Marquette to raise tuition to $41,290

[RJax55]

Nothing!  That’s fanstastic if they do, but I would guess very few parents of existing students are actually in a position to contribute much more beyond tuition.  It’s not so much that they’re asking them to contribute a little extra but rather the amount they’re asking for.  $2500 seems very high to me and if their efforts to recruit more first generation college students is as successful as they say, fewer and fewer familes Have anything close to that.   I certainly don’t despite being a professional with a pretty high income.  About a year or so ago I received a call from a student soliciting donations and they asked if I would be willing to contribute $500 to which I replied “not if I want to pay my mortgage”.  I thought it was an extremely aggressive ask but then again I don’t work in philanthropy so what do I know?  I think I gave $50 bucks.  Maybe there are tons of people out there with a spare five hundo to give to their alma-mater without thinking but I’m definitely not one of them.  It would be great to be in that position though and wish I could.  I know our giving rate is abysmally low so if a lot more people contributed less money that would presumably help.  Why not ask everyone for $10 bucks.  Even most recent alums could spare that.

Because doing so would leave money on the table. That said, there are audiences and campaigns where a straight participation ask is made. These things are highly segmented though.

When you spoke to that student caller, that ask of $500 was not random. You have certain measures that assigned you to that value or giving range. Could have been past giving history, affinity metrics and/or wealth indicators. 

[dgies9156]

Minimum wage was $3.35 an hour, and most of us had minimum wage jobs, including those of us on work study.  I felt lucky that I got a summer job as a Shoney's waitress making $2.11 plus tips, which worked out closer to $5 an hour.  Don't delude yourself thinking everyone who worked their way through Marquette in the olden days had some sort of great-paying position.

Which Shoney's?

Sorry I missed you!

Seriously, my wife worked her way through MU. It was not easy then (1975-1979) but she was able to do it through a combination of low-paying odd jobs and really difficult summer jobs. My Dad worked his way through Marquette (1951-1955) working as a second shift postman full time (he worked for Father Naus' Dad).

Even with a tuition haircut, I'm not sure either possible today. So that leaves debt.

Imagine going into Journalism, for example, and funding half of Chick's $152,000 education with debt. That means you leave college with a $76,000 debt on a salary of, gee, $35,000 to $40,000. You can't have a home because you already have a mortgage on your college education. It will take 30 years at that rate to pay it off.

Not sure Marquette's leadership "gets" this.

[dgies9156]

The charts above use the "sticker price."  But, as noted on the previous page, almost no one actually pays the sticker price.

Want to bet on that?

[forgetful]

Want to bet on that?

You would lose that bet.  100% of Freshman, and 96% of all students at MU receive some form of grant in aid.  For Freshman, the average grant-in-aid last year was over $15k per year (which is close to a 40% haircut).

The average indebtedness of 2016 graduates was only around 35k...largely because nearly no one pays full freight. Only 59% of MU students take any loans at all.  So over 40% graduate with 0 debt.

[warriorchick]

You would lose that bet.  100% of Freshman, and 96% of all students at MU receive some form of grant in aid.  For Freshman, the average grant-in-aid last year was over $15k per year (which is close to a 40% haircut).

The average indebtedness of 2016 graduates was only around 35k...largely because nearly no one pays full freight. Only 59% of MU students take any loans at all.  So over 40% graduate with 0 debt.

If the average debt is $35k, and 40% have no debt at all, does that mean that the average student who has some debt has something like $60k in loans ? That's not good.

And I promise you that the 40% who don't have debt was because they had full ride scholarships. It's because Mom and Dad could afford to  pick up the entire  tab. That right there shows you how much things have changed since I went there.

[warriorchick]

Which Shoney's?

Donelson Pike.  Saw a lot of interesting things working the night shift, including a woman beating the crap out of her husband's girlfriend in the vestibule of the restaurant.

[dgies9156]

Donelson Pike.  Saw a lot of interesting things working the night shift, including a woman beating the crap out of her husband's girlfriend in the vestibule of the restaurant.

Well, that's Donelson!

