auditioned for two plays over the weekend, As You Like It and one written by one of UNM’s MFA in Dramatic Writing students.
On Tuesday, he was delighted to learn that he’d been given the lead role in the MFA production! Once we have dates, we’ll see if we can schedule a trip to see him and watch the show.
Hey did you end up visiting and applying? I welcome feedback? My son barely missed NMF but is a strong student, we are all the way in NC so do share!
Me? Yes, we visited twice, and my son applied, was accepted and this is where he chose to go. 
Check out UNM’s Regents scholarship It’s competitive, but a near-NMF student is probably eligible to apply. https://scholarship.unm.edu/scholarships/non-resident.html
S is having an utterly fabulous time at UNM. He’s hip-deep in play rehearsals, and it looks like I’ll be headed out there to see the show near the end of the month.
His Chem professor pulled him aside to ask what he’s studying, if he’s chosen a major and to see if he had any interest in becoming a TA. He said possibly, but not until the show is over.
His other classes are going quite well.Legacy of Monsters & Marvels is probably his favorite, but he likes all of them. He says Physics is easy, and he’s looking forward to doing some ride-alongs with local EMT crews after he’s done with the play. his EMS instructor promised to set some up for him.
As much as he’s loving his theatre experience, he’s debating with himself over whether he wants to continue his theatre minor, or whether he wants to pursue theatre strictly as an EC, taking any classes that interest him but not worry about completing all of the requirements for a minor. Instead, he’s thinking that he might be able to pull off an Honors College minor focused on speculative fiction & creative writing.