New Mexico
State University-Alamogordo
Public Community College in Alamogordo, NM. Six-year graduation rate 14%. Median 10-year earnings $39,067.
Students who entered New Mexico State University-Alamogordo reach a median of $39,067 a decade later, a figure that trails the typical four-year outcome. Only 14% finish within six years, so roughly nine in ten students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Median debt at graduation is $17,095, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 14% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 14% graduate within six years. 46% first-year retention is low enough to be the defining risk of enrolling here. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. The 32% transfer-out rate is high enough that a large share of this school's students are really passing through. At 13:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 569 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $8,868 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Net price varies modestly by income — $6,714 at $0–30k against $10,249 at $75–110k — so the average is a fair guide for most families. Grant aid reaches 78% of students at an average of $5,510. 8% borrow federally — a low rate, though it covers federal loans only.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 109 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $6,714 |
| $30–48k | $8,081 |
| $48–75k | $9,132 |
| $75–110k | $10,249 |
| $110k+ | — |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 44 of these 569 students, totalling $274,587 — an average of $6,241 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Otero County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)