About 150 prospective students and their families are expected to attend next week’s Dia Descubre recruiting event on the New Mexico State University campus. The event is part of an effort to increase enrollment of international students from Mexico.
Dia Descubre will take place Monday, Nov. 20, and is modeled after the Aggie Experience open house events. The goal of the Descubre recruiting event is to provide an overview of NMSU with college-specific information, details on NMSU’s intensive English program, and information regarding NMSU’s admissions process. Attendees will also get a chance to tour colleges and campus facilities.
Cornell Menking, NMSU associate provost for International and Border Programs, said the Descubre tuition rate, which debuted last year, has proven to be a successful tool in recruiting students from Mexico. Mexican nationals who attend NMSU are eligible for the Descubre tuition rate, which is 1.5 times the in-state tuition rate.
“We’ve had a great response and we’ve exceeded our goal of 75 applicants for fall 2018,” said Menking, who also noted so far at least 90 students from Mexico have applied for admission into NMSU as a result of his office’s Mexican recruiting efforts. “This is a significant increase over last year.”
Menking said that in 2016-2017, 24 students from Mexico were admitted into NMSU as a result of the Descubre recruiting efforts.
The first campus-based Dia Descubre event was held last spring. About 40 prospective students and their families attended the event. Another Dia Descubre event took place during the summer in Juárez. That event saw about 100 attendees.
Menking said Mexico is an important recruiting target, with Mexico being the second largest source for international students. Along with the Descubre recruiting events, NMSU has collaborated with universities and agencies in Mexico involving English-language learning, technology education and dual-degree programs in engineering, agriculture and food science.
Currently, 133 students from Mexico attend NMSU. Another Dia Descubre event in Juárez is being planned for the spring, Menking said.
NMSU is a land-grant institution established in 1888 and has been ranked as a top tier university by U.S. News & World Report. NMSU has also been ranked by the Carnegie Foundation as a RU/H institution, or a research university with high research activity, and is designated as a NASA Space Grant College.
For more information about the Descubre recruiting events and tuition rate, call 575-646-2834 or visit http://descubre.nmsu.edu/.
Information from NMSU