new mexico essay

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 13, 2022 | Original: November 9, 2009

Colonized by Spain, the land that is now New Mexico became a U.S. territory following treaties signed with Mexico in 1848 and 1853. The territory did not become a U.S. state until 1912. During World War II , New Mexico was the site of the top-secret Manhattan Project , in which top U.S. scientists raced to create the first atomic bomb. It was exploded at the Trinity test site , near Alamagordo, on July 16, 1945.

In 1947, Roswell , New Mexico, became a topic of speculation about extraterrestrial life when a local farmer discovered what some believed were the remains of a crashed alien spacecraft on his land. Visitors to New Mexico frequent attractions like the Very Large Array telescope in Socorro and the historic city of Santa Fe, which artist Georgia O’Keeffe famously called home.

WATCH: How the States Got Their Shape on HISTORY Vault

New Mexico Native American History

Some of the first evidence of early humans in North America, including spearheads and other tools, were discovered in Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1930s. Archaeologists used their findings to date human occupation back to the last Ice Age , at least 20,000 years ago, when nomadic people crossed the Bering Strait.

By about A.D. 400, these hunter-gatherers started permanently settling in the area now known as New Mexico. Around the end of the 13th century, a major event—possibly a drought—caused them to abandon their settlements and relocate to agricultural communities in New Mexico’s river valleys. When the Spanish arrived in New Mexico, they called these Native American settlements and the people who lived in them “Pueblos,” which means “village.”

Between 200 and 1300, the Navajo (Diné) also migrated into the southwestern United States and developed a rich culture in New Mexico starting at around 900. The Apache arrived in New Mexico around 1300.

The arrival of Spanish and then American settlers led to conflicts with these communities, resulting in the deaths of many Indigenous people and the loss of their lands.

Pueblo Revolt

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was the most successful uprising of Native Americans against colonists in North America. In the 17th century, Spanish missionaries came to New Mexico to convert the Pueblo people to Christianity , sanctioned by the Spanish government. They were accompanied by Spanish settlers, some of whom imposed forced labor on Indigenous people. The local Native American population declined due to violence, famine and disease from 80,000 at the start of the 17th century to about 17,000 by the late 17th century.

The Puebloans grew to resent the oppressive colonial policies. The situation reached a breaking point in 1670 when the Spanish governor of New Mexico ordered several Pueblo men executed and others publicly whipped. One of those men, Po’Pay , organized an alliance of Indigenous people throughout New Mexico, including such diverse tribes as the Hopi, Keres and Zuñi, to revolt. In 1680, the Pueblo people pillaged Spanish haciendas, burned down missions and killed 401 settlers and 21 Franciscan priests. The Spanish fled to Texas and didn’t return to New Mexico for another 12 years.

The Apache in New Mexico also fought back against Spanish settlements and forceful relocation to Native American reservations in the 19th century, famously led by Chiricahua Apache leader Geronimo . He and his people fought for more than 30 years to protect their homeland, finally surrendering in 1886 and ending the so-called Indian Wars in the American southwest.

As part of the terms of surrender, 300 Chiricahua Apache were forcibly removed to Florida. After 27 years of imprisonment, they were set free in 1913. Two-thirds returned to settle in New Mexico; the Mescalero Apache are their descendants.

The Long Walk

In the late 1700s, the Navajo (Diné) fought with the Spanish, who allied with rival tribes and enslaved the Navajo they captured. Conflict reignited in the early 1860s as more American settlers of European descent began moving into Navajo territory. In 1863, the U.S. military, led by Lt. Colonel Kit Carson, launched a scorched earth campaign across the Navajo homelands—burning villages, killing livestock and demolishing water sources until the Navajo surrendered.

In January 1864, Carson and his troops forced more than 8,000 Navajo men, women and children from Arizona and New Mexico to walk or ride more than 300 miles from Fort Canby, New Mexico, to a reservation near Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This “Long Walk,” as it became known, resulted in the death of an estimated 300 Navajo due to starvation or exposure. The goal of the internment was to force the Navajo to adopt the Western culture, but many resisted assimilation. Four years later, the U.S.-Navajo Treaty of 1868 allowed the Navajo to return to a sliver of their homeland in Arizona and New Mexico.

Today, there are 23 federally-recognized Native American tribes in New Mexico, including 19 Pueblos, three Apache and the Navajo Nation. More than 228,400 Native American citizens comprise almost 11 percent of the state’s population.

New Mexico's Spanish Explorers, Colonists and Missionaries

Spanish Francisco Vázquez de Coronado ’s expedition arrived in the area now known as New Mexico in 1540 on a quest for gold and silver. They found Native American settlements but no treasure and left. Other expeditions over the following decades failed. In 1598, supported by the Spanish state, Juan de Oñate led a group of soldiers, cattle and Franciscan priests into New Mexico, creating headquarters for the new colony at San Gabriel.

The fledgling colonists clashed with Indigenous people, who resented the colonists’ encroachment on their lands and their attempts to Christianize their people. In 1610, a new governor, Pedro de Peralta, established the first Spanish settlement at Santa Fe . The settlement grew to a population of 1,000 by the end of the century. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 led the Spanish to abandon New Mexico for El Paso, where they remained for more than a decade.

In 1693, Diego de Vargas secured the cooperation of a number of Pueblo people. He returned to New Mexico the following year with 800 settlers and 100 soldiers to reestablish a settlement at Santa Fe. The settlers again clashed with the Native Americans in the region, including a major uprising in 1696. Weakened by war and disease, the Pueblo people eventually forged a weak alliance with the Spanish to fend off other enemy tribes, such as the Navajo.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Spanish colonists throughout New Spain began to struggle for Mexican independence . The Mexican War of Independence began in 1810. In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain , and New Mexico became a part of Mexico.

U.S. Territory and Statehood

In 1846, the Mexican-American War began when the United States declared war on Mexico over a disputed boundary in Texas. The war ended in 1848 with an American victory. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , the United States paid Mexico $15 million in exchange for 525,000 square miles of land making up much of the present southwestern United States, including parts of New Mexico. The victory enshrined the concept of Manifest Destiny in American beliefs.

Tension continued between the two countries until the Gadsden Purchase finalized in 1854. The United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for 29,670 square miles of land that became part of New Mexico and Arizona.

The New Mexico territory slowly assimilated into the United States, initially offering to join with Arizona as a single state—a move rejected by Arizona voters in 1906. It wasn’t until January 6, 1912, that New Mexico was finally admitted to the Union as the 47th state.

Role in World War II

New Mexico played a significant role in the United States throughout World War II . Around the start of the war, the military began looking for an indecipherable code language to transmit messages. They settled on the Navajo language, spoken by fewer than 30 Navajos in New Mexico and Arizona at the time due to an early 20th-century American policy of forced assimilation. The first Navajo Code Talkers attended a training camp in May 1942. More than 400 code talkers were eventually deployed throughout the war, especially in the Pacific, and the code was never broken by enemy forces.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor , President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1942 declaring the western United States a “war zone,” leading the way for the internment of people with Japanese ancestry. Three Japanese internment camps were created in New Mexico, with more than 4,555 Japanese-Americans interned at a Santa Fe camp between 1942 and 1946.

On July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb was tested at the Trinity Site in central New Mexico. The bomb was the creation of the Manhattan Project, which was commissioned to build a nuclear weapon in 1942 after receiving intelligence that Germany was developing an atomic bomb of its own. Residents reported seeing the 18.6-kiloton explosion as far as 200 miles away.

Tourism and Economy

After World War II ended, the federal government claimed millions of acres of land in New Mexico to build bases, missile ranges and research and development facilities. Los Alamos National Laboratory, established in 1943 for developing and testing atomic bombs during World War II, continues to serve as one of the country’s foremost research institutions.

Tourism is another major driver of the New Mexico economy. Roswell, New Mexico remained a tourist destination for people interested in extraterrestrials after a rancher discovered unusual debris, including what some people claimed were alien bodies, in a pasture outside the city in July 1947. Air Force officials claimed it was the remains of a crashed weather balloon. The theory was finally put to rest in 1997 when the U.S. Air Force released a 231-page report on Roswell . The report explained that the “alien bodies” found at the crash site were government test dummies designed to improve pilots’ chances for survival when falling from high altitudes.

Originating in 1972, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each October who come to witness more than 600 colorful hot air balloons ascend into the air over nine days.

Date of Statehood: January 6, 1912

Capital: Santa Fe

Population: 2,117,522 (2020)

Size: 121,590 square miles

Nickname(s): Land of Enchantment

Motto: Crescit Eundo (“It Grows as it Goes”)

Tree: Piñon Pine

Flower: Yucca

Bird: Greater Roadrunner

Interesting Facts

• Constructed in 1610, the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe is the oldest seat of government in the United States.
• White Sands National Park contains the largest gypsum dune field in the world. The result of water evaporating from transitory lakes with high mineral content, gypsum deposits are windswept into picturesque white sand dunes spanning 275 square miles.
• The Spanish language spoken by close to a quarter of a million people throughout New Mexico and southern Colorado is an ancient dialect that is largely Castilian in origin.

Sources 

Smithsonian Magazine, The Clovis Point and the Discovery of America’s First Culture .

