Frequently Asked Questions » Las Cruces and Surrounding Areas
Q: What is the cost of living in Las Cruces? The assistantship offered by
NMSU does not pay as much as some other schools, but if the cost of living is
low, it would even out. Are the graduate stipends enough to live on?
A: The cost of living in Las Cruces is quite low. Most students get
apartments in the $300-$400 range and this is quite affordable with our
stipends. If you have pets and need a yard, you can generally find an older
house for $450-$550 a month. Some of our students have opted to share places,
and in that case you can definitely afford some of the higher end apartments
and houses. As far as other expenses go (groceries, utilities, gasoline,
etc.), Las Cruces seems pretty typical.
Tuition and fees run to about $1,900 per semester and the graduate students usually do payroll deduction, so that's about $315/month. NMSU graduate students have been working with the state legislature to pass a tuition-waiver bill for all graduate students across the state, and some year soon it may actually happen. In addition, the Graduate School provides one- and three-year tuition scholarships for some applicants.
Q: What is Las Cruces like? What is there to do? What is the surrounding
area like?
A: Although it hosts a large university, Las Cruces is not your typical
college town. Because it's a "border town" in a rather rural part of the
state, we have a large Hispanic population and agriculture is an important
industry. For the most part, people here are very casual. There are plenty
of fun things to do here, they are just not all within walking distance from
campus. Las Cruces requires exploring and taking recommendations from people.
Aside from the newer chains coming in, many of the buildings look a little run
down and you would not necessarily think to stop for dinner or a drink. If
you don't, you'll miss some of the best parts about Cruces.
The grad students have found a number of ways to occupy their time: going for
beer at the local brewery, running, hiking, and rock climbing in the nearby
mountains, listening to music (one of our students is a bassist in two local
bands), going to indie movies in Mesilla, attending the semi-annual wine
tasting festivals, joining university intramural athletic teams, and more.
The university itself offers a variety of free and low-cost classes to
students including pilates, step-aerobics, capoeira, and dance. The local
museum of art (it is rather small) offers classes as well, in things like
pottery, photography, and weaving. But to be totally honest, grad students do
not do any of this with much frequency because they are trying to keep up with
classes and research!
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Some sites of interest near the Las Cruces area:
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Cloudcroft
COAS: My Bookstore
Elephant Butte Lake State Park
Gila National Forest
Hueco Tanks State Historical Park
Las Cruces Community Theater
Ruidoso & Ski Apache
Space Center in Alamogordo, NM
Taos
White Sands National Monument & Missile Range
Q: Any big cities nearby? What else is there near Las Cruces?
A: Our nearest big city is El Paso, Texas. Many people around here do
not like the city much but some people love it. It is right on the border
with Juarez, Mexico, which is a quite poor but is excellent for shopping. El
Paso has two large malls, numerous night clubs, and performance arts
(traveling operas, dance companies, etc.). Most people go to El Paso if they
are shopping for something specific.
Old Mesilla is a small historical town just west of Las Cruces; it is one of the oldest towns in southern New Mexico. It is quite a cultural center and has many little shops, art galleries, and small restaurants.
The next closest cities are Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Tucson, AZ (in approximately increasing order of distance). It takes about 2 1/2 hours to drive to Albuquerque; a lot of students drive up there to get away from southern New Mexico. The atmosphere up there is quite different, and that includes the climate! Tucson is just a 4 hour drive west of Las Cruces so many students and faculty from our department drive up to Kitt Peak for their own observations. We are also close to the Very Large Array; the Array Operations Center (AOC) is located in Socorro, NM, just 2 hours away by car. Las Cruces is thus in the middle of many large astronomical institutions, so we frequently get a lot of visitors.
You can learn more about the city of Las Cruces on the world-wide web by following
these links:
Chamber of Commerce Site
Visitors Bureau