Closest one to me growing up was Madison Square.

[Herman Cain]

Donelson Pike.  Saw a lot of interesting things working the night shift, including a woman beating the crap out of her husband's girlfriend in the vestibule of the restaurant.

Tiger Woods wife beat the crap out of him and his car on his way to Denny’s so I guess it’s comparable.

[jficke13]

You would lose that bet.  100% of Freshman, and 96% of all students at MU receive some form of grant in aid.  For Freshman, the average grant-in-aid last year was over $15k per year (which is close to a 40% haircut).

The average indebtedness of 2016 graduates was only around 35k...largely because nearly no one pays full freight. Only 59% of MU students take any loans at all.  So over 40% graduate with 0 debt.

Those number seem... hard to believe. Not saying you're making them up, but that's an awful lot more generous than I seem to remember back in 05-09 or 09-12 law.

Do you mind defining "grant in aid?" I'm not sure of the term's precise meaning, and was wondering if that counts as the FAFSA/Fed-subsidized loans, because the feds will subsidize a tuition loan for a ham sandwich studying at Deli-U.

[jutaw22mu]

You would lose that bet.  100% of Freshman, and 96% of all students at MU receive some form of grant in aid.  For Freshman, the average grant-in-aid last year was over $15k per year (which is close to a 40% haircut).

The average indebtedness of 2016 graduates was only around 35k...largely because nearly no one pays full freight. Only 59% of MU students take any loans at all.  So over 40% graduate with 0 debt.

I paid full price out-of-state tuition with no aid.  It sucked. 

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I never knew this was a thing. (Clearly never had an on-campus job.)

I can't say I blame MU - in addition to all of the arguments about devoting time to school, I would imagine they just don't want the headache of having students lodge complaints that their MU job supervisors treated them in a way that didn't allow them to succeed academically.

TAMU has the same policy.  I've been told that is to keep student workers away from the threshold of hours that would require TAMU to provide them insurance. Not sure if it's the same at MU

[GGGG]

TAMU has the same policy.  I've been told that is to keep student workers away from the threshold of hours that would require TAMU to provide them insurance. Not sure if it's the same at MU

That is the exact reason.  I believe the ACA threshold is 29 hours per week, so many campuses limit students to 20 during the academic year so that they can work full time in the summer.

[muwarrior69]

I am not sure you are comparing apples to apples here.

That 30% "haircut" is off of tuition only.  The $200K number includes room and board. 

So the number you should be comparing to the $12K is $200K-(40*.3*4) or $152K, or more than 2.5 times the average household income.

Also keep in mind that back in the mid-late 60's, there was typically only one wage earner per household, whereas nowadays it is more likely than not to be two.

In any case, I think Chili has the most appropriate comparison.  It used to be possible for a student to pay their own way through school by working hard in the summer and part time during the school year.  I don't know a single student who is paying for their own Marquette education without taking on a crap ton of debt.  And Marquette makes it even harder by limiting the amount of hours you can work in an on-campus job to 20 per week.

I worked 20 hours at the Library $1.25/hr (on campus) and sang tenor at Calvary Presbyterian at 10th and Wisconsin ($75/month). Since my parents paid full freight I had to earn my spending money.

[WarriorDad]

Appears I need to clarify a few things.  Forgive me.   The $2500 was a recommendation to my wife and I as graduates of Marquette.  That came two weeks ago.  Dr. Lovell's letter and brochure identified us at a donation level of that amount.  If memory serves it was titled the President's Council or Club, something like that.

This past week we received the letter for the tuition increase for our child.  They were not connected directly and my apologies if people took it that way.  What my spouse and I noted was the same family is receiving a request to donate the amount suggested and also a letter of a tuition increase of nearly $2000 in the span of  two weeks.  We found that to be unfortunate timing.  We donated something like $300, but if we had donated the amount requested and then received this letter it would have raised a few eyebrows.

We would have liked to have seen them coordinate this a bit better.  It is entirely possible they sent us the donation letter without doing a database scrub to see if we had children that were at Marquette.  That would be a suggestion of ours.   That is all.

