A comprehensive land-grant institution of higher learning, New Mexico State University was founded in 1888 as an agricultural college and preparatory school. Dedicated to teaching, research, and service at the undergraduate and graduate levels, NMSU is a NASA Space Grant College, a Hispanic-serving institution and is home to the only Honors College in New Mexico.

The statewide system provides learning opportunities to a diverse population of students and community members at five campuses, a satellite learning center in Albuquerque, cooperative extension offices located in each of New Mexico's 33 counties, 13 research and science centers and through distance education.

Total fall 2008 enrollment for the NMSU system was 31,316. The Las Cruces campus enrollment was 17,198; Alamogordo, 3,038; Carlsbad, 1652; Dona Ana, 8,336; and Grants, 1,092. Enrollment by race/ethnicity for the NMSU system (academic year 2007-08) was approximately 42 percent Hispanic, 37 percent white, 4 percent international, 3 percent African-American, 3 percent American Indian/Alaskan native, 1 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, and 9 percent unknown. The makeup of the student body by gender is 56 percent female and 44 percent male. The average age of degree-seeking students is 23.77, with some 78 percent hailing from New Mexico and the remainder from nearly every state in the union plus 84 nations.