Who Does MU Compete With For Students?

[Silkk the Shaka]

Based on recent history, I'd say Iowa State

[Herman Cain]

I definitely make note of this when I do college fairs.   The price of MU vs. Northeast private universities.

For example Dickinson , Franklin and Marshall etc are $62,000. 

Also it not just the North East we should be prospecting public schools harder, but also the Mid Atlantic DC Virginia . Direct flights on Southwest from Baltimore are a big plus.  Same theory, kids are coming from area, build the greater community of interest.

By the way, I do think the Western recruiting idea is a good one. Build that off of cities with direct flights on Southwest into Milwaukee.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

For example Dickinson , Franklin and Marshall etc are $62,000. 

Also it not just the North East we should be prospecting public schools harder, but also the Mid Atlantic DC Virginia . Direct flights on Southwest from Baltimore are a big plus.  Same theory, kids are coming from area, build the greater community of interest.

By the way, I do think the Western recruiting idea is a good one. Build that off of cities with direct flights on Southwest into Milwaukee.

Marquette got my brother and I both to attend coming from Connecticut.

[ducs]

As much as I loved my MU experience and friends, if I could do it all over again, I'd have gone to school some place warm.

Couldn't agree with this more.  I was a Milwaukee kid and only applied to MU, MSOE a UW-Mil

[Herman Cain]

Marquette got my brother and I both to attend coming from Connecticut.

Glad they were successful !!!

[real chili 83]

ND sucks.

[Marquette Gyros]

Don't think this has been challenged enough...

Dayton? Really?

MU was a safety when I was applying - didn't get into Cornell or Wash U, waitlisted at Michigan, got into U MN and MU. Doesn't matter. I don't regret attending MU for a million reasons -- and one huge one is that Milwaukee was a great place to go to school.

I'm not sure anyone could favorably compare Dayton to Milwaukee on any level - national profile, culture and things to do, restaurants, parks/green space, business environment...

The A&S/business/engineering students benefit significantly from the last point - the Fortune 1000s in MKE provide opportunities to interns and grads from MU that collectively outmatch anything Dayton has to offer.

Broadly Milwaukee provides competitive advantage that should very much work in MU's favor to expand its national recruiting base. Yeah I'm biased but it has way more potential than only drawing kids from the Midwest.

[tweakers_suck]

I had no idea what I was doing when I applied to college -- I was the first in my family and extended family to attend college. I chose MU over Long Beach State and San Diego State.   I never applied to UCLA, USC, etc because I didn't want to write an essay on the admissions application Now I am back home in the Los Angeles area. It was great to get away for college, and I will have my kids go away too. Maybe even MU if they want.

But if I had to do it again given what I know now....maybe I go to Arizona State

I always tell people that my life has been like a human version of the Price Is Right Plinko game where I always land on the big bucks. I've been lucky and I've worked hard to make my own luck. MU was one of those choices for me that has paid great dividends and is a large part of who I am. I don't remember Cura Personalis term being used when I was at MU -- but it definitely was being taught.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

I went to a private catholic HS in Minneapolis area so therefore applied to a bunch of private and catholic schools - St. Thomas (MN), St. John's (MN), Marquette, SLU, Creighton, Drake and Loyola. Honestly, I applied to that crop of schools because my grades were never that amazing in HS - a mixture of focusing on sports and not giving a rip. Figured my ACT score would help, but didn't necessarily plan on getting into all the schools outside of MN. I guess you could have even considered MU and Creighton my reaches. Ended up getting into all of them, and chose MU due to academics, the somewhat unknown, and the distance from Minneapolis.

I loved my time at MU. If I could do it again, like others have said, I probably would go to a non religiously denominated school somewhere warm. But at that time I applied to college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and was just starting to realize I wasn't going to be able to play hockey the rest of my life. At the end of the day, I suppose I'm a case of the catholic school connection working out, because I had no ties to MU whatsoever.

[buckchuckler]

Don't think this has been challenged enough...

Dayton? Really?