Thank you


Proud Warrior and proud Warrior (Golden Eagle) dad

[forgetful]

Those number seem... hard to believe. Not saying you're making them up, but that's an awful lot more generous than I seem to remember back in 05-09 or 09-12 law.

Do you mind defining "grant in aid?" I'm not sure of the term's precise meaning, and was wondering if that counts as the FAFSA/Fed-subsidized loans, because the feds will subsidize a tuition loan for a ham sandwich studying at Deli-U.

I really can't answer this question.  These numbers come from Forbes and a number of other college info aggregating sites.  They don't define what is called grant-in-aid. 

What I can provide is that the average MU student pays less than $25k in tuition a year, so the average student is getting a decrease of around $15k per year.  These are calculated from numbers from MU directly.  That $15k is also what Forbes lists as the average grant-in-aid for MU students. 

To me that would seem to indicate it does not include subsidized loans as grant-in-aid, but its a bit hand wavy of an argument.  I do know for a fact though that only ~50% of MU students take any government loans at all. 

[forgetful]

TAMU has the same policy.  I've been told that is to keep student workers away from the threshold of hours that would require TAMU to provide them insurance. Not sure if it's the same at MU

That is the exact reason.  I believe the ACA threshold is 29 hours per week, so many campuses limit students to 20 during the academic year so that they can work full time in the summer.

I can't speak for the institutions that you two are at.  But I've been at 4 different Universities in different capacities since the mid-late 90's, in 4 different states...a mixture of public and private institutions.  Everyone of them including in the 90's and long before the ACA was put in place had the same 20-hour rule.

I've been told at all of those places it is part of requirements associated with work-study.  Work-study is exempt from FICA taxes, and if I'm correct, the tax laws and work-study laws have had a cap of 20 hours for over 20 years. 

I've known of creative ways people have gotten around this rule in the past to help out students. 

Now some campuses used to have other jobs that were part time jobs (not work-study) that would have been subject to all taxes.  Those could exceed 20 hours, but most Universities did away with most of them a long time ago, to provide more work-study opportunities for students that needed the financial boost in a job that wouldn't affect their studies. 

[GGGG]

Not all student employees are work study.  In fact the vast majority of them aren't.  And yes, I have known students who have strung multiple campus jobs together to get up to 30 hours.

[jsglow]

Neither of our kids had work study at MU and both had jobs.  They had taxes deducted just like any other job. And until about 2014, they were not subject to a formal 20 hour cap although they personally never worked more than that.  Chime in here Chitown.  Some of your colleagues drove, dispatched or supervised nearly every night, yes?  Kudos to those incredibly hard working kids.

[Galway Eagle]

Because doing so would leave money on the table. That said, there are audiences and campaigns where a straight participation ask is made. These things are highly segmented though.

When you spoke to that student caller, that ask of $500 was not random. You have certain measures that assigned you to that value or giving range. Could have been past giving history, affinity metrics and/or wealth indicators.

As a former student caller this is incorrect. Yes it is segmented but in training they told us to ask $500 no matter what the segment unless there was a previous donation that was higher then 500. Almost nobody actually did but that doesn’t mean we weren’t supposed to

[warriorchick]

As a former student caller this is incorrect. Yes it is segmented but in training they told us to ask $500 no matter what the segment unless there was a previous donation that was higher then 500. Almost nobody actually did but that doesn’t mean we weren’t supposed to

I once picked up a call from glow's grad school alma mater.  Their initial ask was ten thousand dollars.  We had never donated more than a C-note at a time before that.  I laughed so hard the student caller ended up saying, "I'm sorry.  They make me start with that amount."

[Dr. Blackheart]

I once picked up a call from glow's grad school alma mater.  Their initial ask was ten thousand dollars.  We had never donated more than a C-note at a time before that.  I laughed so hard the student caller ended up saying, "I'm sorry.  They make me start with that amount."

Most U of C alums would laugh at 10K as being embarrassingly too low. 

[RJax55]

As a former student caller this is incorrect. