Local Area
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| Las Cruces |
Our City
Las Cruces is a medium-sized city with about 225,000 in the metropolitan area. It is about 50 miles from El Paso and Juarez, with a metropolitan area of about 2.7 million people. Las Cruces has little traffic, is very safe, inexpensive, and has beautiful weather during the school year. It is hot in the summer, but not humid. All the things one would want on a daily basis are close by. For things such as an international airport, or major concerts, El Paso is within an hour. This can be less than the traffic time to events if you live in a major city. For more on the local area, click here.
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| NMSU campus |
Campus
Our campus is beautiful, with mountains and nature within minutes, and very close to the necessities of life. While located in a desert, the grounds are lush. We have many sporting opportunities such as two wonderful swimming pools (olympic outdoor and an indoor), tennis courts, weights and workout facilities, squash courts, a climbing wall, and so forth. These come with You can join canoe and kayak trips down the Rio Grande and farther away. There are many cycling clubs. With about 17,000 students it has all the things one finds at the bigger schools such as a health clinic, libraries, and varied food options, but it is also all on one campus and easily walkable. There are free parking lots with a shuttle to various buildings, but a parking sticker for parking within a minute walk of the math department is about $70 a year. See more images of the campus.
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| Apartment complex near campus |
Accommodation
There are three broad options, living in university housing, living in a house or apartment near campus and walking or biking to school, living elsewhere and driving to school. All three options are far less expensive and far more convenient than you will find in larger cities. It depends what you want, but many students will share a fairly large apartment or house with others, each having their own large room, for $400-$600 a month. Often it can be cheaper than this. You can easily go home at lunch, and this saves a lot too.
University Housing
The university expects first-year undergraduates to live on campus. There is space in the dorms for upper-level undergraduates, and also there is family housing for both undergraduates and graduates. Several dorms are freshly completed. It can be a nice option, but is more expensive than living off-campus. See more details at the university housing page.
Apartments and Houses Near Campus
There is a good supply of local apartments. One source is here and many similar ones can be found here. Craigslist is also a good source (use the map view) and so is the Thrifty Nickel.
Commuting
Parking ranges from free to $70 a year for close options. The university parking page has details. There is easy access to the university from two interstates, I-10 and I-25. There are many places within a 30 minute commute. It might be closer to the department door from West El Paso than it is to UTEP math department when traffic is considered.
International Students
Many international students share a room with others. There are a number of student associations at the university, and they help students coming to NMSU. Formal organizations are lister here, but there are many more informal ones. If you contact us at gradcom@nmsu.edu we can likely put you in touch with people from near your part of the world that can help you out.
