Staff Report
More freshmen were eligible for the Lottery Scholarship this year than ever before at UNM.
According to the Office of Institutional Research, 1,951 of 2,603, or 75 percent, of eligible freshmen qualified.
The second highest year was 2004, when 71 percent qualified.
"Statistics is an inexact science," said Provost Reed Dasenbrock. "But this is a pretty significant number."
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Students must achieve a 2.5 GPA to qualify for the scholarship.
Eligible freshmen are state residents, graduates from a New Mexican high school, enrolled full time and those who went to college immediately after high school.
Students who receive the scholarship are more likely to graduate, Dasenbrock said.
"It's the single largest indicator of the likelihood of graduation," he said. "There are other factors, but the scholarship is one of those huge cut points for increasing graduation."
Peter White, dean of University College, said the scholarship encourages students to do well
in school.
"Before they get the scholarship, it's something to aim for," he said. "When they have the scholarship, they have the money and the incentive to keep
succeeding."
Ninety-four percent of students who have the scholarship as seniors graduate, he said.
The six-year graduation rate for UNM is
43.3 percent.
"There's a big correlation between academic success and money," he said. "Everyone knows that. Students have to have money to stay in school. Because they only get the money if they have the grades, it really encourages achievement."
It took effort to increase the number of students who qualified, Dasenbrock said.
UNM hired 130 instructors to teach freshmen classes.
"That enabled us to offer more academic choices for freshmen, so they could take the classes that they need or want to succeed," he said.
Freshmen learning communities and intersession classes also increased the number of qualified freshmen, Dasenbrock said.
Those programs and the increased number of students on the scholarship will boost graduation rates by up to 10 percent in the next five years, White said.
Student and scholarship
recipient Marinda Kippert said the scholarship has made it easier to stay in school.
"Some students can't get all the support they need from their families or jobs," she said. "I come from a middle-class family, so paying for tuition would be very expensive. Everybody needs a little help sometimes."
