Too good to be true?

WayOutWestMom
Tue, 29 Oct 2013 12:49:32 +0000

Hi!

Long-time NM resident and pretty familiar with Tech. While neither of my children attended Tech, my older D had a number of friends who did so I can probably answer most of your questions.

Tech is a hidden gem. It’s biggest problem is that’s it’s in NM and many parts of the country still aren’t sure we’re actually part of the USA.

Tech is a small college in a small town that is about 75 minutes south of ABQ (nearest major population center and nearest major ariport). I’ve been to Soccoro many, many times and can tell you what you want to know about the town.

NM and Tech are pretty laid back places. The biggest “vices” at Tech seems to be computer gaming and golf. Tech shares facilities with National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the VLA is about 45 minutes west of town. There’s also world class rock climbing within a half hour of town. (D1 is competitive climber and she runs down to Soccoro every chance she gets to climb.) Other nearby attractions include Bosque del Apache (where sandhill and whooping cranes winter) and White Sands. Soccoro is an artsy kind of place–and Tech offers many arts classes at it Student center.

Don’t be alarmed by Tech’s low graduation rate–it happens for 2 main reasons:

1) NM Lottery Scholarship give free tuition to any NM high school graduate who earns 2.5 GPA. So Tech (and the rest of NM colleges) get alot of underqualified students who lack the math/academic skills needed to survive an engineering program. The underprepared do not last long

2) Socorro is a small town and kids from the ABQ-Santa Fe- Los Alamos corridor eventually transfer to UNM to be closer to both home and the amenities of a larger city.

Kids who stay at Tech and graduate do quite well in terms of jobs and grad school.