New Mexico Tourism Department, The Story of the Clovis People .

Smithsonian Magazine, Riddles of the Anasazi .

New Mexico Office of the Secretary of State, About New Mexico: Native Americans .

The New York Times, Why New Mexico’s 1680 Pueblo Revolt Is Echoing in 2020 Protests .

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, A Brief History of the Pueblo Revolt .

National Park Service, Historic New Mexico Spanish Missions .

National Park Service, Visiting New Mexico Pueblos .

Tourism Santa Fe, Native American Culture and History .

New Mexico Indian Affairs Department, New Mexico’s Twenty-Three Tribes and the Indian Affairs Department .

National Park Service, Apachean .

National Park Service, The Apache Wars Part II: Geronimo .

National Park Service, Post Apache Wars .

Mescalero Apache Tribe, Our History .

Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. The Long Walk .

National Park Service, Kit Carson .

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, The Long Walk .

Utah American Indian Digital Archive, History: The Navajo .

National Park Service, New Mexico, 1536-1680 .

Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Spanish New Mexico .

City of Albuquerque, Parks & Recreation, Colonial New Mexico .

National Park Service, The Mexican-American War .

National Archives, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) .

PBS, The Mexican-American War .

United States Senate, States in the Senate, New Mexico Timeline .

U.S. Department of State, Gadsden Purchase, 1853–1854 .

U.S. House of Representatives, Overview of New Mexico Politics, 1848–1898 .

National Archives, Manhattan Project Notebook (1942) .

Los Alamos National Laboratory, About the Lab .

United States Air Force, Trinity: World's First Nuclear Test .

Atomic Heritage Foundation, World War II and New Mexico .

The Washington Post, 75 years ago, Roswell ‘flying saucer’ report sparked UFO obsession .

City of Roswell, Our History .

Associated Press, Untitled .

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, History .

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Final Numbers 2017 .

National Trust for Historic Preservation, Palace of the Governors .

United States Census Bureau, New Mexico Population .

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Looking for Lawrence

In the 1920s, nomadic literary giant D.H. Lawrence found what his soul was seeking in New Mexico. Ninety years later, would his restless spirit still be at home here?

MABEL DODGE LUHAN on D.H. Lawrence: "Of all the places where he lived I know he loved Taos best for did he not tell me so, and write it many times, too, when he was far away? . . . No, there was no one like Lawrence before or since his brief years here: no one like him for making all things new. His genius lay in his capacity for being, a capacity so few people seem to have. To comfort oneself for the absence of him one tries to believe that he was a forerunner, the first sample of a type to come, of those who will defeat industrialism and the mechanization of life, and who will lead humanity out of the impasse where it perishes now.

"[His essay on New Mexico] was one of the really appreciative things that has been written about it. He always felt its magic." —Excerpted from New Mexico Magazine, February, 1936.  

“It has snowed, and the nearly full moon blazes wolf-like. . . . risen like a were-wolf over the mountains. So there is a faint hoar shagginess of pine trees, away at the foot of the alfalfa field, and a grey gleam of snow in the night, on the level desert, and a ruddy point of human light, in Ranchos de Taos.

“And beyond, you see them even if you don’t see them, the circling mountains, since there is a moon.

“So, one hurries indoors, and throws more logs on the fire.”

I was spellbound. Life on a ranch in those distant mountains, an English voice recording it so vividly: It was as if the ink were still wet, and I could just about smell the ranch, and feel the cold air wrapped about the mountain, and see that ghostly red light in Ranchos. It hit me suddenly: What was I doing with my life, moldering away in libraries, when I could surely somehow find a way to be there , where this man was? What was I doing with my precious days? It felt as if I had to go to New Mexico.

Some seven years later, I did find a way there, sent by a publisher to write a book about Lawrence in Taos. (The result, Savage Pilgrim , turned out different than planned.) The remarkable thing was not that a young writer was inspired to travel out here by a random paragraph of luminous prose, but that he did find Lawrence’s New Mexico when he came, 70 years after Lawrence had written about it. Essentially, nothing had changed. The heart of Taos, and the land around, the mountains, Pueblo, forest, and lakes—even Lawrence’s little ranch house—were all still just as he had known them. And they still are now, in 2012, nine decades after he was here.

The early cultural pioneers who, in the 1920s, established northern New Mexico as an arts destination, are often lauded for their foresight in lobbying for the building codes that created the unified looks of Santa Fe and Taos. What is less commonly recognized is that they were not only steering this part of the state into a certain kind of future, they were also, even if inadvertently, preserving its past.

As I write this, it’s a blustery fall day in Santa Fe. Golden leaves scurry across the parking lots and hang in clusters on the trees. There is traffic—in fact, cars and trucks are everywhere. The roads are nearly all paved. The city has spread prodigiously in recent decades. Yet wherever I look I see adobe houses, none of them more than two stories high. The sky is still huge. There’ll be wood-smoke in the air soon, as winter rolls closer. A waft of roasting chiles reaches me from a roadside roaster nearby. And the mountains rise in the distance, green, gold, blue, unscarred in any way. This is the same New Mexico Lawrence knew.

He came here because Mabel Dodge Luhan, the patroness who did so much to put Taos on the map, invited him. In fact, in the letter she sent urging him to come, she included a necklace over which some magic spells had allegedly been uttered, in the hope of not just inviting but compelling him to visit. She wanted him here for two known reasons: He was a writer sympathetic to the new practice of psychoanalysis. His wife, Frieda, was a devotee, as was Luhan herself. She hoped Lawrence would help her grand project of revitalizing and healing what she (and many other “New Thinkers” of the day) regarded as the pathological “dissociation” of modern civilization. We were disconnected from one another, from our labor, from the earth itself. Luhan believed she had found the hope of a cure, in the form not just of analysis, but the indigenous spiritual practices of Taos Pueblo, near which she lived. If her message of renewal appealed to the itinerant, innovative writer, he might become an important broadcaster of it.

At the same time, Luhan had hopes Lawrence would write a great novel—if not the great novel—of America. He had, she thought, done this for England with Sons and Lovers and Women in Love , and, more recently, Australia with Kangaroo . Why not for America, too? And what better place to do it from than Taos, the fount of the new vision for America, of which she was part of the spearhead?

Lawrence, for his part, was in the middle of his “savage pilgrimage”—his worldwide search for what he called an “elemental” civilization, rich in connection to the earth. It’s an odd paradox that the globe-trotting writer should have been desperate to find a deep connectedness to locality, to the earth, given his endless travels. It’s almost as if he might have been searching for his own lost roots in an English mining community. He had grown up with the daily spectacle of his father emerging from “the pit” each afternoon black with coal dust from head to foot, coated in the very innards of the earth where he worked.

Before reaching New Mexico, Lawrence had spent time in Sicily, the Alps, Sri Lanka, and Australia. Generally, he had been favoring high, dry climates. He knew by now that he had tuberculosis, and quite apart from his quest for the right kind of civilization, he was also searching for the right kind of climate, one that might bring about a cure for his lungs. At the time, New Mexico, unlike California and neighboring Arizona, welcomed consumptives, with several sanatoria and famously good air (which it still has).

In the end, although Lawrence declared that “New Mexico was the greatest experience from the outside world” that he had ever had; although he wrote with passionate nostalgia for his ranch above Taos after he had left it; and although that ranch was in fact the only house he would ever own (Luhan gave it to the Lawrences), he nevertheless did not write the great novel of New Mexico, let alone of America, or any novel at all here. Instead he wrote The Plumed Serpent , a novel of Mexico, where he had spent three months on an excursion from Taos. He also wrote a series of wonderful essays about Native American dances, but these are mostly set in Arizona.

What Lawrence did write about New Mexico is primarily a collection of short pieces of prose published in Phoenix , the two volumes of his posthumous works. It is an oddity about Lawrence that somehow the books at which he labored most directly, such as the novels, are arguably not his best. Rather, when he was relaxing, as it were doodling, leaning back against the tree at his ranch where he loved to write, a notebook in his lap, it seemed his vivid genius was in full flood, and he was most able to capture a mood or atmosphere, a character, a relationship. You can see this perhaps most of all in his poems, a large handful of which have made their way into the 20th-century canon, burning with an unparalleled intensity all their own. The other place it happens is in his writing about place. And of this genre, his New Mexico fragments are perhaps the best examples.

In rambling, free-form essays like “New Mexico,” reprinted in this magazine in 1936, Lawrence roams through philosophy, geography, civilization, personal history, and transcendent meditation on humankind’s relationship with the earth. He not only reflects on the place of tribal wisdom in our shallow modern way of life, but ruminates on the beauty of the landscape here with a restless freedom that is exhilarating to follow.

I think New Mexico was the greatest experience from the outside world that I have ever had. It certainly changed me forever. . . . the moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning shine high up over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul, and I started to attend. . . . In the magnificent fierce morning of New Mexico one sprang awake, a new part of the soul woke up suddenly and the old world gave way to a new.

