NNMC earns Carnegie Foundation Opportunity Colleges and Universities Classification

Classification confirms that Northern exceed the thresholds for higher access and higher earnings

Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) is proud to announce that it has received the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 2025 Opportunity Colleges and Universities Classification. Northern is one of 478 institutions to earn this prestigious classification, which recognizes institutions that provide higher than expected levels of access to low-income and underrepresented students, and their students experience strong earnings outcomes. 

“The majority of students apply to college with the hope it is a path to opportunity, and the job they’ve dreamt about,” said Timothy F.C. Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation. “This work is about ensuring that institutions are recognized when they empower students to reach their goals and succeed.”

This new classification validates Northern’s commitment to design and deliver exceptional services and support to ensure student success. Northern prioritizes the growth, well-being and empowerment of its students. 

Graduates of NNMC have gone on to pursue rewarding futures, including advanced degrees, careers in both federal and state service, employment at NASA and Los Alamos National Laboratory and as educators, business leaders and healthcare professionals throughout the state and beyond. Northern’s alumni include a Governor of the Pueblo of Pojoaque and a former Engineer and Plant Scientist at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“Northern has established itself as an educational destination of choice, where we partner with our students in achieving their dreams, and this classification validates that we are expanding access to students whom higher ed has historically forgotten,” said NNMC President Hector Balderas. “This prestigious classification not only recognizes Northern as a pillar institution, it is really a reflection of our students and their power to change not only their lives, but our entire community.”

According to Carnegie Foundation data, Northern’s student body is comprised of 85.96 percent underrepresented minorities, with 50.31 percent qualifying for PELL grants. Eight years after graduating, median earnings for Northern alumni are 37 percent higher than the comparison group in the geographic area NNMC serves.
This places Northern within a select group of institutions that create meaningful economic opportunity for underserved communities and can serve as models for studying how campuses can foster student success.

Since 1973, the Carnegie Classification has served as the gold standard for organizing the landscape of U.S. higher education. Its mission is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified and fulfilling life.