A Lame Title for a Blog About My Time at NMSU...

I recently finished my Master's degree at NMSU

As some of you may know, the NMSU economics program was not my first choice. Originally, coming out of college, my plan was to do the Community/Regional Planning program at UNM, a program that did not require the GRE for admission. Since I didn't want to take the GRE for a back-up school, and since NMSU graduate school didn't require it, it seemed like a perfectly natural 2nd best. After strong family resistance to my top choice, I decided to go ahead and go to NMSU.

Me and Las Cruces have a rather long and tangled history. The first time I was there, right out of high school, I was miserable and couldn't wait to leave. I would say this time around my feelings towards LC have improved, although only slightly. I still hate that place. My feelings aren't entirely rational, maybe some petty complaints about traffic, but it's largely just due to bad memories and some personal wounds that never totally healed. I have never felt that I belonged in LC the way I have in either Farmington or Albuquerque, like I was always a mere carpetbagger.

I started out at NMSU in the policy analysis concentration, and while interesting, I figured that the career prospects were better in the regulatory economics program. I think I made a good choice as far as concentrations go. Of course, I still don't have a job, but I haven't been completely lacking in success in the job market. I've had a few interviews and have gotten close a few times. It's simply been a matter of things not quite coming together (more on this later).

I had two jobs at NMSU, one as a research assistant for a professor and another one working as a researcher at the Arrowhead Center. These were both very good jobs and I'm glad I had them. The pay was good and the work was, for the most part, interesting. While things did get boring from time to time, it certainly beats grading papers and fielding questions from idiotic undergraduate students.

So I'd have to conclude, overall, my time at NMSU was positive, although it definitely had it's ups and downs.