Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic students enrolled in higher education of any state in the country, and both the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State have held Hispanic-Serving Institution designation for decades, building programs that reflect the demographics they actually serve.
The state is also home to tribal colleges that integrate traditional cultural knowledge with accredited academic credentials, serving Native American communities across a landscape that includes dozens of sovereign nations.
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See how New Mexico's colleges compare to the national average on the four measures most students and families weigh when deciding where to go: cost, acceptance rates, graduate earnings, and graduation rates.
The colleges in New Mexico that rank highest by UCD Score, and those that deliver above-national graduate earnings at a below-average net price, two of the strongest signals when choosing a school.
Not every student is looking for the same thing. These six panels rank New Mexico's colleges by the data that matters most for each path.
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by net price
Ranked by enrollment
Ranked by grad earnings
Which colleges give you the most for what you spend? These eight schools rank highest in New Mexico by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico State University-Grants Grants | $68 | $39,067 | 574.5× | Excellent |
| 2 | Eastern New Mexico University Ruidoso Branch Community College Ruidoso | $2,042 | $38,550 | 18.9× | Excellent |
| 3 | New Mexico Military Institute Roswell | $4,571 | $57,410 | 12.6× | Excellent |
| 4 | Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell Campus Roswell | $3,645 | $38,550 | 10.6× | Excellent |
| 5 | Clovis Community College Clovis | $3,230 | $34,020 | 10.5× | Excellent |
| 6 | University of New Mexico-Gallup Campus Gallup | $4,868 | $44,792 | 9.2× | Excellent |
| 7 | Central New Mexico Community College Albuquerque | $4,621 | $36,869 | 8.0× | Excellent |
| 8 | Eastern New Mexico University-Main Campus Portales | $4,904 | $38,550 | 7.9× | Excellent |
ROI Ratio = median earnings 10 years after enrollment ÷ annual net price. Higher is better.
The six fields of study with the most annual graduates across all colleges in New Mexico, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across New Mexico's colleges. A more granular view than the Popular Majors above, useful when you already know roughly what you want to study and want to see where the volume is.
Careers with a strong employment footprint in New Mexico. What graduates from local colleges actually go on to do. State-level employment is shown where the BLS publishes it; national wage + growth shown alongside.
The cities in New Mexico with the most colleges, ranked by number of institutions.
Rank every state by the average 10-year earnings of its college graduates and the top of the list is the costly Northeast corridor plus DC, not the South.
Utah crowds 14,137 students into each of its colleges, four times the national norm. These are the states where college options are scarcest per student.
There are 170 colleges that operate a medical school, and they cluster hard. Texas leads with 14, three states hold a fifth of them, and four states have none.
Browse our full directory: every college, major, program, and career we track, all built from verified government data.
Scout uses AI and can make mistakes. Verify important numbers on the page.
