Who Does MU Compete With For Students?

[Tugg Speedman]

Got back from the Depaul game ... spoke to some "bigwigs" in University advancement.  This is what I learned, how much of this surprises you?

* 35% of MU students at MU are from the Chicago area, 20% are from WI.  The other 40% are from all over.  The northeast numbers have been falling in recent years and MU is still getting a number of kids from Puerto Rico.

* MU really does not compete with large state schools.  So, it competition for students is other Catholic/Jesuit schools.  State schools kids and Jesuit school kids are just different types and they don't see a lot of bleed-over.  Restated, MU is not competing with Bucky or the Illini for students (see above).

* The school they compete with the most ... Dayton followed by SLU.  They said they these two schools are "most like" MU.  Dayton more so than SLU.  Loyola (Chicago) and Depaul were not mentioned.

* Why Dayton?  A Catholic school in a medium sized Midwestern city for Chicago area students that want to go away from home but not too far.  Frame liked this and it sounds a lot like MU.

[MDMU04]

Got back from the Depaul game ... spoke to some "bigwigs" in University advancement.  This is what I learned, how much of this surprises you?

* 35% of MU students at MU are from the Chicago area, 20% are from WI.  The other 40% are from all over.  The northeast numbers have been falling in recent years and MU is still getting a number of kids from Puerto Rico.

* MU really does not compete with large state schools.  So, it competition for students is other Catholic/Jesuit schools.  State schools kids and Jesuit school kids are just different types and they don't see a lot of bleed-over.  Restated, MU is not competing with Bucky or the Illini for students (see above).

* The school they compete with the most ... Dayton followed by SLU.  They said they these two schools are "most like" MU.  Dayton more so than SLU.  Loyola (Chicago) and Depaul were not mentioned.

* Why Dayton?  The Jesuit school in a medium sized Midwestern city for Chicago area students that want to go away from home but not too far.  Frame liked this and it sounds a lot like MU.

I went to MU and am from the Chicago area. My other options were Purdue and Wash U in St Louis, for whatever that's worth.

Most of my friends from high school went to Big Ten schools or other large private schools like MU. My guess is that for the Chicago are, this is probably not unique.

[GGGG]

I think Marquette most definitely competes against large state Universities.  My guess is that a lot of kids that come to Marquette from Wisconsin also apply at Madison.

I think schools can purchase data from the company that manages the ACT test that shows where else students are sending their test scores.  If so, Marquette knows who it competes against.

[Herman Cain]

I have spent time recruiting students on the east coast and found that the school we compete with frequently is Boston University.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Yea, I think there is a lot more state school competition than you think. My final three were Marquette, Illinois and Northwestern. Marquette was the first religiously affiliated anything ive ever attended.

[GGGG]

Yeah mine were Marquette, UW-Madison and Carroll College.  Different types of schools give you different choices.

[Eldon]

*The most surprising is that only 35% come from Chicagoland.  I would have bet that the proportion would have been much, much higher, say, two-thirds at least.

*Dayton surprises me a bit, but SLU doesn't.

*I'm not too surprised by MU admin not seeing Madison, UIUC, and Minnesota as competitors.  Obviously, MU and these state schools compete for students, but it doesn't shock me that they are not the primary competitors, as the product (education) is delivered differently--at least, differently enough to merit a segmentation of the market.

--I'm curious what % of MU students come from outside the 6-hr radius of Milwaukee.  In other words, what % comes outside the UP-MPLS-STL-Detroit radius?  I'd again bet that that % has to be around two-thirds if not more

[Dish]

Dayton is blatantly obvious to me. I went to Wheaton St. Francis, and after U of I, Dayton was the second most attended college from my graduating class.

[Eldon]

I just glanced at USWNR and in the section titled "Students Also Applied To" it has the following listed: Loyola (Chi), UIUC, SLU, U Minnesota

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/marquette-university-3863

[T-Bone]

DePaul was my second choice, didn't have much desire to apply much of anywhere else.  MU came up with more money that made tuition just about even.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

DePaul was my second choice, didn't have much desire to apply much of anywhere else.  MU came up with more money that made tuition just about even.

Same here. Marquette ended up being cheaper than UIUC when it was all said and done. Northwestern was well, Northwestern prices.

[Tugg Speedman]

I think we need examples of students that were accepted to MU, seriously considered it, and went elsewhere.

