UNM ranked eighth-best U.S. school for Hispanics

UNM is ranked eighth on Hispanic Magazine's "Guide to the Top 25 Colleges and Universities for Hispanics" in its March 2001 issue.

UNM President Bill Gordon said he is pleased to see UNM among the top 10 colleges and universities ranked by the magazine.

"Our plans to recruit and retain our students are paying off not just for minorities but for all students at the University of New Mexico," Gordon said. "UNM remains the best value for education dollars while also providing a top notch education for our students."

The 2001 list of the top 25 colleges and universities for Hispanics lists institutions that are succeeding in recruiting and retaining Hispanic students.

In order to be considered for the list, colleges and universities needed to show that their student bodies were reflective of the overall U.S. population of Hispanics. The number of Latinos graduating from the schools was also considered.

Other criteria included the number of Hispanic-related degree programs, Hispanic student organizations, recruiting, minority support programs and Hispanic faculty.

The magazine listed that it ranked UNM highly because of the Latin American and Iberian Institute. It also noted that the University offers bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees in Latin American studies as well as a bachelor's degree in Southwest cultural studies and a minor in Chicano studies. The magazine also said that El Centro de la Raza provides cultural and social programming for Latino students and took into account UNM's eleventh rank on the Hispanic Outlook's Top 100 list of colleges and universities and its spot on the third tier of U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges listing.

Hispanic Magazine listed education, biology and nursing as UNM's most popular majors and printed that the University's population is 30 percent Hispanic, its 2000 graduating class was 28.9 percent Hispanic and its faculty is 9.5 percent Hispanic.

Stanford University was ranked first, followed by University of California-Berkeley, Rice University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California-Los Angeles; Florida International University and San Francisco State University.

New Mexico State University ranked 15th on the same list.