The SAM Associate's Degree / Certificate model tracks a group of students who started an associate degree program or certificate program at Southeast New Mexico College in the Fall of 2018. The students’ progress toward a degree or certificate is reported within 6 years.

The sections of the SAM chart represent the proportion of students in the original group with the following five outcomes.

• Students who started at and graduated from Southeast New Mexico College are represented by the purple bar with the solid black bar underneath ().
• Students who started at and are still enrolled at Southeast New Mexico College are represented by the aqua bar with two white stripes underneath ().
• Students who started at Southeast New Mexico College and transferred to another institution prior to earning a degree or certificate are represented by the orange bar with the large white stripe underneath (). These students may have graduated or still be enrolled at another institution.
• Students from the original group whose status is unknown are represented by the green bar with the top white stripe (). These students may have graduated or still be enrolled somewhere, but their status could not be determined conclusively.