Academics » Graduate Admissions

Thank you for your interest in our graduate program. The NMSU Graduate School Catalog is available online here. If you would like to receive an application packet by post, or wish to check that your application is complete, please send an e-mail to Ofelia Ruiz (email: user oruiz; domain nmsu.edu).

For specific questions about the astronomy graduate program, please contact Dr. Jim Murphy (phone 575.646.5333, email: user murphy; domain nmsu.edu). If you would also like to speak or correspond with a current graduate student, he will be happy to provide an introduction to a student member from any of our four primary areas of research.

The NMSU Graduate Catalog states that application forms and some materials should be sent to the Dean of the Graduate School. Because the deadline for application to the Astronomy Department is earlier than that for the rest of the NMSU graduate program, we request that you send all application materials (including transcripts) directly to our department.

If you use the on-line application form to apply to the graduate program, please print out a copy and send it along with the financial aid form and your statement of interest to the department. Official transcripts should be sent directly to our department from your institution, and letters of recommendation should be mailed by each of your references. The deadline for all application materials is February 15 for the upcoming year.

Required Materials (Deadline: February 15^th)

• Application for admission to the NMSU Astronomy Graduate Program
  • PDF form
  • Postscript form

• Statement of interest: A brief description of your current research interests, astronomical background, and how you became interested in astronomy (if you are a co-author on any journal articles, or have attended a scientific conference such as a AAS meeting, please mention this)

• Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended (must be sent by the registrar's office of each institution)

• Official GRE General Exam and Advanced Physics Exam scores
  • The institution code for NMSU is 4531.
  • The department code for astronomy is 0801.
  • Please self-report your GRE scores as soon as you receive them (email: user murphy; domain nmsu.edu). An email message containing your full name, your current (or last) institution of study, and all four GRE scores will allow us to evaluate your application more quickly, if you have not already noted them on your departmental application form. (We will, however, still need to have the official ETS record of your scores in order to formally accept you into the NMSU program.)
  • If you will not have completed the physics exam by February 15, please make a note of this in your application. We caution that such applications are very difficult to evaluate.

• Three letters of recommendation
  • PDF form

• Application for admission to the NMSU Graduate School
  • domestic students form
  • international students form

Packet Verification

Once you have submitted all of your application materials to the astronomy department, we recommend that you wait ten days (for postal service delivery) before confirming that everything has been received. Please then send an e-mail to Ofelia Ruiz (email: user oruiz; domain nmsu.edu), or call 575.646.4438, to check that your application packet is complete. You are also responsible for checking with your letter writers to see that they have each sent in a letter of reference for you in a timely fashion.

Mailing Address

Graduate Admissions Committee
Department of Astronomy
New Mexico State University
P. O. Box 30001, MSC 4500
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-8001

For overnight services such as FedEx or UPS, replace P. O. Box 30001, MSC 4500 with 1320 Frenger Mall.

Researching the NMSU Astronomy Program

The departmental masthead (the set of menus which can be pulled down from the top of any of our webpages) is a very good place to find lots of information about the graduate program.

Each of the four research groups (planetary, stellar galactic, and extragalactic) provides a central research page explaining the broad goals of the group and listing the group members. All research staff (PhDs and students alike) members maintain an individual research page as well, describing the work that they do themselves (so you can read about many of the projects that we work on at NMSU by clicking on the names of people listed in the Directory pages).

The Talks section describes recent presentations that people have made at national and international conferences, and lists talks that will be given in the department throughout the current semester (including our colloquium series with guest speakers, our weekly informal lunch talks, research group meetings, and student dominated sessions like the seminar series and the journal club).

The entries under the Public Events heading provide an overview of public outreach efforts through the department, and the Observatories section will tell you about a number of the observatory facilities that NMSU astronomers often use.

The Academics menu holds lots of information about the graduate courses that you will attend and the undergraduate courses that you might teach, as well as many details to help you with the process of applying to NMSU (be sure to read through the pages maintained by the department graduate students, including this FAQ). The Directory pages also list phone numbers and email addresses for all department members so that they are easy to contact; don't hesitate to call upon one of us if you have questions and you think that we can help.