Hundreds of students have decided to take a full load of courses and save money, even if they have to commute between two campuses to do it.
Kathleen O'Keefe, UNM Financial Aid director, said the number of consortium agreements turned in by UNM students has increased from 632 last year to 745 this year.
In the consortium agreement, students can count classes taken at CNM toward a UNM degree and take classes at both schools, O'Keefe said.
O'Keefe said UNM students might take courses at CNM because the community college has more to offer than the University.
"It can be that a particular course that a student needs maybe isn't offered that semester at UNM, so they are picking it up at CNM," she said. "Some of it might be cost, because tuition is lower at CNM than it is at UNM. Some of it is that students are already at CNM and they are ready to transfer to UNM, but they are still going to finish off some courses at CNM."
Lee Carrillo, CNM Financial Aid director, said students are realizing there's a big difference between tuition costs at CNM and UNM.
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"Plus some of them find it's a little cheaper to pay for the course here than there," he said. "They are looking at that more and more I guess because of economics."
When out-of-state students take six credit hours at UNM, they pay in-state resident tuition for those credit hours. If they take more than six, they have to pay out-of-state tuition, O'Keefe said.
"Then they can take six credit hours at CNM, and CNM's tuition is really low, so combined, they are taking a full course load of 12 hours, but they aren't having to pay out-of-state tuition, so that's really a good sort of bonus for out-of-state students," she said.
O'Keefe said all Universities in the state have this policy.
"It could be that students are finding out that this is a really good deal," O'Keefe said.
Carrillo said the number of CNM students taking classes at UNM is smaller than the number of UNM students attending CNM.
Students are more likely to take classes at CNM because UNM courses are more expensive, Carrillo said.
When CNM students take classes at UNM, they are often looking to transfer to UNM for a bachelor's degree program, Carrillo said.
"My thought is: Of course that they are just trying to get through their programs a little quicker, and if they can pick up a course that is full at UNM, they can take it here," he said.
Student Katie Hancock decided to take more than a full load of classes at UNM and CNM this semester.
Hancock said she wanted to take classes at CNM because she wasn't prepared enough in high school for university course work.
"The schools in New Mexico just don't prepare you at all for any kind of math whatsoever, so then you get to UNM, (and) the math is just ridiculously hard, so I wanted to take math at CNM for that reason," she said.
Hancock said UNM math instructors can also be difficult to understand because they are often from foreign countries, but this is not the case at CNM.
Hancock said she plans to take more math and science courses at CNM in the future.
"The class sizes are smaller. You can ask questions and (the teachers) just take the time to explain it," she said.
