By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated October 25, 2026
Three New Mexico universities offer ABET-accredited engineering degrees, and this page lists what they cost and the SAT scores of the students they admit.
All three are public, and all three are tuition-free for a New Mexico resident under the state’s Opportunity Scholarship, which leaves the test score one job, covered below the table.
Scores are given by section and the table is sorted by Math, because that is the section engineering programs use.
Table of Contents
- New Mexico Engineering Colleges by SAT Math Score
- What Does an Engineering Degree Cost a New Mexico Resident?
- Which New Mexico Universities Have ABET-Accredited Engineering Schools?
- What If Your Score Is Below the Range You Want?
New Mexico Engineering Colleges by SAT Math Score
The three universities below are the ones in New Mexico that hold an ABET-accredited bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline. They are sorted by the midpoint of the SAT Math range, so the order can be checked from the table itself.
| College | SAT Reading & Writing | SAT Math | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | 550 to 660 | 530 to 650 | $24,967 | 995 | 44% |
| University of New Mexico | 460 to 600 | 430 to 570 | $21,259 | 17,244 | 95% |
| New Mexico State University | 450 to 570 | 420 to 540 | $23,274 | 11,946 | 89% |
Each range covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted the SAT. A quarter scored below the lower number, and the top quarter scored at or above the upper one. Being under the lower number does not rule a student out, and being just above it is not as safe as it looks.
Only universities with an ABET-accredited engineering bachelor’s degree are listed. The cost column is the sticker cost of attendance for a resident before the Opportunity Scholarship, which is described below the table. Eastern New Mexico, New Mexico Highlands and Western New Mexico award no engineering degree.
Three things about that table are worth pausing on.
All three universities are public, and the state pays tuition and fees at every public university for every New Mexico resident without a bachelor’s degree. The resident tuition figures in the entries below, $9,476, $10,140 and $8,183, are what the state pays, not what the student does, and the next section is about the scholarship that pays them and what the state’s own analysts say about it.
UNM charges a student from outside New Mexico $33,060, 3.26 times its in-state figure of $10,140, one of the widest gaps between the two prices at any flagship in this series. A New Mexico student pays nothing. A New York student pays one of the higher flagship out-of-state figures on any page so far.
New Mexico Tech admits 44% of applicants to a university of 995 students and reports the highest Math range on the page, 530 to 650. UNM admits 95% to a university seventeen times larger and reports a Math ceiling 80 points lower.
A student can see where his Math score sits on this list in the image above.
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New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
New Mexico Tech in Socorro holds ABET accreditation in disciplines including chemical, civil, electrical, environmental, materials, mechanical, mineral and petroleum engineering, and New Mexico Tech is the most selective school on the page by a wide margin.
Reading & Writing 550 to 660, Math 530 to 650. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 650 on Math. Cost of attendance $24,967, with tuition and fees at $9,476 in state, covered for a resident by the Opportunity Scholarship, and $27,247 out of state. 995 undergraduates, 44% admitted.
New Mexico Tech is the smallest school on the page, the most expensive by sticker cost of attendance, and the holder of the state’s only petroleum, mineral and materials engineering degrees. Its Math floor of 530 is 100 points above UNM’s floor and 110 above NMSU’s.
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico’s School of Engineering in Albuquerque holds ABET accreditation in disciplines including chemical, civil, computer, construction, electrical, mechanical and nuclear engineering, and UNM admits a first-year student directly to its engineering premajor program when his ACT or SAT Math score makes him eligible for trigonometry and precalculus.
Reading & Writing 460 to 600, Math 430 to 570. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 570 on Math. Cost of attendance $21,259, with tuition and fees at $10,140 in state, covered for a resident by the Opportunity Scholarship, and $33,060 out of state. 17,244 undergraduates, 95% admitted.
UNM is the largest school on the page, the least selective, and the cheapest by sticker cost of attendance, and it charges a student from outside New Mexico more than three times what it charges a resident. It holds the state’s only nuclear engineering degree.
New Mexico State University
New Mexico State University’s College of Engineering in Las Cruces holds ABET accreditation in disciplines including aerospace, chemical, civil, electrical, industrial and mechanical engineering, and NMSU has the lowest resident tuition on the page.
Reading & Writing 450 to 570, Math 420 to 540. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 540 on Math. Cost of attendance $23,274, with tuition and fees at $8,183 in state, covered for a resident by the Opportunity Scholarship, and $25,307 out of state. 11,946 undergraduates, 89% admitted.
NMSU is the cheapest school on the page for a student from outside New Mexico by $1,940, and the holder of the state’s only aerospace engineering degree. Its Math range is the lowest on the page, 10 points under UNM’s at both ends.
Three ranges say who got in. The price for a resident is the same at all three, and the next section is about what it is.
What Does an Engineering Degree Cost a New Mexico Resident?
Tuition and fees at all three of New Mexico’s accredited engineering universities are paid for a New Mexico resident by the state’s Opportunity Scholarship, which has no income or test-score requirement and asks only that the student hold no prior bachelor’s degree, enroll in at least six credit hours a semester and keep a 2.5 GPA.
The Higher Education Department’s page gives the terms. The scholarship pays “100% of tuition and course-specific fees up to $50 per credit hour” at New Mexico’s public colleges and universities for a New Mexico resident who has not earned a first bachelor’s degree, enrolls in six to eighteen credit hours a semester, and maintains a 2.5 GPA. The Legislative Finance Committee’s March 2026 brief adds what the department’s page does not. The award is paid without regard to financial need and on top of a federal Pell grant. The Lottery Scholarship, the state’s older program, does not begin until a student’s second semester, and the Opportunity Scholarship pays the first. And the award “is not guaranteed to cover 100 percent of tuition and fees.” In fiscal year 2025 the scholarship cost $157.8 million against $146 million appropriated, an $11.8 million gap, and the state has seeded a $959 million trust fund expected to distribute approximately $50 million a year across the two scholarships together.
| University | Resident tuition and fees, sticker | For a resident under the Opportunity Scholarship | Non-resident tuition and fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Mexico Tech | $9,476 | covered | $27,247 |
| University of New Mexico | $10,140 | covered | $33,060 |
| New Mexico State University | $8,183 | covered | $25,307 |
New Mexico is the only state in this series where every accredited engineering school is tuition-free for a resident. Alaska’s Performance Scholarship pays on a GPA or a test score, on our page on engineering colleges in Alaska. Louisiana’s TOPS pays on an ACT ladder, Florida’s Bright Futures on an SAT or ACT line, Nevada’s Millennium on a GPA. New Mexico’s has no line at the door and a 2.5 after it, and the money it does not cover is the rest of the bill: UNM’s sticker cost of attendance is $21,259 and its tuition is $10,140, so a resident still has approximately $11,100 a year in housing, food, books and the university’s other estimates.
The image above shows what the state pays for a resident, what a non-resident pays, and what the state’s analysts say about the money.
That leaves the test score one job in New Mexico, and UNM says what it is. Its Engineering Student Services page tells a first-year applicant that a student who is eligible for Math 123, Trigonometry, and Math 150, Pre-calculus, “based on ACT or SAT math scores” is “typically eligible for direct admission to the Engineering Student Services premajor program,” that math placement “is mandatory” and is based on ACT or SAT scores, and that a student not yet eligible for those two courses should come in for advisement anyway. UNM admits 95% of applicants, so the score does no admission work. The scholarship has no score line, so it does no money work. What it does is decide whether a New Mexico student spends his first semester as an engineering premajor or spends it becoming eligible to be one, and the state pays for that semester either way.
Take a New Mexico student with a 560 on Math and a 3.0 GPA. At UNM he is in the upper half of the admitted Math range, 430 to 570, and if his 560 places him into trigonometry and precalculus he enters the engineering premajor program in his first semester with his tuition paid. At NMSU he is 20 points above the ceiling of 540 and his tuition is paid. At New Mexico Tech he is in the lower half of the range, 530 to 650, admitted at 44% if he is admitted, and his tuition is paid. Among the three the number that changes is the range he sits in and the placement he gets, and the number that does not change is the bill.
For a student from New York the page reads the other way. The resident price is zero at all three and his is $27,247, $33,060 and $25,307, and at UNM the ratio between what he pays and what a resident’s sticker says is 3.26, behind only Montana State, Maryland and Michigan among the flagships in this series. The Opportunity Scholarship does not travel, and neither does the Lottery Scholarship.
New Mexico Tech is the one school on the page where the range does admission work. It admits 44% of applicants, the lowest rate on the page by half, to a university of 995 students in Socorro that holds the state’s petroleum, mineral and materials engineering degrees and reports an ACT range of 20 to 29. Its Math range sits 80 points above UNM’s at the ceiling. A New Mexico student who wants Tech is competing for a seat the state will pay for, and that is the one place in the state where the score and the scholarship meet.
