According to an annual survey, UNM is one of America's best deals.
America's 100 Best College Buys lists results from a survey conducted by Institutional Research & Evaluation Inc., a firm that specializes in the recruitment and retention of college students. It shows that it costs $9,314 per year to attend UNM - $1,000 less than the national average for public university tuition, fees and room and board. The out-of-state cost of attending UNM is $18,076 per year.
UNM student Santana Gilbert transferred from the Art Institute of Colorado. She said tuition there was "outrageously expensive," and although UNM's programs look cheap, they deliver quality.
"There are fabulous artists here that are teaching as well as doing their own work," she said.
The firm received 1,209 responses from institutions. New Mexico State University and New Mexico Tech also made the list. In-state costs for Tech are $7,863, and for NMSU they are $8,712, according to the survey.
"The ranking is testament to the support that New Mexico's taxpayers give to higher education," said Wynn Goering, special assistant to President Louis Caldera. "In New Mexico, students already know what their financial advantages are. But seeing that UNM is affordable may attract some folks, and that's to our benefit."
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The survey measures the academic level of the most recent entering freshman class and the cost of attendance.
According to the survey, the average GPA of UNM's 2003 entering freshman class was 3.31 - .08 points above the national average.
Goering said it is common for higher education surveys used by this firm to measure things like test scores when determining the quality of education offered. "That's why prestigious institutions remain prestigious," he said. "They get the smartest students coming in. The smarter your students coming in, the better your education is assumed to be."
But a superior method, Goering said, would attempt a "more thorough understanding of the relationship between the skills the students come in with and what they get out with."
Louis Lindsey, president of Institutional Research & Evaluation Inc., said the survey is powerful, because it is simple.
"No one knows more about cost than we do," he said of other college guides, especially those conducted by U.S. News & World Report and the Princeton Review. "The decision processes can get very complicated for rating schools. It gives you a headache, and then you have to take a nap. We try to keep them as simple as possible: cost and quality."
The survey excludes the roughly 3,000 four- and two-year colleges in the United States that do not have on-campus student residence.
Lindsey said UNM, which has made the list for nine consecutive years, has consistently maintained an above-average GPA and below-average cost.
"UNM, based on our experience with hundreds of colleges and universities, is a very well-organized, very well-run institution," he said. "That goes back through several administrations."
For a university to be considered for the survey, it must be an accredited, four-year institution that offers bachelor's degrees, campus residence and dining halls. The 2003 beginning freshman class must have an average score on entrance exams, a GPA score at or above the national average and a cost of attendance not exceeding the national average by more than 10 percent.
