The latest influx of students is entering with an average grade point average of 3.4 and an average ACT score of 23, UNM President Bob Frank said at the September Board of Regents meeting.
“This year’s incoming class is the best,” he said.
The performance of these students brought a high school graduating GPA increase of five percent and an ACT score increase of three percent, surpassing past and even current students.
“This is really good news, that students are coming to UNM more academically prepared,” said Kate Krause, professor of economics and dean of University College. “The University is always better positioned when it attracts students that did well on standardized tests.”
Many university officials credited these higher numbers partially to UNM’s Honors College, which the officials believe has helped attract the best and brightest of New Mexico’s graduating high school students.
Frank also pointed out that the number of ACT scores above 30 is up 20 percent compared to prior groups, and believes this “reflects how powerful and how effective the creation of our Honors College has been.”
Associate Vice President Terry Babbitt agreed that the creation of the Honors College has added a real boost to UNM’s brand.
Babbitt said the higher numbers reflect rising expectations of incoming students at UNM, which most agree is a good thing.
“Everyone entering UNM should feel prepared and committed to finishing in four years. Each and every student is capable of that,” Babbitt said. “The tone of expected success starts with President Frank and has a ripple effect through the university. Of course, obstacles of all kinds emerge, and the faculty and staff have renewed commitment to help students get through these challenges.”
Krause said she doesn’t want current or future students to feel that UNM has become too competitive, however, and stressed that there should still be a high level of comfort among students in attendance.
The hope, she said, is that UNM will become a more appealing place for students to choose as their destination for higher education without the fear of not being good enough or giving the impression that a student would need a score higher than 25 on the ACT.
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“I don’t like to think about students as a number — ‘you’re that ACT score, you’re that GPA’ — but students who come with more serious preparation and academically ready will have an easier time here,” she said. “You’d hate for a 16- or 17-year-old student to think their fate is determined on one Saturday morning. I would hate the message to be ‘you’re not good enough’ or ‘you’ve got to be a genius.’”
Babbitt said UNM still has work to do in student success metrics in order to stack up against other Southwest universities like the University of Arizona on paper.
“But our educational quality is unquestionably comparable,” she said.
To continue improving these numbers, Babbitt feels that support programs like additional advisors and student success initiatives are critical, and that the University should make the funding of these programs a priority, she said. In addition, UNM needs to advocate for competitive compensation for faculty so that the school’s best professors do not leave for better-paying positions elsewhere, she said.
Raleigh Silversmith is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com, or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