The honest version is in the LFC’s two sentences. The scholarship is designed to pay all of tuition and fees, the department’s page says 100% up to $50 a credit hour in course fees, and the LFC says the award is not guaranteed to cover 100 percent and that FY25’s cost ran past the appropriation by $11.8 million. A resident should plan on the tuition being paid and should know who says otherwise and why. UNM’s placement lines, the specific ACT and SAT Math scores that make a student eligible for Math 123 and Math 150, are set by its mathematics department and are not on the engineering page quoted here [VERIFY on math.unm.edu and insert, or leave as “set by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics”]. And the sticker cost of attendance is still a bill of approximately $11,000 to $15,500 a year for housing, food and books that no scholarship on this page pays.
Families reading the scholarship’s page frequently ask what it takes to get it.
Does the Opportunity Scholarship Require a Test Score or a GPA to Start?
The Opportunity Scholarship requires no test score and no starting GPA. It requires New Mexico residency, no prior bachelor’s degree, enrollment in six to eighteen credit hours a semester at a public college or university, and a 2.5 GPA to keep it.
The Legislative Finance Committee’s caution is the one qualifier: the award is not guaranteed to cover 100 percent of tuition and fees, and the state has built a trust fund to steady it. The test score’s job in New Mexico is placement, and at UNM it decides whether the first semester is spent in the engineering premajor or on the way to it.
The state’s scholarship is the state’s. The degrees are what the next section lists.
Which New Mexico Universities Have ABET-Accredited Engineering Schools?
Three New Mexico universities hold ABET-accredited engineering bachelor’s degrees, all three public, and all three are in the table above.
In Socorro, New Mexico Tech holds eight disciplines, including the petroleum, mineral and materials engineering degrees it was founded as the School of Mines to teach. In Albuquerque, UNM’s School of Engineering holds seven, with Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base in the city and Intel’s plant in Rio Rancho across the river. In Las Cruces, NMSU’s College of Engineering holds six, with White Sands Missile Range and Spaceport America the nearest large engineering employers. Los Alamos National Laboratory, ninety minutes north of Albuquerque, is the largest engineering employer in the state and hires from all three.
Accreditation matters for a reason that is easy to miss at seventeen. Licensure as a professional engineer normally requires a degree from an ABET-accredited engineering program. Eastern New Mexico University, New Mexico Highlands University, Western New Mexico University and St. John’s College award no engineering degree.
Nothing on this page ranks the three. The table’s order is a stated, verifiable number, and the choice among accredited programs comes down to discipline, city and where a student’s score places him, because for a resident the price is the same.
What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
In New Mexico the score decides a resident’s first semester of mathematics and nothing about his bill, so the gap worth closing is the one between his Math score and the line that makes him eligible for trigonometry and precalculus at UNM, and then the one between that and calculus.
The same algebra, functions and trigonometry close both, and a student who closes them before August enters the engineering premajor in his first semester rather than his second. A New York student has three ranges and out-of-state tuition of $27,247, $33,060 and $25,307, and no part of either state scholarship.
The first step is finding out where the score actually is, section by section. A free diagnostic SAT gives a Math score that can be set against the table.
The Math section rewards the same handful of topics on every test date, and a student who knows which of them he is missing can close a gap of 50 to 100 points in weeks rather than months. The method is on our page on improving your SAT Math score, and the topics are the ones UNM’s placement reads.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Every range on this page covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted the SAT. The lower number is the 25th percentile and the upper number is the 75th, so a quarter of admitted students scored at or above it.
When the state pays tuition for every resident, the cost column in the table is the sticker and not the bill, and the range column is the only one still doing work for a resident. For a student from outside the state, the cost column is the bill.
Because most colleges are now test-optional, the ranges that are published describe only the students who chose to submit at all. Students with strong scores submit and students with weak ones don’t, so a published range sits higher than the range for everyone who was actually admitted. More on what SAT score you need for college and on test-optional colleges.
Should You Take the ACT Instead?
New Mexico administers the SAT to every public-school junior, and five New Mexico institutions report an SAT range against five for the ACT.
All three universities on this page accept either test and place by either, and a student should take whichever he scores higher on.
Engineering Programs in Nearby States
New Mexico borders Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Utah, and the Opportunity Scholarship does not cross any of those lines, so a New Mexico student who applies out of state gives up a paid tuition bill.
See engineering colleges in Arizona, engineering colleges in Colorado, and engineering colleges in Texas.
Engineering Colleges in Other States
We publish the same breakdown for engineering programs in every state.
See engineering colleges by state for the full list.
Glyn Caddell
Glyn Caddell holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from NJIT and has been tutoring New York City students since 2008. He founded Caddell Prep in 2012 and is the author of Digital SAT Math Secrets: Lessons & Tricks to Quickly Improve to a Perfect 800 on the Math Test, which contains over 900 practice problems and is used in Caddell Prep’s SAT math classes. He is founding president of the Staten Island Technical High School alumni association and teaches every lesson on this site personally.
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