<p>Hi everyone. A relative of mine just now graduating from h.s wants to be a dentist. His family doesn't have a lot of money because of some major medical expenses that came up for his parents. The kid got an athletic scholarship to attend a small out-of-state 4 year university, (New Mexico Highlands University) but its a very poorly rated school. This place has open enrollment, letting anyone in - just like a community college. Faculty salaries are below average. The surrounding community is small and rather poor. Overall graduation rates are only 5%. Every college rating that I've come across indicates that this isn't a very good school. The other option for this student is to attend a local community college and use the money saved to transfer to a more highly rated in-state university. How are the odds of being accepted into dental school impacted by a student who does undergrad work at a poorly rated university or a community college ? Since an A earned from such a place isn't likely to mean the same thing as an A from a good, competitive school - - - I would imagine you'd have to ace the DAT. I would appreciate the comments of those who have experience in these matters. Thank you</p>
<p>Go to community college and transfer. Its better than going out of state to a place where you are surrounded bad bad influences. Seems like a kid that has dreams, don’t squander them living in the now but look to the future and prepare for it. I think he should stay and go to a CC and transfer, most of the time the kids usually end up going to big colleges after that with good GPA and such. It’s worth it. Make him stay. I go to UIS and commute, and it saves money… a bunch and seeing how he wants to do dental like me… It will cost later on so better to save up the green boys </p>
This is the poverty-ridden town New Mexico Highlands University is in: Las Vegas New Mexico, the ghetto which is why NMHU is the cheapest university in the USA
Visiting for a couple days might be totally different than living there. You will be introduced to the Plaza Hotel, the World College and a few other semi-nice places in the town that aren’t burnt down or broken into yet. Although the plaza isn’t the safest place, compared to the rest of the town it is. After living there for 3 years I have been down every single street and been in almost every single place. Let me tell you a little bit about my experience:
Schizophrenic people and other mental patients are always walking all over town and sometimes make their way into the dorms. Lots of drunks and cholos also come onto campus and in the dorms. We recently had newsletters all around saying that a 45 year old woman has been breaking into cars and robbing college students right on campus. I don’t feel safe having my car in a parking lot on campus. Last year i witnessed a break in where someone busted a window open. NMHU reported 0 for vandalism in 2013 which is bullshit because there is so much vandlizism on campus. There aren’t enough cameras either and most are shut off or fake. A lot of theft and rape happens here and hardly anyone gets caught.
Math department and tutoring sucks! Most people who work at ARMAS don’t know what they are doing and when you turn in your math homework, be prepared to never get them all right. Expect a 75% or less. Once in awhile someone good will be working there so good luck.
Please stay on the boring campus. If you go for walks expect to be harassed by drugged-up townies, mental patients, possibly raped or mugged by butch girls or Mexican gangsters we call cholos. A lot of drunk drivers and people you can’t trust. Don’t hang out with people who have lived in this town most or all of their life, there is a certain kind of crazy that dwells within these individuals. It’s so true about the western towns in the middle of nowhere with the crazy secrets and crazy people. Never been to such a scary place in my life.
Before I came here i should have visited first or researched it more. NMHU is an very low key unknown college which is why it is not in many news articles with statistics about colleges. If you research hard or simply observe while you go here, you’ll find out it is one of the highest STD rated colleges in the country, the town has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the country, some of the worst professors, a low rated hospital with a high mortality rate, and much more. Either come here and waste your money or stay away.
The worst part is the men. Las Vegas is full of misogynists. The way the men treat women here is disgusting. When I first had to live with a townie the first thing she told me was “Don’t fuck with the guys here they will hit you.” And unfortunately I’ve already experienced being in an abusive relationship with a man from here. I am from out of state and just go to the university but I got caught up in experiencing the townie lifestyle. I ended up living in a trailer in one of the bad neighborhoods with 2 girls and their drug-addict boyfriends who didn’t work or help pay rent. In the middle of the night I would hear both of the couples fighting and both of the guys would put their hands on the girls. Fathers cheat on their wives all the time and men are usually always too controlling and unfaithful.
The town has a much higher violent crime and property crime rate than national average including murder and rape. http://www.homefacts.com/crime/New-Mexico/San-Miguel-County/Las-Vegas.html
Even on this website, it says: Las Vegas, NM, violent crime, on a scale from 1 (low crime) to 100, is 89. Violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The US average is 41.4.
The town was murder capital of New Mexico according to FBI report in 2011.
The town also has a much higher chlamydia rate than national average. http://std-clinics.findthebest.com/l/3677/San-Miguel-Public-Health-Office
People are so poor their that it’s disgusting. It makes me not even feel sorry for them because instead of them saving money, they try to rip people off to support their drug habits and then always complain about not having money. If you don’t have money, you probably should stop smoking weed even if you don’t do meth and heroine and all the other common townie drugs. Even the nicest people seem to have a crazy streak when it comes to money. They all the sudden snap and forget that they volunteered to share stuff and say that everything is theirs with come stupid untrue reason why and flip out on others. Landlords in this town are just as greedy as anybody else. It’s just rip-off after rip-off, a sad lifestyle. West Las Vegas is in absolute poverty, especially so the only good houses are on 7th or 8th street, which of course of more pricey. The trailers in this town have plumbing issues and there are mice nests. Half of the town consists of broken homes or trailers, basically 90% of the west side of town. Almost everyone has family problems like divorced parents, parents that beat them, parents on drugs, or parents in jail. The estimated household income in 2012 is $23,602. Talk about poor and ghetto! http://www.city-data.com/city/Las-Vegas-New-Mexico.html
NMHU campus may be safer than the town, but it is still very unsafe. There was a prostitution ring on campus run by one of the old quarterbacks of the football team. He and his “main bitch” would trick freshman (who are mostly underage, still 17) into prostitution saying it was an escort business or massages. Then the girls were forced to have sex with one or more men and pay the football player (the PIMP) half of the money they got. A recording was taken of one girl who left the school after being pimped-out and raped, talking about how he would lure in the girls and her experience. The Dean of Students at NMHU, Fidel Trujillo made me delete the recording of the witness testifying to the prostitution ring and failed to put on an investigation. I backed up the video before showing the Dean after hearing numerous rumors about students trying to get him fired and how he covers up crime and they were right. I experienced his dirty deeds for myself. Here is the saved copy of the prostitution ring witness/victim:
What are his stats, perhaps he’d qualify for a scholarship elsewhere. There are a couple left with deadlines that have not passed.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/