<p>Jr and I just spent the day at New Mexico Tech, participating in a program called “Research at Tech Day” for interested high school students. Since Jr has an acceptance and generous scholarship already in hand from NMT, we used this as our opportunity to visit the school for the first time. As we spoke to undergrads, grad students, professors, and administrators I realized that I was learning a few additional ideas about evaluating colleges and college fit.</p>
<li><p>New Mexico Tech has low tuition, and low room-and-board costs. I asked a senior administrator why, and was told that it was enough to cover their costs. I kept asking different folks about this during the day and eventually learned that the college has a large amount of research grants ($85 million this year), which contribute to the school through overhead allocation. Also, the college has owned its land for a very long time, and is significantly supported by the state. So, lower tuitions do not necessarily mean a financially-deprived school. There are several new buildings on campus, and a couple of very large academic buildings that are less than 10 years old. Generally speaking, the campus looks really nice – not a usual sign of financial problems.</p></li>
<li><p>NMT is generous with scholarship money, even for OOS applicants. According to an administrator with whom I spoke, university patent holdings are used for scholarships. The university holds an interest in the nicotine patch, invented by an NMT professor, and this administrator said that “the patch” largely funds their scholarships. </p></li>
<li><p>NMT is rated as a “third-tier national university” by USN&WR. This might be true, but they also rank 7th nationally in the proportion of their students who go on to earn PhDs. They have lots of labs stuffed full of equipment, and have a half-dozen (or more) specialized research facilities doing grant-based research on a wide variety of engineering and pure science topics. They are one of the operators of the VLA and VLBA radio telescopes, and the operations center for both are on-campus. In person, it is dripping with nerd-hood.</p></li>
<li><p>To a large extent, MIT and Berkeley and Caltech used WWII to build their reputations. The Cold War was good for a lot of schools. NMT has caught the wave of the next generation of government funding, and is doing a LOT of applied science around terrorism and low-intensity warfare. If I were starting out today, I’d think of counter-terrorism as a growing industry. (Sorry if that sounds macabre, but don’t forget that it was the University of California – and other colleges – that profited handsomely from nuclear weapons development.) I don’t know what other colleges are pushing research in this area, but NMT is in it big time. They even bought the town of Playas, NM, which they now lease out for arid urban warfare training. </p></li>
<li><p>Location sure matters. Socorro, NM, is not a quaint little college town. A mining town in the late-19th century, with a steady source of water from springs in the mountains nearby, Socorro’s biggest industry seems to be the university, which is 105 years old, but it looks like a lot of half-dead desert towns. (Sorry about that comment, but a lot of it sure looks hard-scrabble. There are some really nice looking neighborhoods at the south end of town, FWIW.) If your idea of college is a green New England town with commons and a Congregationalist church, this is NOT the place for you. The school does have a nice looking 18-hole golf course, though, which is $4.50 a round for students, or free if you join the student golf club. (That’s golf club, not golf club, if you get my meaning.) As it turns out, WashDadJr really does NOT want to go to an urban college, and he loves hot, dry weather. Going to school in the high desert appeals to him.</p></li>
<li><p>Internet and ratings-service opinions are likely to be out of date. In the case of NMT, they opened a new student union building last year, with a new dining hall, kitchen, and food service company. The students I talked to today said the food is really good. The college has a reputation (which appears in Princeton’s website) for “poor” food. Having been there today, I’d say the Internet information sources are wrong on this. This leads me to question a lot of quality-of-life reports you get about schools. Case Western is another example. Some people gush about the cultural resources on or right next to campus, while others hate the weather and the surrounding city. Both are probably right, and wrong.</p></li>
<li><p>We all say it, but you really have to visit. God love 'em, but the University of Washington comes off as really intense, rules-oriented, and self-absorbed in their wonderfulness. NMT was friendly, laid-back, and welcoming. (Personally, I’d give extra points to ANY college that didn’t require parking passes and had free parking.) Every time I’ve dealt with NMT (and the University of Portland, and Caltech) it’s been easy. With the UW, it’s always been a giant hassle. It’s all part of the “feel” of the school.</p></li>
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<p>I know I’m rambling here, but I was trying to reconcile my luke-warm opinion based on Internet research with the actual experience of our visit. I’ve not said it succinctly, but I suppose all I was trying to write is that there is no substitute for a visit, and that you need to form at least some decisions of your own. Jr says that NMT has moved to the top of the list of the schools to which he has already been accepted. I almost hope that his other applications are rejected just so I can stop thinking about this…</p>
<p>Night!</p>