College enrollment in New Mexico is still on the rise

It’s not easy to be a first-generation college student like University of New Mexico senior Matthew Saavedra.

As supportive as his parents are, they had no frame of reference to draw from, so Saavedra felt he went in flying blind. Supporting himself wasn’t easy, and academically, Saavedra said he made mistakes he initially thought he’d have to just live with — like picking a major that made him feel unhappy and lost.

But he was determined to make college work. To cover rent and school supplies, he works in the university’s Communications and Marketing department, and he began studying architecture, which drew him in with its colorful blend of creativity and technicality.

“I knew I definitely wanted to come to college. No matter if I had to take out loans, … I knew this was something that I wanted,” he said.

The number of students like Saavedra is on the rise. According to a fall semester head count of students released last month by the state Higher Education Department, there were about 110,100 college students across all New Mexico colleges and universities — up from 107,600 around the same time last year.

First-time, full-time students, however, declined slightly from 2022 to 2023, by about 1%.

Still, this year’s overall head count numbers continue an upward tick in college enrollment in New Mexico, after the state last year saw its first rebound in a decade of plummeting head counts.

Fall enrollment grew in the state’s first- and third-largest schools — UNM and New Mexico State University, respectively — while declining slightly in its second largest, Central New Mexico Community College.

Overall, college enrollment in New Mexico has grown by over 6% since 2021, the fall semester before New Mexico vastly expanded the Opportunity Scholarship with an initial $75 million appropriation.

For Saavedra, the Opportunity Scholarship kicked in during his third year and lifted his burdens immensely.

“It paid for a lot of the fees — and the upper-level classes get pretty high fees — so with that, covering that, it allowed me to really focus … on school,” he said.

It’s unclear exactly how many students are currently receiving the Opportunity Scholarship, a state Higher Education Department spokesperson said, because “we collect that data at the end of the semester.”

Even so, officials have touted it as the catalyst that turned around declining college enrollment in New Mexico.

“As the tuition-free-college capital of the United States, New Mexico is setting the bar for what it looks like when states support working families, build up the workforce and grow the economy,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in an October news release. “Investing in our young professionals is investing in our future.”