There are all kinds of beauty in the world, thank God, though ugliness is homogeneous. . . . But for a greatness of beauty I have never experienced anything like New Mexico. As those mornings when I went with a hoe along the ditch to the canyon, at the ranch, and stood in fierce, proud silence of the Rockies, or their foothills, to look far over the desert to the blue mountains away in Arizona, blue as chalcedony, with the sagebrush desert sweeping gray-blue in between, dotted with tiny cube-crystals of houses: the vast amphitheater of lofty, indomitable desert, sweeping round to the ponderous Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the East, and coming up flush at the pine-dotted foothills of the Rockies! What splendor! Only the tawny eagle could really sail out into the splendor of it all.”

In the ringing final line of this same essay, Lawrence also shows remarkable prescience when he declares, with prophetic certainty: “This is an interregnum,” predicting that modern civilization will have its day, and be replaced by a more earth-centered culture. While this has not happened yet, a lot of people are now hoping it will: that we’ll reduce our spectacular energy consumption and create more local economic systems. Not only that, but from the unusual vantage of New Mexico, there is a plausible argument that, out here, we are still waiting for the “interregnum” even to arrive. We still live in houses made of local earth; we have more and more farmers’ markets selling food that grows locally; the land is spectacularly unspoiled; and far from losing ground, the Native cultures and ways have been growing in prosperity and resilience.

If Lawrence’s New Mexico is still here, what about Lawrence himself?

After tuberculosis took his life in the south of France in 1930, Lawrence’s widow, Frieda, arranged to have his ashes shipped back to Taos. She was building a shrine to him high among the pine trees above the ranch, and she wanted his remains to be its centerpiece. The story goes that Mabel Dodge Luhan had other plans for the ashes, and came up to the ranch to claim them for herself. The two women fought over the urn, and to settle the matter once and for all, Frieda is said to have emptied the container into a barrow of wet cement, ensuring that the remains would indeed wind up in her shrine, in the form of the altar for which the cement was destined.

For decades, this account of Lawrence’s final resting place has been accepted as historical fact. But it’s not the only account. Another oral account that has been passed down from former friends of the Lawrences holds that when his ashes reached Lamy, the rail station just south of Santa Fe, Lawrence’s friend and fellow poet Witter Bynner was charged with collecting them, along with a case of Lawrence’s unpublished papers. He took all the effects back to his home in Santa Fe, where they stayed with him over the weekend before his journey to Taos to deliver them the following Monday.

Over the course of that weekend, sitting alone with his great friend’s papers, he couldn’t resist reading through them. He was dismayed. Here was all the work Lawrence had not published. Yet it was devastatingly clear that its energy and vitality far surpassed his own best work. Then he had an idea.

Friends of Bynner’s report that whenever he was having cocktails at his house, he used to reach for a large bowl on his mantelpiece, which contained some kind of powder. He would take a pinch from it and sprinkle it in his martini before drinking. Speculation is that this bowl may have contained Lawrence’s actual ashes, and that Bynner was hoping to absorb some of his late friend’s brilliance by literally imbibing it. Did he keep the ashes there on his mantelpiece, in plain view of everyone, and meanwhile send up some sweepings from his own fireplace to Frieda in Taos, for use in her shrine?

Whatever the truth, it is Lawrence’s spirit that still resides in New Mexico. As Mabel Dodge Luhan said of him in her introduction, he shared a special capacity with New Mexico itself. Just like the land here, his spirit “awakens [people], stimulates them, makes them more essential; it reveals their buried life, and shows them up; it excites them, making them realize the color, taste, sight or sound of unspoiled natural life.” Which is the very thing that drew Lawrence, and still draws people, to this rare land.

University of New Mexico Medical School Secondary Application Essay Prompts

• Cracking Med School Admissions

The University of New Mexico Medical School secondary application with several medium-length essays. University of New Mexico Medical School Admissions wants to understand you as a holistic person.  It wants to recruit a diverse, culturally competent, and socially aware class. Read our University of New Mexico secondary application tips  below so you can learn how to stand out question by question! 

Submitting a strong secondary application is essential in getting accepted. The UNM Medical School secondary application prompts do not change frequently, so we suggest pre-writing these essays. Stand out on your University of New Mexico Medical School secondary application with our secondary essay editing packages ! 

• Personally Tailored Essays
• Edits by Stanford & Harvard-trained Doctors
• We study your application strengths to see what unique attributes we’ll bring to the medical school

University of New Mexico Medical School Secondary Application Questions: 2023 – 2024

•  At the UNM School of Medicine we are committed to building a dynamic, productive and positive learning environment in addition to promoting cross cultural and cross racial understanding among students of diverse talents, experiences, opinions and backgrounds. Share any unique or challenging factors in your background, such as the quality of your early educational environment, socioeconomic status, culture, race, ethnicity and life and work experiences. How will your background or experiences contribute to the diversity of a medical school class? (2,000 characters max)
•  Mentorship and clinical experience are integral to developing and understanding of the challenges and rewards of being a physician? Thinking back to your own road to applying to medical school, what is a patient experience or mentorship moment that was most formative to your progression so far? Please share this experience and explain how it fits into your motivation for pursuing a career as a physician. (2,000 characters max)
• There is a physician shortage in New Mexico. What is your understanding of the contributors to this problem, and what ideas do you have to address it? (2,000 characters max)
• What aspects of public health do you think should be emphasized in the UNM SOM curriculum? Why? (2,000 characters max)
• Please describe a personal or professional challenge or conflict that you have experienced. How did you resolve it? What skills, resources and/or strategies did you employ? DO NOT write about the MCAT, a course, or an academic issue. (2,000 characters max)
• Please describe how COVID-19 has affected your preparation for applying to medical school. Describe any academic, personal, financial, or professional barriers/disruptions that COVID-19 may have triggered. (2,000 characters max)
• Have you previously submitted an AMCAS application to the University of New Mexico School of Medicine? (Yes/No)

Tips to Answer University of New Mexico Secondaries

  UNM Medical School Secondary Application Tip #1: Tell stories. Great University of New Mexico Medical School secondary application essays to write short anecdotes include: 

• Influential patient encounter
• A physician mentor who is important in an applicant’s life
• A memorable COVID-19 experience
• A personal or professional challenge
• Public health experiences

UNM Medical School Secondary Application Tip #2: The University of New Mexico School of Medicine is a very community-oriented medical school. Talk about how you want to engage around Albuquerque, New Mexico. Additionally, UNM School of Medicine favors students who have lived or had experiences in the state of New Mexico and more generally, the Southwestern U.S.. Write about your affiliations with New Mexico! If you have not lived in New Mexico, then talk about any affiliations you have with working with populations in Southwestern United States.

UNM Medical School Secondary Application Tip #3: For the UNM Medical School secondary application prompt, “ At the UNM School of Medicine we are committed to building a dynamic, productive and positive learning environment in addition to promoting cross cultural and cross racial understanding among students of diverse talents, experiences, opinions and backgrounds. Share any unique or challenging factors in your background, such as the quality of your early educational environment, socioeconomic status, culture, race, ethnicity and life and work experiences. How will your background or experiences contribute to the diversity of a medical school class? ” it is important to note that diversity does not necessarily mean you have to write about your ethnic background. In fact, we’ve coached students through our application packages to submit unique and personalized essays by writing about their healthcare passions.

Aside from talking about their ethnic background, our students have written about:

• Community service work
• Working in the service industry or other jobs
• Volunteer work with underserved and immigrant populations
• Public health research
• Special talents and skills, including music and sports

Read Dr. Rachel Rizal’s article in U.S. News :  How to Link Nonclinical Experiences to Medicine

UNM Medical School Secondary Application Tip #4: It is important to do your research on UNM School of Medicine. Reference specific aspects the curriculum, projects, and community organizations you want to be involved with.

• Read our HIGH-YIELD blog post about how to answer “Why this Medical School:”  Why this Medical School? Secondary Essay Example

UNM Medical School Secondary Application Tip #5:  In addition to doing your research on the medical school, you also need to do research on New Mexico’s public health and physician shortage issues. We recommend our students to read about as many New Mexico public health current events as possible. 

• You can start reading on the New Mexico Department of Health website. 

UNM Medical School Secondary Application Tip #6: For the COVID-19 question, incorporate your personal experiences as well as healthcare current issues you noticed throughout the COVID pandemic. We have an entire  healthcare current events blog post here, where you can read more about healthcare disparities and COVID-19. And, as we mentioned in tip #1, add stories. 

UNM Medical School Secondary Application Tip #7: Get our help to edit your UNM Medical School secondary application essays. We can help you through personalize and tailor  your essays through our secondary essay packages . Have questions about how you can stand out? Contact us below.

University of New Mexico Medical School Secondary Application Questions: 2022 – 2023

• New Question: There are multiple paths that lead to medical school and many obstacles along the way. Please describe the unique path that has led you to medicine as well as any obstacles or adversity that you had to overcome in achieving this goal. How will this experience affect your career as a physician? (2,000 characters max)
• New Question: While providing healthcare as a physician is often a rewarding career, it is also a profession that entails addressing constant challenges. Imagine you are a physician at a local institution and you notice on 18 occasions in the past week, patients were not administered the correct dose of a medication. When looking into it further, you learned that 17/18 cases occurred right after a physician handoff (defined as the process of transferring role and responsibility for providing care from one physician to another). Given this scenario, what are the initial steps you and your institution might take to improve the situation?  (2,000 characters max)
• New Question: While providing healthcare as a physician is often a rewarding career, it is also a profession that entails addressing constant challenges. What do you see as the most significant issues the medical profession will face in the next 20 years, and what are some potential solutions for these problems? (2,000 characters max)
• New Question: Teamwork is integral to training and the career of a physician. This kind of work setting entails addressing constant challenges in task execution, communication etc. What is an issue you have encountered working on a team and how did you address and resolve this issue? (2,000 characters max)

University of New Mexico Medical School Secondary Application Questions: 2021 – 2022

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University of new mexico medical school secondary application questions: 2020 - 2021.

• At the UNM School of Medicine we are committed to building a community of diverse learners that will go on to contribute to the diversity of the medical field. Are there any aspects of your experience that you are most proud of or that you feel you have been unable to highlight with your application materials already submitted? If so, please explain how this will contribute to the diversity of a learning community and your future medical community. (2,000 characters max)
• What do you see as the most important characteristics of a physician? How do you plan to cultivate them during your training? (2,000 characters max)
• While providing healthcare as a physician is often a rewarding career, it is also a profession that entails addressing constant challenges. Identify what you think is the most significant issue the medical profession will face in the next 20 years, and walk us through the process of solving this problem at a local or national level. Explain your reasoning along the way.
• Clinical outcomes are often the downstream outcome of broader policies that impact health inequities. What is a public health policy that has impacted the health outcomes of our community for better or worse? (2,000 characters max)
• Please tell us about a situation in which working with a team was challenging. What was your role? What was challenging? How was it handled? What did you learn? (2,000 characters max)
• Please describe how COVID-19 has effected your preparation for applying to medical school. Describe any academic, personal, financial, or professional barriers/disruptions that COVID-19 may have triggered. (2,000 characters max)

University of New Mexico Medical School Secondary Application Questions: 2019 – 2020

• At the UNM School of Medicine we are committed to building a dynamic, productive and positive learning environment in addition to promoting cross cultural and cross racial understanding among students of diverse talents, experiences, opinions and backgrounds. Share any unique or challenging factors in your background, such as the quality of your early educational environment, socioeconomic status, culture, race, ethnicity and life and work experiences. What would you as an individual bring to our medical community? (2,000 characters max)
• There are multiple paths that lead to medical school and many obstacles along the way. Please describe the unique path that has led you to medicine as well as any obstacles or adversity that you had to overcome in achieving this goal. How will this experience affect your career as a physician? (2,000 characters max)
• While providing healthcare as a physician is often a rewarding career, it is also a profession that entails addressing constant challenges. What do you see as the most significant issues the medical profession will face in the next 20 years, and what are some potential solutions for these problems? (2,000 characters max)
• Part of the goal of the UNM School of Medicine is to address the healthcare disparities that face New Mexico. Once you become a physician, how do you foresee yourself helping to address the healthcare challenges that affect communities in the State of New Mexico? (2,000 characters max)

University of New Mexico Medical School Secondary Application Questions: 2018 – 2019

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University of New Mexico Medical School Secondary Application Questions: 2017 – 2018

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20 Aug A Photo Essay: Adventures in New Mexico

New Mexico is a state that has intrigued us for quite some time. White Sands National Monument was the main reason we wanted to visit New Mexico. But, when we started planning our road trip, we found so many other exciting adventures in New Mexico, too. We couldn’t wait to set out and explore, and after we went through our road trip check list (servicing and cleaning our car, checking  trip insurance  options, and packing a cooler), we were on the road heading south. Throughout our visit, we made our way to the towns of Roswell, Alamogordo, Santa Fe, and Taos, to see sights such as Bottomless Lake State Park, Meow Wolf, UFO and Alien Tours, Pistachio Farms, Mineral Springs, and so much more. Read on to learn about our favorite adventures in New Mexico!

We started our New Mexico adventures with a two-night stay in Roswell. Roswell, New Mexico is known for an alleged UFO crash in 1947. The town has certainly embraced it; therefore, we couldn’t resist stopping for a visit. After arriving late in the evening, we decided to pack the next day full of wacky alien adventures…and a little bit of nature thrown in for good measure. Every which way we looked, we spotted alien eyes, UFOs, and extraterrestrial themed establishments. Was it cheesy? Yes. Was it still somehow entertaining? Yes!

Roswell UFO Tour

Our first matter of business was to dig into the story of what happened more than 60 years ago in this tiny town. We booked a morning Roswell UFO Tour with UFO researcher Dennis Balthaser to get to the bottom of it. Dennis has been researching the Roswell Incident for over 25 years and he has vast knowledge of the events that happened back in July of 1947. The actual UFO crash site is located around 75 miles north of Roswell, so we didn’t visit the actual crash site. But, we did visit more than 20 locations on the tour, some of which included former homes of first hand witnesses of the event, the Roswell Industrial Air Park (the place where the supposed alien bodies and debris from the crash were stored), and so much more. We listened to stories that first hand witnesses told Dennis, as well as some pretty intense stories that happened to Dennis throughout his research. He gave us more information on the incident than we ever could have imagined. Regardless of our beliefs on the subject, we left with an in depth insight into the events that occurred. It was a fascinating look into the history of both Roswell and the UFO crash that may or may not have happened near Roswell.

UFO Museum & Research Center and Alien Zone

To supplement our newly gained knowledge, a visit to the UFO Museum & Research Center was a must. The museum collects and preserves the information and materials involving “The Roswell Incident”. The museum is small, but we learned even more about the events of that fateful day in 1947, as well as other lesser known sightings in the area.

After an intense morning, it was time for some lighthearted alien fun. We stopped in to browse the souvenirs and paid the small fee (I believe it was $3 during our visit) to go to the back room. The back room is filled with cheeky alien scenes perfect for goofy photos. You have to go in with a sense of humor…and maybe some hand sanitizer because it could use a pretty good cleaning sesh. Anyways, we spent around 30 minutes laughing our heads off and posing for photos with our new alien friends.

Bottomless Lake State Park

Luckily, the Roswell area isn’t only about aliens. We also made our way out to Bottomless Lake State Park for a dose of beautiful nature. There are nine lakes in this area, and many of them are surrounded by towering red cliffs. During our visit, we went on a few short hikes, and sat on the shore of Lea Lake as we watched a storm roll in.

Eat a Famous Green Chile Burger

And, when you are in New Mexico, you have to try a dish with their famous green chiles. To accomplish this task, we made our way to Big D’s Downtown Dive for a delicious green chile burger in a cute restaurant decorated with license plates on the walls.

White Sands National Monument

We left Roswell early the following morning to make our way to White Sands National Monument. White Sands is located just outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico, so that’s where we decided to base ourselves for the next couple of nights. The desert consists of 275 square miles of gypsum sand dunes, and the glistening white sand is sugar soft.

Our first activity on the list was to head out and go sand sledding on the dunes. We purchased a couple of sleds at the monument gift shop and got them waxed and ready to go. At first, we didn’t have much luck (or maybe it was no skill…) sliding down the hills; the sleds barely moved down the hill. Eventually, though, we managed to get the hang of it, and it was a blast picking up speed and sliding down the dunes.

After our sledding adventure, we drove to one of the picnic shelters to eat our packed lunch. Our surroundings made it feel like we were eating on another planet, but I guess that theme fits in well with this entire region, ha!

To get to the dunes, we drove the Dunes Drive which is a 16 mile roundtrip drive from the visitor center. The drive takes around 45 minutes to complete, but plan for much longer than that if you want to get out and hike and sled on the dunes. For an area with so much empty space, there sure is a lot to see!

Pistachio Factory Tour

I’m a big pistachio fan, so when I found out that there are pistachio farms in New Mexico, I knew we had to take a peek at one. We made our way to Heart of the Desert, which is home to both a pistachio grove and a vineyard. The vineyard was planted in 2003, and they currently have 24,000 vines growing seven different varieties of grapes. We sampled several wines and then took a glass out to the patio to relax while we waited for our farm tour.

Once it was time for the farm tour to begin (did I mention it’s a free tour?!), we met our group and got ready to learn. The ranch is “a self-contained agribusiness”—this means they complete every step of the growing and production process on site. They have around 12,000 trees spanning 85 acres, which is the largest pistachio grove in New Mexico.

After getting a look at the grove, we went into the processing plant to find out what happens to the nuts after they are harvested. I never realized what an in-depth process it is to get the nuts ready for market—the nuts pass through five machines and still have to be hand sorted for a final quality control check. The tour was super interesting, and we got to taste several varieties of pistachios back in the gift shop. My favorite flavors were the red chile pistachios and the vanilla praline pistachios, but the regular salted pistachios were fantastic, too. Yum!

Exploring Historic Santa Fe

Next up, it was time to explore Santa Fe. After the 3.5 hour drive from Alamogordo to Santa Fe, we spent the afternoon wandering through the shops, plaza, and restaurants in Historic Santa Fe.

Iconik Coffee Roasters made for a wonderful afternoon pick me up when we needed a break from browsing all the cute shops in town.

Two of our favorite restaurants in Santa Fe were the Burrito Company and The Shed. The Burrito Company is a family owned restaurant that has been around since the late 70’s. It was a delicious spot for lunch and located right in the heart of the historic district.

We visited The Shed for dinner, a spot that has been around even longer than the Burrito Company. The Shed opened in the 50’s and is another iconic restaurant in town. Our table was located in a cozy corner of the plant covered patio. Micah ended up ordering their world renowned dish without even knowing it, the red chili enchiladas, and WOW. It was delicious, but SPICY.   He was almost in tears by the end of it, ha!

One of our favorite adventures in New Mexico was visiting Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. We can’t even begin to describe the weird, wacky, wonderful world that awaits when you walk through the door, but we’ll give it a shot. It’s an immersive art experience that starts in a house with a mystery to unravel, and as you work your way through, you get pulled into an alternate dimension. It is absolutely incredible and insane all in one, and we loved every minute of it!

Ojo Caliente Mineral Pools

Any chance we get to hop in a hot spring pool, we take it, and we soon found ourselves at Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort & Spa for just that reason. The spa has several mineral spring pools, saunas, a mud bath, hammocks, fireplaces, and lots of room to relax.

Hiking at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

Another one of our favorite adventures in New Mexico was hiking at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. We arrived about 2 hours before the park closed for the evening, and we lucked out with almost the entire place to ourselves. We intended to just hike a portion of the Canyon Trail, but the canyon was so gorgeous we just couldn’t stop. The hike is 1.5 miles each way; it gains 630 ft of elevation with amazing views the entire way. We also walked the 1.2 mile Cave Loop trail. Both trails were fantastic, and we really wished we had more time to explore!

Taos Cow Ice Cream

Once our time in Santa Fe was up, we drove north to Taos. We stopped at Taos Cow Ice Cream & Café for breakfast…and a way too early in the morning ice cream treat. There was no way I could ignore the Pistachio White Chocolate heaven that was calling my name.

Taos Pueblo

After our early morning indulgence, we rolled on over to Taos Pueblo to learn about the Native American community that calls this area home. The main buildings at Taos Pueblo were likely built sometime between 100 and 1450 A.D. There are around 150 people living in the Pueblo and more than 1,900 people living on the entire Taos Pueblo lands. We took a tour of the Pueblo and learned about the history of the community before spending some time browsing the shops scattered throughout the site.

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

We then continued north and crossed the Rio Grande River on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. When we spotted outlook points on the bridge, we had to get out and go for an unexpected walk. The views of the river were gorgeous, and we loved watching a group of white water rafters float down the river.

Earthship Biotecture

Another unexpected stop on our drive out of New Mexico was Earthship Biotecture. I had read about this place many moons ago, and when we spotted it as we drove by, once again, we couldn’t resist stopping. This community of homes is built with a set of green, sustainable principles in mind, and each house (or Earthship as they are called) is built with recycled and natural materials. They focus on energy conservation and the homes are designed to produce all of their own water, food and electricity. We took a self-guided tour through the Education Facility and learned so much about this fascinating community.

New Mexico continued to wow us throughout our entire visit, and if we weren’t booked on a job right when we returned home, we might have tried to extend our stay. Because of all our fun adventures in New Mexico, the state quickly shot up to one of our favorites, and we hope to explore it in more depth again soon!

Have you ever been to New Mexico? Share your recommendations for adventures in New Mexico with us in the comments!

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Lesson Plans and Assignments on New Mexico Statehood

Center for Southwest Research

Download Exploring an Era: The Social, Political, and Economic History of New Mexico's Struggle for Statehood (108 KB)

Download Debate For and Against New Mexico Statehood (29 KB)

Download Governor O. A. Larrazolo and New Mexico's Quest for Statehood (98 KB)

Download The Creation of New Mexico's Constitution (94 KB)

Download New Mexico Statehood Timeline (143 KB)

Download Public Relations Writing Assignment (101 KB)

Download Writing New Mexico (38 KB)

Download Persuasive/Argumentative Writing Assignment (69 KB)

Description

These resources were created by the staff of the Center for Southwest Research in celebration of the centennial of New Mexico Statehood.

(Photo: Governor Larrazolo receiving troops from overseas. Octaviano A. Larrazolo Papers, 1841-1981, Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico)

Exploring an Era: The Social, Political, and Economic History of New Mexico's Struggle for Statehood

Choose a time period and describe the changes which took place during that era. This small group activity will utilize social studies, technology, and public speaking skills by having the students prepare and present reports from a particular time period relating to the social, political, economic, and tourism issues concerned with the struggle for statehood. Recommended Grade Level: Grade 7-8; with modifications could be used for other grades.Time Required:This lesson should take approximately five 45-minute class periods.

Debate For and Against New Mexico Statehood

This individual or small group activity will utilize social studies, technology, and public speaking skills by having the students argue for and against statehood from a variety of perspectives. Recommended Grade Level: Grade 7; with modifications could be used for other grades. Time Required: This lesson should take approximately four 45-minute class periods.

Governor O. A. Larrazolo and New Mexico's Quest for Statehood

This small group or individual activity will utilize social studies and technology skills by having the students research and describe the life and politics of New Mexico Governor O. A. Larrazolo or another New Mexican involved in the struggle for statehood. Students will use primary source documents to formalize their arguments. Recommended Grade Level:Grade 7; with modifications could be used for other grades.Time Required:This lesson should take approximately four 45-minute class periods.

The Creation of New Mexico's Constitution

Research the formation of New Mexico's Constitution and then draft your own constitution of your own fictional state. This small group or individual activity will utilize social studies, technology, and public speaking skills by having the students research the formation of New Mexico’s Constitution. The students will then draft their own constitution of their own fictional state including their own creative and descriptive state name. The student will then report their findings as well as their own original ideas both in writing and orally. Recommended Grade Level:Grade 7; with modifications could be used for other grades.Time Required:This lesson should take approximately four 45-minute class periods.

New Mexico Statehood Timeline

Create a timeline chart of New Mexico's quest for statehood using primary source documents. This individual or group activity will utilize social studies and technology skills by having the students create a timeline chart of New Mexico’s quest for statehood using primary source documents. The students could then design a final project such as a travel journal, storytelling, newspaper or magazine article, PowerPoint presentation, or a video. Recommended Grade Level:Grade 7; with modifications could be used for other grades.Time Required:This lesson should take approximately six 45-minute class periods depending on the final project options.

Public Relations Writing Assignment

Create a pamphlet emphasizing the advantages of visiting your home town or some other attraction. Originally developed by Center for Southwest Research staff for the Online Archive of New Mexico, this activity is appropriate for all grade levels.

Writing New Mexico

Write about one of the places in New Mexico that you would like to visit. Originally developed by Center for Southwest Research staff for the Online Archive of New Mexico, this activity is appropriate for Middle School grades.

Persuasive/Argumentative Writing Assignment

Write an essay describing in detail why someone might want to visit the area around Santa Fe, N.M. Originally developed by staff of the Center for Southwest Research, this activity is appropriate for High School grades.

Publication Date

Spring 4-26-2013

University of New Mexico

Albuquerque

• Disciplines

Cultural History | Political History | United States History

Recommended Citation

Center for Southwest Research. "Lesson Plans and Assignments on New Mexico Statehood." (2013). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/unm_oer/3

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Offered by Sallie Mae

Sallie Mae will award $2,000 each month to eligible entrants. No essay or account sign-ups, just a simple scholarship for those seeking help paying for…

Sallie Mae will award $2,000 each month to eligible entrants. No essay or account sign-ups, just a simple scholarship for those seeking help paying for school.

Cady McDonnell Memorial Scholarship

Offered by American Congress on Surveying and Mapping

Are you a female, NSPS (National Society of Professional Surveyors) Student Member who is enrolled in a degree program in surveying or a related field?… Show More

Are you a female, NSPS (National Society of Professional Surveyors) Student Member who is enrolled in a degree program in surveying or a related field? If so, you may be eligible for the Cady McDonnell Memorial Scholarship! Every odd year (e.g. 2025, 2027, etc.), the scholarship awards $2,000 to multiple female NSPS members who are enrolled in a two- or four-year degree program in surveying or a related field, and are residents of one of the following states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, or Wyoming. To apply, interested students must submit an application form, official transcripts, three letters of recommendation, a personal introductory letter, a copy of their ID, and a course syllabus or program course catalog. Don't miss out on this opportunity to further your education and achieve your career goals! Show Less

BigFuture $40k Essay-Free Scholarship This scholarship has been verified by the scholarship providing organization.

Offered by The College Board

Open to US-Based high school students in the class of 2025 — no essay, minimum GPA, test score, or citizenship requirements.

The Civitas Foundation Scholarship

Offered by Civitas

The Civitas Foundation Scholarship is available to high school seniors who live within Civitas' operating counties in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico. Students planning to… Show More

The Civitas Foundation Scholarship is available to high school seniors who live within Civitas' operating counties in Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico. Students planning to pursue an associate or bachelor's degree are welcome to apply. Show Less

Niche $25,000 “No Essay” Scholarship This scholarship has been verified by the scholarship providing organization.