[Coleman]

Dayton isn't a Jesuit school

If you really talked to these "bigwigs" that wouldn't have been the reason they gave you

[Tugg Speedman]

Dayton isn't a Jesuit school

If you really talked to these "bigwigs" that wouldn't have been the reason they gave you

Above I wrote

it competition for students is other Catholic/Jesuit schools

Dayton is a Catholic school.

[Coleman]

I think we need examples of students that were accepted to MU, seriously considered it, and went elsewhere.

I applied to 3 schools, was accepted to all 3, and seriously considered all 3.

They were UW-Madison, St Norbert, and Marquette. I chose Marquette, but any of the three would have been decent fits.

It might be helpful to think of different groups of competitors for different student profiles. We are a competitor with UW for students from Wisconsin. We are a competitor with Dayton for affluent Chicagoland Catholic high school students, etc.

[Coleman]

* Why Dayton?  The Jesuit school in a medium sized Midwestern city for Chicago area students that want to go away from home but not too far.  Frame liked this and it sounds a lot like MU.

You said Dayton was a Jesuit school.

Edit... I know I'm nitpicking. I agree Dayton is a competitor for some student profiles.

[Les Nessman]

It was Dayton vs. MU for me. Went with MU based solely on gut feel. Glad that I did and still have great memories from MU but I probably would have had just as much fun at Dayton and gotten a similar education.

[Tugg Speedman]

I applied to 3 schools, was accepted to all 3, and seriously considered all 3.

They were UW-Madison, St Norbert, and Marquette. I chose Marquette, but any of the three would have been decent fits.

It might be helpful to think of different groups of competitors for different student profiles. We are a competitor with UW for students fro, Wisconsin. We are a competitor with Dayton for affluent Chicagoland Catholic high school students, etc.

This makes sense

After the conversation some of us were talking and we thought that of the 20% from WI, most were from the Milwaukee metro area.  We thought that once you get an hour away from MU but still in WI that they were mostly looking at Bucky (mainly because of the cost) and are not really considering MU.  Those students have two options Madison and their nearby UW school.

Agree with this?

[Tugg Speedman]

You said Dayton was a Jesuit school.

Typo ... I changed it to Catholic.

[GGGG]

This makes sense

After the conversation some of us were talking and we thought that of the 20% from WI, most were from the Milwaukee metro area.  We thought that once you get an hour away from MU but still in WI that they were mostly looking at Bucky (mainly because of the cost) and are not really considering MU.  Those students have two options Madison and their nearby UW school.

Agree with this?

Kinda.

I think a lot of kids of suburban Milwaukee who apply to MU also apply to UW-Madison. 

[Coleman]

This makes sense

After the conversation some of us were talking and we thought that of the 20% from WI, most were from the Milwaukee metro area.  We thought that once you get an hour away from MU but still in WI that they were mostly looking at Bucky (mainly because of the cost) and are not really considering MU.  Those students have two options Madison and their nearby UW school.

Agree with this?

That's probably accurate for most public high school students outside the Milwaukee area. Catholic high school students in other parts of Wisconsin (like I was) still consider MU.

[MUBigDance]

My son (Milwaukee area), good student, wanted to stay close, private school ok but with engineering, cost couldn't be outrageous (MU eeked in with fin aid$...but still expensive), some type of decent sports, Band/orchestra to play in....commuted first 2 yrs. to save $.
Never applied to UW Madison or otherwise.

Maybe MU was the only choice. But I think he chose well.

As far as Dayton and SLU competition. Did that effect their candidacy to the BE?  Gee I hope not.

[MomofMUltiples]

I think in general there is a difference between large state schools and smaller private schools, regardless of religion.  Kids seem to prefer one or the other once they start visiting campuses.  My kids did apply to other jesuits - Creighton, Santa Clara, BC and Catholics - Nova, ND, U of San Diego (which is not so much a university as it is a country club), and also smaller non-religious private schools - Carleton, Macalester, Skidmore, Wake Forest.  Doesn't surprise me that most of the kids are in the Chicagoland/Wisconsin area.  I would imagine that is true for most colleges that are not the big national names.  The less well known the college, the more narrow its student distribution, I'd imagine.

[Tugg Speedman]

One more thing ...

The advancement bigwig also said that the single best thing they can do to persuade a perspective student to come to MU is attend a BBall game.  They offer all accepted students tickets.  Most of the games are BE games as most kids find out after Jan 1 if they are accepted.

A well attended good win gets kids pumped and excited about MU.

He also thinks the new Wild Hall (new Freshman dorm, see its thread) will be almost as good as decent bball game.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Thinking about it now, im probably a bad case study. I picked a program rather than a school.