what is the university of new mexico like?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of New Mexico
1

<p>Hi I am a student from Alaska and University of new mexico is one of the schools that I'm looking at, and I have a few questions about the school. </p>

<p>1)How hot does it get? Being from Alaska, one thing I absolutely cannot stand is humid hot. If I start getting sticky from the heat I'll die from heat stroke. I heard new mexcio is dry hot, but I have no idea just how hot it gets. </p>

<p>2)How are the engineering and music programs? I wanna be an engineering major, but I also wanna join singing groups(a capella, glee, etc). Also, are there a lot of other student-run music groups?(band, etc) because I play guitar and piano and I'd like to do a lot of music.</p>

<p>3) How is the student body diversity? I am Asian and I don't know if I'll be feeling left out at the school. I know there are a lot of hispanic background people attending, but does everyone get along well?(regardless of what ethncity?) I never really had a problem at my highschool making friends, but there definitely were certain times when I felt just a little bit left out, mostly becuase I am one of like the five Asian students in a school of about 450 students. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>1) UNM is at an altitude of about 5300 feet, so it has four mild seasons. It is not very hot in the summer. Often the highest temps are in the 90 degrees. The hottest season is in late June and early July. The humidity is very low, so the heat is definitely dry.</p>

<p>2)Very good Engineeriing School with several outstanding profs and programs. Also a fine music program. Several singing groups plus many student bands. </p>

<p>3) UNM has a very diverse campus and is well-known for how well the different ethnic groups get along with each other. It does have quite a few Asian and Native American students.</p>

<p>Highly recommended for you! Good Luck!</p>

3

<p>Longtime ABQ, NM resident here whose oldest child (D1) graduated from UNM and is now attending UNM med school.</p>

<p>Prof’s answers are pretty much right on.</p>

<p>1) It never gets humid here. When the relative humidity gets above the 40% range every one notices and complains since it’s so rare. Summers can be hot–typically into the upper 90s in July before the summer monsoon arrives, but the low humidity and clear skies mean the day-night temperature swings can be in the 30-40 degrees range. Also simply getting out of the direct sun and into the shade will cool the perceived temperaures down by about 10-15 degrees.</p>

<p>D1’s current roommate is a U-Alaska at Anchorage grad and she loves the weather here.</p>

<p>2) Engineering school is quite good and funding is strong. Plenty of collaboration between UNM, the 2 adjacent National Labs (Los Alamos and Sandia), White Sands and Philips Research Lab (Air Force Lab). </p>

<p>Music dept is surprisingly strong, particular in vocal performance. The Santa Fe Opera is only 60 minutes away and there are several retired opera singers who now teach vocal performance at UNM. </p>

<p>There are 7 singing groups on campus:</p>

<p>[UNM</a> Department of Music :: Ensembles :: Student Ensembles :: Choirs](<a href=“http://music.unm.edu/ensembles/student_ensembles/choirs/choral_ensembles.htm]UNM”>http://music.unm.edu/ensembles/student_ensembles/choirs/choral_ensembles.htm)</p>

<p>For student run music groups–check out UNM’s list of student activities. There are performance venues that students – solo and groups – sometimes play at adjacent to campus. (Mostly coffeehouses.)</p>

<p>3) UNM is a very chill place with laid back students. While Hispanics are the largest group on campus, you definitely won’t be the only Asian at UNM. ABQ has a relative large Vietnamese population as well as established Korean and Chinese populations. Also plenty of ethnic restaurants for when you start missing “mom’s cooking”. </p>

<p>One other nice thing–there be mountains here. You can see them from everywhere in town and they are only a very short (free with student ID) bus ride from campus. Granted they’re not as green as Alaska mountains, but you have mountains with hiking and climbing and snow and skiing right on the east edge of town. So if you feel a need to get away from town and commune with nature (or like D1 just get out and test your climbing skillz)–it’s right there.</p>

4

<p>First watch the first five seasons of Breaking Bad. ABQ is an interesting place to go to school. New Mexico has some cool features, lot of bugs in the spring and summer. It gets hot but it is a dry heat, it gets cold but being from Alaska you are probably use to that. Santa fe up north is pretty cool to visit and there are some awesome mountains that are very close. The University is decent. Its ok. its definitely affordable.</p>

5

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<p>Don’t know where you are from, but bugs are not a major issue unless you live near standing water…which doesn’t include most parts of ABQ and certainly NOT the UNM campus area.</p>

<p>Breaking Bad is television show. It’s fiction and doesn’t actually represent life in ABQ. Yes, parts of the city are backdrops for the show. (I can point them all out. I always get some laughs watching BB because the places they use are not what they really are. For example, they used D2’s high school admin bldg as a law office and college dorm. Often the inside and the ouside of a building don’t match. LMAO at a character walking into downtown public library exterior and sitting down to eat at The Frontier restaurant inside. The traveling meth lab RV is often parked in the public open space a half mile from my home for filming–not out in the deserrt somewhere.)</p>

<p>Are there seedy parts of ABQ? Certainly, there are in every city and large town in the world. Are the seedy areas near the campus–heck no.</p>

6

<p>How can you have bugs without water ? Isn’t Albuquerque in the arid, desert Southwest ? If so, no or very, very few flying insects.</p>

7

<p>The Rio Grande runs thru ABQ, plus there are irrigation ditches adjacent to the river. There are bugs in the bosque (woods along the river). UNM campus is not close enough to either for bugs to be a problem.</p>

8

<p>I have two sons studying Electrical Engineering at UNM. I don’t know much about the music department. My oldest son says that the engineering students are made up of all students from all different countries. The engineering students range in all ages. There are good teachers and then there are great teachers at UNM. There are lots of great programs at UNM. My youngest son got into the summer bridge program at UNM and I believe this helped him get his first research job his first semester at UNM. Both my sons are in a program this semester to help them hopefully get Summer Internship jobs. This is the second year that UNM has the funding for this. As soon as you get accepted into the School of Engineering make sure to apply for their scholarships. But make sure to apply to all of the UNM scholarships as a freshman. They recently built some new dorms on campus. The weather is great but then I have lived here my whole life. </p>

<p>The hardest thing about UNM is that some of the class sizes are big. Their Physics I class was about 300 but then as the class goes to Physics II it goes down to 160 then Physics III to about 60. This is one of the classes that can truly break a student. </p>

<p>If you have more questions about UNM I will try to help.</p>

9

<p>Lot of bugs!</p>