Offered by Niche

Easy scholarship open to all high school and college students, as well as anyone looking to attend college or graduate school in the next year!

New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship

Are you a New Mexico resident enrolled part- or full-time in a public New Mexico college or university and hold a minimum 2.5 GPA? If… Show More

Are you a New Mexico resident enrolled part- or full-time in a public New Mexico college or university and hold a minimum 2.5 GPA? If so, you may be eligible for the New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship! The scholarship is awarded annually to New Mexico college students who have graduated from high school at least 16 months ago and have not yet earned a first bachelor's degree. If you're a New Mexico resident who will be pursuing a post-secondary education at an in-state, public university, we encourage you to apply! Keep on reading to learn more. Show Less

Macy’s Emergency Scholarship Fund

Offered by LNESC & Macy's

Are you a college student facing economic hardship? Further, are you residing in California, Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, or Texas?… Show More

Are you a college student facing economic hardship? Further, are you residing in California, Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, or Texas? If so, consider applying for Macy's Emergency Scholarship Fund! The scholarship is open to full-time university students residing in the listed states/regions who are experiencing emergency financial need. Events that will qualify students for this scholarship include the following: change in family income, loss of job, death of an immediate family member, natural disaster, eviction or home foreclosure, burglary, and fire. Each year, the scholarship awards multiple recipients up to $500 to support them during their times of need. If you're a college student in California, Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, or Texas that has been impacted by an unexpected hardship affecting your education, we encourage you to apply!  Show Less

$10,000 CollegeXpress Scholarship This scholarship has been verified by the scholarship providing organization.

Offered by CollegeXpress

Annual $10k scholarship from CollegeXpress open to all high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Nurse Educator Loan-For-Service Program

Are you a New Mexico resident (for at least 12 consecutive months) who has been accepted to a nursing program at a New Mexico public… Show More

Are you a New Mexico resident (for at least 12 consecutive months) who has been accepted to a nursing program at a New Mexico public university? Further, are you currently or planning to be a full-time nurse educator at a post-secondary institution? If so, consider applying for the Nurse Educator Loan-For-Service Program! Each year, the program awards loans of up to $7,500 per year. However, for each year you serve as a nurse educator, a portion of the loan will be forgiven. If the entire service agreement is fulfilled, 100% of the loan is eligible for forgiveness. The program is funded by the New Mexico Higher Education Department “to enhance the ability of college and university employed nursing educators to obtain Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees.” If you want to earn another degree and enjoy teaching your fellow nurses, we encourage you to apply for the Nurse Educator Loan-For-Service Program! Show Less

Youth in Foster Care Scholarship

Offered by Albuquerque Community Foundation

Are you a college student in New Mexico that has been in the foster care system? If so, you might be interested in applying to… Show More

Are you a college student in New Mexico that has been in the foster care system? If so, you might be interested in applying to the Youth in Foster Care Scholarship! This scholarship is open to students in New Mexico who have been in the foster care system and are pursuing a postsecondary education. The scholarship is offered by the Albuquerque Community Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on providing grants to improve the community in Albuquerque. Its creation was inspired by Jim and Anne Nelson, a couple who developed a deep understanding of the best interests and needs of foster youth and neglected children through their work with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). Thus, the Youth in Foster Care scholarship aims to help those affected by an unstable childhood continue their education. Every year, one award of $1,000 is given to help a lucky student fund their undergraduate degree. If you are an undergraduate student from New Mexico who has been in the foster care system, we encourage you to apply! Show Less

$25k “Be Bold” No-Essay Scholarship This scholarship has been verified by the scholarship providing organization.

Offered by Bold.org

Open to high school students, college students, community college students, and graduate students.

Andrew Piech Memorial Scholarship

Are you a student from New Mexico seeking a degree in automotive technology? If so, you may want to apply for the Andrew Piech Memorial… Show More

Are you a student from New Mexico seeking a degree in automotive technology? If so, you may want to apply for the Andrew Piech Memorial Scholarship! This scholarship is open to students pursuing a degree in automotive or technical/vocational studies at a non-profit or public institution. The scholarship is offered by Albuquerque Community Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on providing grants to improve the community in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Paula and Gerald Piech established the scholarship in 2010 to honor their son, who was interested in the automotive field. Every year, one to two awards worth up to $2,200 are awarded to students to help pay for their education costs. If you’re a public or non-profit school student looking for some financial help for college, we encourage you to apply! Show Less

The American Advertising Federation-New Mexico (AAF-NM) Scholarship Fund

Are you an undergraduate upperclassman or graduate student from New Mexico who is attending a New Mexico four-year nonprofit or public educational institution to pursue… Show More

Are you an undergraduate upperclassman or graduate student from New Mexico who is attending a New Mexico four-year nonprofit or public educational institution to pursue a course of study related to advertising or communications? If so, you may be eligible for the American Advertising Federation-New Mexico (AAF-NM) Scholarship Fund! Each year, the scholarship awards 1-2 awards worth up to $1,400 each to New Mexico residents at an in-state university who have a passion for advertising and/or communications. Eligible fields of study include business with a marketing emphasis, journalism with an advertising emphasis, strategic communications, advertising and marketing, or graphic design, fine art, photography, or illustration while maintaining a career focus in advertising or public relations. If you're a New Mexican undergraduate upperclassman or graduate student who is attending an in-state university to study advertising or communications-related fields, we encourage you to apply! Keep on reading to learn more. Show Less

$1,000 Appily Easy College Money Scholarship This scholarship has been verified by the scholarship providing organization.

Offered by Appily

This easy scholarship from Appily is open to U.S. high school students (Class of 2025, 2026, 2027) and college transfer students. One scholarship will be… Show More

This easy scholarship from Appily is open to U.S. high school students (Class of 2025, 2026, 2027) and college transfer students. One scholarship will be awarded each month. Show Less

Rae Lee Siporin Scholarship for Women

Are you a female, New Mexico resident who is continuing or returning to their in-state college/university to complete their senior year of school? If so,… Show More

Are you a female, New Mexico resident who is continuing or returning to their in-state college/university to complete their senior year of school? If so, you may be eligible for the Rae Lee Siporin Scholarship for Women! Each year, the scholarship awards 1-2 awards worth up to $1,000 each to female New Mexico residents in their last year at an in-state university. Preference will be given to women who have dropped out and are returning to finish their degree, but any New Mexican women in their last year of college may apply. If you meet these criteria, we encourage you to apply! Keep on reading to learn more. Show Less

David R. Woodling Memorial Scholarship

Are you a New Mexico resident who is currently (or will soon be) attending an accredited nonprofit or public educational institution in pursuit of a… Show More

Are you a New Mexico resident who is currently (or will soon be) attending an accredited nonprofit or public educational institution in pursuit of a certificate or degree in a metals technology program, with a concentration in machine tool technology and welding? If so, consider applying for the David R. Woodling Memorial Scholarship! Each year, the scholarship awards up to $4,600 to up to two such students who submit letters of reference and a personal essay about their career goals and relevant experiences. If you're from New Mexico pursuing a certificate or degree in machine tool technology or welding, we encourage you to apply! Keep on reading to learn more. Show Less

505 Southwestern/New Mexico True Scholarship

Offered by New Mexico Foundation

The 505 Southwestern/New Mexico True Scholarship is offered to graduating seniors from a high school in New Mexico, who wish to pursue a degree at… Show More

The 505 Southwestern/New Mexico True Scholarship is offered to graduating seniors from a high school in New Mexico, who wish to pursue a degree at a college or university in New Mexico. Students who demonstrate a commitment to making an impact in the agricultural industry and/or overall economy of the food and agriculture of New Mexico are encouraged to apply. Show Less

New Mexico Health Professional Loan Repayment Program

Offered by New Mexico Commission on Higher Education

Are you a healthcare professional who is residing, working full-time in, and licensed or certified in the state of New Mexico? Further, are you currently… Show More

Are you a healthcare professional who is residing, working full-time in, and licensed or certified in the state of New Mexico? Further, are you currently providing clinical care to patients? If so, the New Mexico Health Professional Loan Repayment Program may be a great opportunity for you! Each year, the program provides repayment for outstanding student loans of practicing New Mexico health professionals. As a condition of the program, a health professional must make a three-year service commitment to practice full-time in a designated medical shortage area in New Mexico. If this sounds like a good opportunity for you, we encourage you to apply! Keep on reading to learn more. Show Less

How to win New Mexico scholarships

New Mexico is a unique state in terms of the cultural diversity, beautiful mountainous terrain, and vast desert landscapes. So, it is no surprise that you’re interested in pursuing your future education in New Mexico! 

In order to win New Mexico scholarships, you should detail your passions while simultaneously emphasizing your fascination with New Mexico as a state. Meaning, in your scholarship applications, you should emphasize how your passions align with these unique characteristics. By embracing your individuality and connecting it to New Mexico, you can make a compelling case for why you are deserving of New Mexico scholarships! 

Writing resources for acing New Mexico scholarship essays

Many New Mexico scholarships may require you to write an essay about yourself which can range anywhere from a 250 word essay to a 500 word essay . Therefore, read over our Scholarships360 guide to finding and winning scholarships . Additionally, check out how to start and how to end a scholarship essay to ensure your scholarship essay will be perfect from beginning to end!  

