Perhaps they gave you need or excessive merit. I thought it was limited to 10-12k. In state is $40k.
Lots of great schools on WUE including Col State, Montana State, Reno, Oregon State, Utah, Wash State and Wyoming.
With a 4.0 Arizona is mid-high 20s. If he’s willing to go farther, once you have an official test - schools like Alabama, UAH, Ms State and more will buy him in. They will be mid 20s and less.
There’s others as well. How open geographically are you ?
Good luck.
I’m going to tag @WayOutWestMom who is very knowledgable about the New Mexico colleges and what they have to offer.
Check the NPCs. It depends on your demonstrated need. Otherwise they are $80k plus. Nothing wrong with reaches. Both mine did and both got rejected - it’s great. They went high enough.
Purdue is usually the top tier school for those who want pedigree at a great price. UF too.
A 3+2 is another year of tuition and year of lost earnings.
Many LACs have 3+2 with good engineerimg schools - many that give a lot of merit. CC is pricey unless you have need or are in state.
But a 3-2 is a different ballgame.
I’m unclear on what you are able and willing to pay annually for college. Is it $20,000 a year?
I believe the Alabama universities could potentially get you to that price point with auto merit. Same with one of the Arizona schools.
My son is a freshman at the university about 15 minutes drive from our house. He is staying in the dorms and having a great college experience. I would definitely recommend this plan if your child ends up going to the local state flagship and if the dorms are affordable.
Looking at your other replies, I see your hometown university is UNM? What sort of engineering is your kid interested in? If your kid is interested in race cars, UNM was one of the universities that stood out to my kid because of its great support of its Formula SAE team … he applied to UNM from CA 
I would definitely not consider a 3+2 program. Especially if you are considering the finances of an additional year. You can read about such programs on CC. Most kids do not end up completing them.
They are all great schools. But they are all expensive (especially when compared to free). I am not an engineer, but when we were researching we basically heard solid program + ABET is all that matters.
Also, are you absolutely sure your kid is going into engineering? If you had asked me this time Junior year, I would have said yes. My kid realized at the end of junior year that they didn’t want to be an engineer. For his initial list, I made him indicate 2 engineering majors he could switch to (so that he didn’t get overly specific about the type of engineering he thought he wanted to do) and 2 non-engineering majors he could switch to at each school as I knew there was a large percentage of kids that transfer out of engineering. Luckily, your nearby flagship would cover those qualifications.
That’s right!
Keeping student loans out of it, we can stretch to around $25k/yr between savings and current salaries. Beyond that, it’s loans, which based on very limited googling means maybe another $125k more (that’s quite scary to see in print - I don’t know if we can really go that high but that’s according to the “rule of thumb” I’ve seen for parent loans). If kiddo wanted to take out loans for themselves, that’s another story, but I am not going to assume that because that’s a decision for them and we haven’t talked about it much yet because they’re stressing about classes and testing and such (I know we will have to talk about it soon).
Mechanical Engineering
You would need to co-sign those loans.
If your kiddo had a full tuition scholarship, I think the remaining costs could be covered with $20,000 a year at a number of places, including maybe UMN.
You might see if your kid is inspired at all by Lobo Motosports https://www.fsae.unm.edu
Even if they end up going to another school out of state, it might be fun to go meet the team and see their facilities (since you live right there). Lots of schools have these teams and it’s a great thing for MechE.
Go the University Near Mom.
UNM has the strongest engineering dept and offers the broadest variety of engineering majors. UNM has a surprising strong faculty in quantum information/quantum computing if that’s among your child’s interests.
D1 was a physics major at UNM and had an excellent experience there (She wavered in her commitment to physics and was an engineering major for a couple of semesters…)
She lived on campus and basically had the traditional college experience and only came home to do laundry once a week. And once when she was really sick and want the “mom’s chicken soup and tissues” experience.
Tech would be my second choice. D1 and D2 have HS classmates who went to Tech and all have had excellent outcomes. Tech is like the polar opposite of UNM, though. Small college, small campus, small town, more limited options for majors and activities. But if your child is into outdoors activities (or golf or astronomy), then Tech is great option.
D2 went OOS for college. (She a grad of ABQ Academy and she got a near full tuition scholarship to a OOS private which where she went. The only way I could afford to send her there.) She came back to UNM for professional school because of its low cost. So did most her friends who went OOS for college. They all came back for med/PA/PT school.due to the low cost)
Even at the Academy a sizable portion of D2’s classmates went to UNM. Free is good and it leaves money for grad or professional school or to use to get a running start on adulthood things–like buying that first house.
ETA: if grad school is on your child’s radar, Tech has one of the highest proportion of grads going onto the grad school in the country. It’s well known and well respected in engineering and the sciences.
UNM also does pretty good in the grad school placement dept too. I know UNM doesn’t get a lot of love from instate students, but it has its strengths.
Several things come to mind.
One thing to consider is that you are in a WICHE / WUE state. I am not familiar with the engineering programs for WUE (WUE is the undergraduate part of WICHE). However it is possible that your son might be able to get a WUE discount to attend an out of state university.
I agree with @thumper1 that it might make sense to consider the local university, but paying for a dorm room for at least the first year. This gives your son the “go away for university” experience, but at an in-state price. Also, if something goes wrong, help can be nearby. University students do sometimes get sick or have a bad breakup with a significant other, and having loved ones nearby can sometimes very suddenly become a plus. Also, if the student lives in the dorm, it is like a whole new world compared to living at home, even if the student is only 5 miles from home.
We have two immediate family members who got their bachelor’s degree at a university that is just barely not ranked in the top 100 in the US (think 100 to 130 sort of ranking). One many years ago then went on to get two master’s degrees at an Ivy League university. The other is currently getting a DVM at a “top 5 in the US” program. It is possible to do well with a degree from a “top 100” or even “not quite top 100” program, regardless of whether this involves getting a good job after graduation, or going to graduate school, or both (such as working for a year or two or three and then going to graduate school).
Graduating with a bachelor’s degree and no debt can be a big advantage. For example, sometimes first jobs do not pay very well. Sometimes a very interesting and “relevant to long term plans” first job might come available that does not pay well. Having no debt can make it much easier for a recent graduate to be self supporting, and some first jobs might not be practical for a recent graduate who also needs to pay off debt. Having to live with parents to save money while working a first job can restrict what jobs are available, and might not be the typical recent graduate’s dream lifestyle.
And merit aid is possible at many schools. You might not know whether this will happen or not until some time in the last semester of a student’s senior year of high school. I am pretty sure that the various Universities of California are not going to give merit aid for out of state students, but some other schools might. We however did not see any cases where merit aid brought the total cost of attendance down to $25,000 per year, with the exception of in-state schools (and for us schools in Canada, because our daughters have dual citizenship). We did not apply to some schools that are known for very good merit aid.
I would try if it is at all possible to keep the total debt below the expected first year salary. Also, if it is reasonably possible, avoiding a disaster if university takes 5 years might not be a bad plan. One advantage of in-state schools is that if it does go 5 years, the student will still be in-state during the 5th year.
I might also add that when I got my master’s degree at a highly ranked (“top 5” or better) program, many, many of the other students in the same program had earned their bachelor’s degree from their in-state public university. It might be a coincidence but the only case that I was aware of where there were two or more students in the program from the same university, it was NOT a “top 50” program.
At this point, kiddo says “yes, I want to be an engineer.” This thought started last fall. To their credit, it has persisted in their coursework and prep for the college search.
It’s a good point about being at a place where switching to another major is an option. Definitely going to remind kiddo of this.
I’d eliminate the 3/2 options. There are LOTS of threads on those, and the consensus is to avoid them.
I would also consider Cal Poly a reach. They are projecting 18% admission for ME next year. It always hovers between 13% and 20%.
ME graduates from NM land good jobs, but they tend to be very focussed on one industry. With the exception of the two regional national labs, Los Alamos and Sandia, aerospace companies round out most of the top ten on linkedin.
The school I don’t see mentioned that I would HIGHLY recommend looking into is Utah. They changed their ME curriculum to introduce project based learning earlier. The campus is pretty and they have good engineering facilities. The outdoor activities are unparalleled. It’s WUE. It is certainly worth a look. Our son (4.0 780/730) almost chose it, landing on Cal Poly in the final two days before the deadline.
As was previously mentioned, debt is something to be avoided if possible. Median earnings for NM ME grads are $87K according to college scorecard. For comparison, Purdue is $85K and UIUC is $87K. MIT is $98K, but Cal Poly is $97K. I think those are both reflections of their coastal locations and more expensive job markets as opposed to an affirmation that they are “better.”
I saw Utah on a list and hadn’t thought of it since…but now we are definitely going to give it a closer look.
This thread has been a real eye-opener for how much an OOS degree might really be worth. I am starting to think that some biases on my part was getting in the way of seeing things clearly. Very important info!
Than you are limited OOS , if you look at major schools, like Bama, UAH for smaller, Ms State, Arizona (not ASU). There are less known that might work but I think CSU s over budget a tad, even with WUE.
The question is - what is your need? Forgetting the likelihood of getting into a Rice or Stanford is slim - they do meet need. What do the NPCs say ?
There’s no reason to take on debt - especially to the level Mines would require even with your cost. And don’t forget inflation. At most schools cost rise YOY.
Run schools that meet need - Rice (which has the Rice investment I linked below) and others like Union College that meet need that are more realistic.
I’m a fan of no debt - and you don’t need it. Others say the $27k max federal loans are ok. They still need to be paid back so I’d avoid.
But step one is determine your need level.
Step 2 - find schools to stay in budget. The group here can likely unearth some gems but a San Luis Obispo or UCSD ( or mines) are not close to possible.
I put some WUE schools earlier including Utah. They are worth a look. I know not all get though.
Strangulation by debt is a no no.
It’s my kiddo who is not super open geographically. They are hoping to come home for long weekends sometimes (I know that this feeling could change, but that’s where they are right now) which means schools need to be within easy (by western standards, anyway) driving distance or with short flights to NM. Some of the schools I’ve listed seem to stretch those parameters…I feel like Purdue or UIUC are “We will see you at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, and Summer” schools.
Your student might like to come home from time to time…and they want a university with a lot of options just in case they change their mind about engineering. Sounds like UNM and living on campus would be a great option!
Yes, those two labs mentioned upstream are front and center in NM, but there certainly are other opportunities coming out of NM.
@WayOutWestMom can elaborate.
My two cents is I would not fight against a preference like that. I think homesickness can be a very serious impediment to thriving in college, and some kids need to feel like going home is a constant option even if they end up using it less than expected.