MU was a safety when I was applying - didn't get into Cornell or Wash U, waitlisted at Michigan, got into U MN and MU. Doesn't matter. I don't regret attending MU for a million reasons -- and one huge one is that Milwaukee was a great place to go to school.

I'm not sure anyone could favorably compare Dayton to Milwaukee on any level - national profile, culture and things to do, restaurants, parks/green space, business environment...

The A&S/business/engineering students benefit significantly from the last point - the Fortune 1000s in MKE provide opportunities to interns and grads from MU that collectively outmatch anything Dayton has to offer.

Broadly Milwaukee provides competitive advantage that should very much work in MU's favor to expand its national recruiting base. Yeah I'm biased but it has way more potential than only drawing kids from the Midwest.

Wouldn't this same logic seem to indicate MU shouldn't have a chance compared to Loyola and DePaul?

[Coleman]

Wouldn't this same logic seem to indicate MU shouldn't have a chance compared to Loyola and DePaul?

Excellent point

[Tugg Speedman]

Everyone wants to think their competition is schools perceived to have better academic reputations that yours.  So we want to believe our competition is ND, BC and G-Town.  Since SLU, Dayton, Loyola (Chicago) and Depaul are all perceived to have academic reputations lower than MU, we don't want to believe this is MUs competition.

[4everwarriors]

As four catholic schools, ders GU, ND, BC, and da also rans, ai na?

[warriorchick]

Wouldn't this same logic seem to indicate MU shouldn't have a chance compared to Loyola and DePaul?

DePaul and Loyola  have a very high percentage of commuter and part time students.  In my day,  commuters comprised way more than 50% of the student body, although I am guessing it is somewhat  lower now. Although they are urban, it's not exactly the same social environment. 

Loyola also has the disadvange of being split among 3 locations - Rogers Park,  downtown, and west suburban Maywood. Depending on your major, you will likely be hopping back and forth between at least two of these campuses.  That was a non-starter for both me and my kids.

[Galway Eagle]

Everyone wants to think their competition is schools perceived to have better academic reputations that yours.  So we want to believe our competition is ND, BC and G-Town.  Since SLU, Dayton, Loyola (Chicago) and Depaul are all perceived to have academic reputations lower than MU, we don't want to believe this is MUs competition.

Or you can stop thinking we only compete with lower schools and begin to think of it like a bell curve. Sure most students that get into the three elite catholic schools will go there but not everyone will. There's the first mark on the bell curve. Then eventually you hit the MU target students and finally it starts going down again with the students who have MU as their reach school or maybe are more interested in a big state school but happened upon a Wade video and applied anyways for smaller amounts of students again.

[jsglow]

My sense is DePaul and Loyola today are most similar to Marquette back when I attended in the early 80s.  As chick mentioned, the commuter percentage at maybe 25% reflects that.  MU's commuter percentage is now down under 5% (99 of 2002 in this year's Frosh class).

Here's one other thing. This year's class is the second largest in many years topped only by 2011.  There is no doubt that the targeted application process was successful.  I haven't heard anything about this year yet but suspect I will at a meeting on NMD. 

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

My sense is DePaul and Loyola today are most similar to Marquette back when I attended in the early 80s.  As chick mentioned, the commuter percentage at maybe 25% reflects that.  MU's commuter percentage is now down under 5% (99 of 2002 in this year's Frosh class).

Here's one other thing. This year's class is the second largest in many years topped only by 2011.  There is no doubt that the targeted application process was successful.  I haven't heard anything about this year yet but suspect I will at a meeting on NMD.

I was apart of that 2011 entering class. The common room on my floor in McCormick were still being used as a quad well into November.

[warriorchick]

My sense is DePaul and Loyola today are most similar to Marquette back when I attended in the early 80s.  As chick mentioned, the commuter percentage at maybe 25% reflects that.  MU's commuter percentage is now down under 5% (99 of 2002 in this year's Frosh class).

Here's one other thing. This year's class is the second largest in many years topped only by 2011.  There is no doubt that the targeted application process was successful.  I haven't heard anything about this year yet but suspect I will at a meeting on NMD.