Don’t miss: Scholarships360’s free scholarships search tool

New Mexico student debt snapshot

According to the Department of Education , in total, New Mexico residents owe $7.8 billion in federal student loan debt. Student borrowers owe an average of $34,211 each (those numbers do not include private loans). Around 44.3% of loan borrowers are under the age of 35. As you are starting your higher education journey, remember that scholarships allow students to take fewer loans. Make sure that you apply to as many scholarships as you qualify for!

Keep on reading to learn more about merit scholarships from top colleges and universities in New Mexico!

Merit scholarships at New Mexico colleges and universities

The university of new mexico.

• Eligibility: Incoming freshmen who demonstrate high academic achievement as awards are competitive
• Amount: $4,000 up to full tuition
• Deadline: Admission to the University of New Mexico

New Mexico State University

• Eligibility: New students pursuing a Bachelor’s degree who have a strong high school GPA and ACT/SAT score
• Amount: Varies
• Deadline: Admission to New Mexico State University

Eastern New Mexico University

• Eligibility: First year students based on ACT or SAT scores as well as residency status
• Deadline: August 1

New Mexico Highlands University

• Eligibility: Incoming freshmen who have a strong high school GPA and enroll in at least 15 credit hours
• Amount: $1,000 up to $5,700
• Deadline: Admission to New Mexico Highlands University

Western New Mexico University

• Amount: Up to the full cost of tuition
• Deadline: December 1

Consider in-state tuition and tuition reciprocity

In-state tuition allows residents of a state to receive cheaper tuition for a college or university in their state. Additionally, many universities and colleges reserve scholarships and financial aid for in-state students, which helps reduce the cost of attending college for those who live there.

Here are a few well-known New Mexico universities and their in-state vs out-of-state tuition costs:

• In-state tuition: $8,409
• Out-of-state tuition: $26,735

University of New Mexico  

• In-state tuition: $11,126
• Out-of-state tuition: $34,045

How do you get in-state tuition? 

As you can see, in-state tuition significantly reduces the cost of New Mexico colleges and universities. In order to become a New Mexico resident for tuition purposes, you must physically reside in New Mexico for at least 12 consecutive months preceding the term for which you want in-state tuition rates. Additionally, you will need to provide evidence that you intend to remain in New Mexico. Some examples of evidence include obtaining a New Mexico driver’s license, registering your vehicle in New Mexico, and having proof of payment for New Mexico state income tax for the previous year. 

Does New Mexico offer tuition reciprocity? 

Yes, New Mexico is a member state of the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) which is a limited tuition reciprocity agreement among select Western States. 

New Mexico scholarship spotlight

• Eligibility: NM residents pursuing two-year degree or certificate programs at a public or Tribal college in New Mexico who are at least 18 years old 
• Amount: Up to full tuition and fees 
• Deadline: Varies
• Eligibility: New Mexico residents who graduated from a NM high school, completed requirements as a home-schooled student registered with the New Mexico Public Education Department, or received a high school equivalency credential recognized by the state

Davis-Kozoll Scholarship

• Eligibility: Students in northwest New Mexico pursuing a degree in science and/or human service disciplines
• Amount: $1,000 up to $5,000
• Deadline: April 6

William M. Olson / Warren E. Taylor and Daniel D. Koleske Science and Engineering Scholarships

• Eligibility: Applicants must have completed at least one science elective in high school, and planning to major in a physical science or engineering field in college
• Amount: $3,000
• Deadline: April 15
• Eligibility: Current or past residents of New Mexico who are graduating high school OR new/returning college students pursuing certificates/degrees in automotive or technical vocational studies
• Amount: $2,200
• Deadline: June 1
• Eligibility: New Mexico residents who are full-time students in their junior or senior of college or graduate students with a minimum 3.0 GPA, attending a New Mexico nonprofit institution in one of the following disciplines: Business with a marketing emphasis, Journalism with an advertising emphasis, Strategic communications, Advertising and marketing, Graphic design, Fine art, Photography, or Illustration while maintaining a career focus in advertising or public relations
• Amount: $1,400
• Eligibility: Female New Mexico residents entering their senior year as full-time or part-time students. Applicants must have taken a break during their educational careers and plan to graduate within three semesters (explain in essay)
• Amount: $1,000

Additional New Mexico resources

New mexico opportunity scholarship act.

In March 2022, the governor of New Mexico signed into law an act which waives tuition for residents attending in-state public college, including community college. As long as the student is enrolled with a minimum of six credit hours and maintains a 2.5 GPA, they will not have to pay any tuition.

This is a huge opportunity for residents of the state, and makes in-state college significantly more affordable. Keep in mind, even under this act, you’ll still have to pay for expenses such as room and board. But, with the help of some of the scholarships on this list, as well as financial aid, you might be able to cover those and graduate debt-free.

New Mexico Higher Education Department

Created by the New Mexico Higher Education Department, this platform is a true “one-stop shopping” experience. Learn about vetted scholarships, financial aid, and resources for higher education. Bookmark this one–it is an excellent resource for both students and their parents! 

New Mexico Junior College Foundation Scholarship

The New Mexico Junior College Foundation offers a number of scholarships specifically for students attending/planning to attend New Mexico Junior College. 

State Bar of New Mexico Law Student Scholarships

The State Bar of New Mexico Law and the University of New Mexico School of Law teamed up to offer scholarships for higher education. UNMSOL handles all applications and disperses the scholarship awards. 

New Mexico Activities Association Scholarships

The New Mexico Activities Association Foundation supports high school students who participate in athletic and activities programs throughout New Mexico.

Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico Scholarships

As an important community resource, the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico connects “donors to needs.” The Foundation supports various organizations in their charitable work. The Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico is home to 35 scholarships and three annual grant cycles.

Albuquerque Community Foundation Scholarships

The Albuquerque Community Foundation offers several scholarships for residents of specific counties and specific areas of study for current college students and graduating high schoolers.  

FAFSA guide

On October 1st of every year, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) opens nationwide. New Mexico students should complete the FAFSA to be eligible for federal student aid as well as some scholarships.

Frequently asked questions about New Mexico scholarships

How do you qualify for the opportunity scholarship in new mexico, does new mexico have free college.

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New Mexico State University

Master’s essay.

The M.A. Master’s Essay requires revision of a scholarly essay of 25 to 30 pages, the approximate length of a journal article, and reformulation of this essay to the 7 to 8 pages appropriate for presentation at a conference, preferably a department colloquium. In both length and in level of scholarship, the long version of the paper should be modeled after articles published in specific scholarly journals in the field and the abbreviated version should reflect familiarity with conventions of conference presentation. In addition to the primary focus on revision, the process for this project involves research of appropriate publication venues, and a final oral examination of the project as whole. The project’s intent is to demonstrate that the student is able to engage in the process of and produce scholarly work at a level expected by the profession and consistent with the degree program.

The phases of the process are as follows: 

• Enrollment in ENGL 598.  This is a one-semester course in which students will complete their projects under the supervision of a member of the degree program faculty. The supervising faculty member will also guide students in selection of two additional committee members: one additional member of the graduate English faculty and one member of the graduate faculty from outside the department as required by the Graduate School, to evaluate their project and to participate in their final oral examination.
• Selection of and revision of an essay to article length.  Students engaged in this capstone process are expected to work closely with the supervising faculty member as the primary source of advice in the preparation of their essay, including approval of the selected essay. Students will give to the supervising faculty member a draft copy of their selected essay, which should have as its focus the student’s primary area of specialization. The supervisor will assess the essay and recommend revisions.
• Research of publication venue(s).  Utilizing the MLA Bibliography, other appropriate indexes, and the suggestions of the supervising faculty member, students select two or more publications to which they could possibly submit their revised article-length essay and create an annotated description of each venue (including audience, range of content, typical length and discourse style and level of articles, and style requirements). Students will be encouraged, but not required, to submit their essay for publication.
• Revision of the essay to length appropriate for conference presentation.  Students will identify, with suggestions from supervising faculty member, strategies for condensing the article-length essay, i.e., selecting a single facet of the argument to elucidate, maximizing their own argument in relation to primary and secondary source support, and creating an engaging presentation strategy. Students will be required to present their paper as participant in a department colloquium or other appropriate conference venue.
• Oral exam.  Students will schedule an oral exam meeting in accordance with  Graduate School deadlines  and provide each member of their supervisory committee with a copy of their completed project materials (revised essays of article- and conference-length and annotated catalog of publication venues) at least 14 days prior to their scheduled exam. The committee will assess the materials and judge them (a) acceptable, (b) acceptable with further minor revisions, (c) acceptable with further major revision, or (d) unacceptable. The committee has the option of awarding an extraordinary project a “Pass with Distinction.” Committee members will come to the exam prepared with comments and questions for the student. Students whose projects are judged to be unacceptable will not be allowed to graduate that semester. 

Students are encouraged to undertake the Master’s Essay process in the first half of their third semester of full-time graduate work, or soon after completing 18 hours of coursework.

