Marquette University Visit Report by billyjoejimbob

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes - Good turnout of around 20 or so students. The Admission’s department presentation was fast paced, scripted and provided the basic essentials. The audience was very quiet and asked very few questions

Campus Tour: Yes - Tour guide was likable, friendly and well spoken, perhaps one of the best we’ve seen to date.

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Campus:

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Quiet summer session, so very few students seen about campus. Those we did see were the typical Midwestern crowd.

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No contact, except Admissions staff. They were nice, as one would expect.

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Urban setting, 10 blocks long and three blocks wide, split in half by heavily traveled Wisconsin Ave.

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Disappointing, with a mishmash of architectural styles. There’s little character to most campus buildings, as most are older and somewhat dated in appearance.

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Tour stopped at McCormick, the largest dorm on campus. To be frank, it was an embarrassment. See summary for more.

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Campus is in a marginal neighborhood so safety could be an issue here.

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Campus setting and facilities might not sell this school to prospective students. It will need to rely more on reputation or other intangibles.

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Off-Campus:

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Some limited retail offerings in the neighborhood, including a Walgreens and a few fast food restaurants. For the most part, students will need to take the short trip downtown for more options.

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Downtown Milwaukee is very close and offers a nice assortment of retail offerings, bars, restaurants, etc. The river and lakefront are nearby and are great for recreational fun.

Campus Visit Notes for Marquette University

Visit Description:

Marquette is a mid sized Catholic Jesuit university with about 8K undergrads. The campus is located in a somewhat ethnically diverse neighborhood just west of downtown Milwaukee. While the university enjoys a national reputation, the vast majority of students are from the upper Midwest, especially WI, IL & MN. The school admits 65% of applicants and enjoys an average to slightly above average academic reputation.

The north side of the campus consists of the residence halls, the student center and administration buildings, while academic buildings are located on the south side of Wisconsin Ave. The campus is relatively compact in size, with a noticeable lack of green space for students. As stated, the facilities are pretty average for a school of this size and there’s a noticeable lack of uniformity to campus buildings. Other than the library, which was fairly decent, most of the buildings seen on the campus tour were not very stylish or memorable. The residence hall room showcased on our tour was perhaps one of the worst I’ve ever seen, with room furnishings of a lower quality than what’s available in most WI penitentiaries. Per our tour guide, this particular dorm was shown to us as it’s the only one occupied during the summer months. (I’d re-think the current game plan if I were in charge of undergraduate admissions). Apparently the vast majority of students move off-campus as upperclassmen. I can see why! Also, the food in the cafeteria also has a generally bad reputation, per student feedback.

In my view, Marquette really caters to students drawn to an urban setting and the associated perks provided by a city, (nightlife, culture, recreation, sports, internship and community service opportunities, etc). The university offers Division 1 sports and its varsity basketball team is top notch. The university has sort of a pre-professional image with a lot of students drawn to business, engineering, nursing, etc. Marquette also offers a dental school and a law school.

I actually like the city of Milwaukee as a college destination, but really wished the campus neighborhood was better. If the campus were located closer to the waterfront, or north of downtown area in a nicer, trendier neighborhood, it would be a better choice for many.

Marquette distributes a super slick, colorful campus preview guide of one hundred forty pages of marketing muscle that paints a pretty nice picture of the place to prospective students. They also passed out a tee-shirt to all prospective students in attendance. It’s a not so subtle sales pitch, but the extra effort gives one the impression they're trying just a little too hard.

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

Stay either downtown or in Brookfield.