Just checked Loyola and DePaul's websites.  Loyola looks like it is about 75% commuters and DePaul is 82%.  DePaul counts students living off-campus, but since a great many of them aren't within walking distance of campus (because students generally can't afford to live in Lincoln Park), it is a little bit of a gray area. DePaul calls them "resimuters".

[jsglow]

I was apart of that 2011 entering class. The common room on my floor in McCormick were still being used as a quad well into November.

Dammit, one too many! I thought I had that app properly flagged!

[Coleman]

DePaul and Loyola  have a very high percentage of commuter and part time students.  In my day,  commuters comprised way more than 50% of the student body, although I am guessing it is somewhat  lower now. Although they are urban, it's not exactly the same social environment. 

Loyola also has the disadvange of being split among 3 locations - Rogers Park,  downtown, and west suburban Maywood. Depending on your major, you will likely be hopping back and forth between at least two of these campuses.  That was a non-starter for both me and my kids.

A lot of DePaul and Loyola's students may technically be "commuters," but that just means they live off campus in other parts of the city.

I went to Loyola for grad school and the getting around thing isn't that big of a deal. RP and downtown are connected very well by transit. Only time you'd be in Maywood is for med school and then you wouldn't need to be going to the other two.

[Galway Eagle]

A lot of DePaul and Loyola's students may technically be "commuters," but that just means they live off campus in other parts of the city.

And the getting around thing isn't that big of a deal. RP and downtown are connected very well by transit. Only time you'd be in Maywood is for med school and then you wouldn't need to be going to the other two.

Plus you aren't too far from the end of the blue line at the hospital/medical school

[warriorchick]

A lot of DePaul and Loyola's students may technically be "commuters," but that just means they live off campus in other parts of the city.

I went to Loyola for grad school and the getting around thing isn't that big of a deal. RP and downtown are connected very well by transit. Only time you'd be in Maywood is for med school and then you wouldn't need to be going to the other two.

All Health Sciences are in Maywood, including undergraduate nursing. And getting there from the main campus involves two different train lines and a bus, not to mention an hour and 45 minutes of your time.  How would you like it if some of your Marquette classes were held out in Waukesha?  Or if you were in the B-School or a Comm major, having to take public transportation to UWM for all of the classes in your major?

[Galway Eagle]

All Health Sciences are in Maywood, including undergraduate nursing. And getting there from the main campus involves two different train lines and a bus, not to mention an hour and 45 minutes of your time.  How would you like it if some of your Marquette classes were held out in Waukesha?  Or if you were in the B-School or a Comm major, having to take public transportation to UWM for all of the classes in your major?

I'd probably schedule my semester so all those courses were out west and live in a place like Forest park, Oak Park, or Berwyn... heck even over by UIC would be doable.

It's not ideal but clearly it's not a deal breaker driving kids away in droves either

[drewm88]

Just checked Loyola and DePaul's websites.  Loyola looks like it is about 75% commuters and DePaul is 82%.  DePaul counts students living off-campus, but since a great many of them aren't within walking distance of campus (because students generally can't afford to live in Lincoln Park), it is a little bit of a gray area. DePaul calls them "resimuters".

Where are you getting those numbers? Loyola has more commuters than MU, but it's not nearly that high. Maybe 20% if you're talking about people who would be living in a res hall otherwise. UNSWR says it's 59% of all undergrads (vs. 48% for MU.)

[warriorchick]

I'd probably schedule my semester so all those courses were out west and live in a place like Forest park, Oak Park, or Berwyn... heck even over by UIC would be doable.

It's not ideal but clearly it's not a deal breaker driving kids away in droves either

I am sure it drives away non-commuters.  It drove away 3 just in my family who didn't even bother to apply.

Anywhoo, my comments were to point out that if Marquette's urban experience is markedly different (and better IMO) than DePaul or Loyola, and to call them equivalents or near-equivalents when comparing them would not be accurate.