Students may soon need at least a 2.5 GPA to be accepted to UNM.
Terry Babbitt, associate vice president for enrollment management, presented plans to raise admissions standards to the Academic, Student Affairs and Research Committee of the UNM Board of Regents, which met Oct. 21 in the SUB.
"What we are talking about here is not limiting access to students but trying to get them to prepare," Babbitt said. "Everyone can meet this."
If UNM applicants meet prerequisites, they will be allowed to begin their educational careers at the UNM Albuquerque campus, Babbitt said. If they do not meet the requirements, they will be redirected to branch campuses or community colleges.
"Granted, there are different pathways that don't start at the Albuquerque campus, but we are not refusing admission to anyone," Babbitt said. "Multiple pathways will not just include a CNM gateway but a branch in other community college avenues."
Babbitt said UNM surveyed students to find out how altered requirements would affect their likelihood of applying to college.
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Babbitt said 25 percent of students surveyed said they would be more likely to apply to UNM if it raised admissions standards. He said 17.5 percent reported they would be less likely to apply.
"That's a substantial issue there that we've always had of students who don't apply to UNM because they don't feel that we focus enough on how our students should be prepared," Babbitt said.
President David Schmidly said increasing graduation rates will require more than raising admissions standards but that it is a step in the right direction.
"We need more faculty and better student advising and more advisers to assist, and later a tuition policy. So all of these things have to come together to legitimately move student success forward," Schmidly said. "I feel good about the fact that we are moving forward on a number of fronts that are all geared toward the success of the students."
Babbitt said there are no plans to raise SAT or ACT requirements.
UNM's high school GPA requirement is 2.25, and raising it to 2.5 would make all in-state students eligible for the Lottery Success Scholarship, Babbitt said.
Regent Raymond Sanchez said the board is researching how higher admissions standards would affect students.
"This is work in progress," Sanchez said. "There isn't any initiative other than for discussion to expose faculty, staff, students and the public to what we are looking at doing and what we are trying to evaluate by going out to the public and try to find out their reaction."
Babbitt said the higher admissions standards could be implemented within the next two years, at the earliest, if the administration approves them now.