NMSU Department of English

Clara Belle Williams Hall Rm.132, P.O. Box 30001, MSC 3E, Las Cruces, NM 88003, Tel: 5756463931, Email: [email protected].

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Limina, UNM Nonfiction Review, is a yearly magazine that showcases the best of academic writing at UNM. Visit their web site or e-mail to find out how you can submit your academic papers for publication in this semester's edition of Limina.

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D.H. Lawrence Ranch Initiatives

• D.H. Lawrence Ranch

In this Book

• Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez
• Published by: University of New Mexico Press
• Series: Querencias Series
• View Citation

New Mexico cultural envoy Juan Estevan Arellano, to whom this work is dedicated, writes that querencia “is that which gives us a sense of place, that which anchors us to the land, that which makes us a unique people, for it implies a deeply rooted knowledge of place, and for that reason we respect it as our home.” This sentiment is echoed in the foreword by Rudolfo Anaya, in which he writes that “ querencia is love of home, love of place.” This collection of both deeply personal reflections and carefully researched studies explores the New Mexico homeland through the experiences and perspectives of Chicanx and indigenous/Genízaro writers and scholars from across the state. The importance of querencia for each contributor is apparent in their work and their ongoing studies, which have roots in the culture, history, literature, and popular media of New Mexico. Be inspired and enlightened by these essays and discover the history and belonging that is querencia.

• Table of Contents

• Half-title, Title, Copyright, Dedication
• Foreword: Querencia, Mi patria chica
• Rudolfo Anaya
• pp. xiii-xxii
• Agradecimientos y Reconocimientos
• pp. xxiii-xxvi
• Introduction: Mi Querencia, A Connection between Place and Identity
• Levi Romero
• Part 1. Community Querencias
• 1. The Long, Wondrous Life of Ventura Chavez, 1926-2013
• Simon Ventura Trujillo
• 2. Remapping Patriotic Practices: The Case of the Las Vegas 4th of July Fiestas
• Lillian Gorman
• 3. Critical Reflections on Chicanx and Indigenous Scholarship and Activism
• Kevin Brown, Vanessa Fonseca-Chavez, Tey Marianna Nunn, Irene Vasquez, and Myla Vicenti Carpio
• Part 2. Screening Querencias
• 4. Contested Querencia in The Last Conquistador (2008) by John J. Valadez and Cristina Ibarra
• Vanessa Fonseca-Chavez
• 5. Deep Roots in Community: Querencia and Salt of the Earth
• Karen R. Roybal
• 6. New Mexico Triptych: Querencia Etched in Wood, in Media, and in Our Memory
• Spencer R. Herrera
• pp. 114-138
• Part 3. Memory as Querencia
• 7. (Re)Signifying Gender and Sexuality for the Nuevomexicana Historical Body: The Politics of Reading Place in Women's Tales from the New Mexico WPA: La Diabla a Pie
• Bernandine Hernandez
• pp. 143-160
• 8. Erasing Querencia from Los Alamos: Racist and Sexualized Portrayals of New Mexican Women and Place in the Television Series Manhattan
• Myrriah Gomez
• pp. 161-178
• 9. Mestiza Consciousness a la MeXicana in Ultima and Agueda Martínez: Bridging and Legitimizing Querencia in the Borderlands
• Norma A Valenzuela
• pp. 179-196
• Part 4. Cultural Landscapes of Querencia
• 10. Ak'u, Beloved
• C. Maurus Chino
• pp. 201-219
• 11. Homeland Security: Sustaining Indigenous Culture and People through Narrative (Re)Remembering and Future (Re)Imagining in Simon Ortiz's Men on the Moon and Woven Stone
• Jonathan Wilson
• pp. 220-242
• 12. La Querencia: The Genízaro Cultural Landscape Model of Community Land Grants in Northern New Mexico
• Moises Gonzales
• pp. 243-268
• Part 5. Storytelling as Querencia
• 13. La Llorona as Querencia: Shared Stories and Sense of Place
• Kelly Medina-Lopez
• pp. 273-286
• 14. The Revolution Begins at La Cocina!
• Patricia Marina Trujillo, Corrine Kaa Pedi Povi Sanchez, and Scott Davis
• pp. 287-307
• 15. Following the Manito Trail: A Tale of Two Querencias
• pp. 308-324
• List of Contributors
• pp. 325-332
• pp. 333-350

Additional Information

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Guest Essay

Electing Judges in Mexico? It’s a Bad Idea.

By Amrit Singh and Adriana Garcia

Ms. Singh is a professor at Stanford Law School and the executive director of the school’s Rule of Law Impact Lab. Ms. Garcia is an expert adviser to the lab.

For weeks, Mexico has been in turmoil over President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s proposed constitutional amendment for judges to be elected by popular vote. Fifty-five thousand judicial employees went on strike as legislators pushed the law forward; the peso fell, and international banks issued dire warnings about the effect of the proposal on the economy.

Even the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, issued an unusual warning. The plan, he said late last month, presented “a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy.” The president responded by angrily announcing a “pause” of diplomatic relations with the U.S. Embassy. A similar spat ensued with Canada.

But Mr. López Obrador’s successor, President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who takes office on Oct. 1, has had a more reasonable response. Although she has consistently supported the scheme, Ms. Sheinbaum instructed Mexico’s new Congress to deliberate more on the plan, rather than fast-tracking it as the president and his allies are urging. Ricardo Monreal, the majority leader in the lower house of Congress, suggested it could be approved as soon as Sept. 8.

Mexico’s leaders should do the right thing and abandon the plan altogether, given the harm it could do to the nation. If adopted, it would politicize the judiciary beyond recognition and render it toothless for checking the abuse of power. It would institutionalize the power that interest groups could exercise over the entire judiciary.

Electing judges could incentivize them to issue decisions to win votes and satisfy political constituencies instead of impartially deciding cases based solely on the facts and the law. A politically captured judiciary incapable of impartially protecting property rights would be a disaster for business confidence and private domestic and foreign investment. More ominously, it could open the door to organized crime’s control of the judiciary and undermine the very foundation of the rule of law in Mexico.

Mr. López Obrador’s constitutional reform proposal calls for nearly all judges, including those who will sit on the Supreme Court, to be elected. Under the current system, candidates for federal judgeships in Mexico must pass a public exam, undergo training and be evaluated by the Federal Judicial Council, an oversight body, which then appoints them. Most nonfederal judges are nominated by state governors and approved by state legislatures; in a few states, candidates are evaluated and appointed as judges by state judicial councils. Supreme Court judges are nominated by the president and approved by the Senate.

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New Mexico State University | NMSU

• Cost & scholarships
• Essay prompt

Want to see your chances of admission at New Mexico State University | NMSU?

We take every aspect of your personal profile into consideration when calculating your admissions chances.

New Mexico State University | NMSU’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Common app personal essay.

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don‘t feel obligated to do so.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you‘ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

What will first-time readers think of your college essay?

New Mexico State University

First time freshmen.

You are eligible for regular admission to NMSU if you are a graduate of an accredited high school, and meet one of the following Freshman Admission Requirements listed below.

Freshman admission requirements

• A cumulative high school GPA of 2.75, or
• ACT composite score of 21 or SAT score of 1060, or
• Ranked in the top 20 percent of their graduating class

Official ACT or SAT scores are not required for admission. However, it is beneficial for you to have them on file to maximize your scholarship opportunities and for Math and English placement when you enroll.

We encourage all students to apply for admission to NMSU. Applicants who meet all the requirements listed above will be offered admission to NMSU. An applicant who does not meet all the requirements may also be offered admission if a review of their additional information indicates that the student will be successful at NMSU.

ACT and SAT testing

• NMSU’s ACT code is 2638 – see the  ACT website  for information and upcoming test dates.
• NMSU’s SAT code is 4531 – see the  SAT website  for information and upcoming test dates.

Aggie Pathway

In the Aggie Pathway to the Baccalaureate Program, our system of five campuses works together to navigate you toward a bachelor’s degree – even if you initially don’t meet admission’s requirements to the university. Aggie Pathway students may transition to the Las Cruces campus after successful completion of:

• 24 credits, in addition to any required developmental courses
• 2.0 cumulative college GPA

Students participating in the Aggie Pathway program can attend academic, cultural and athletic events on the NMSU Las Cruces campus. Students enrolling through NMSU Doña Ana have access to on-campus housing and dining. For more information, see the  Aggie Pathway to the Baccalaureate Program website .

Home school students

Students enrolled in a home school program may be accepted to NMSU if they meet the requirements for regular admission. In addition, the home school educator must submit a transcript or document that lists the courses completed and grades earned by the student.  This transcript or document must also indicate the date the student completed or graduated from the home school program.

Home school students who are New Mexico residents must submit proof to the Undergraduate Admissions Office of registration with the New Mexico Public Education Department to qualify for the   Lottery Success Scholarship and other institutional scholarships .

Other Admissions Processes

Military and Veteran Students   applying as undergraduates should start here, but additional assistance is available through NMSU's   Military and Veterans Programs .

Graduate Students   should start with the   Graduate School .

International Students   should should start with   International Student and Scholar Services .

Application Resources

Undergraduate Admissions

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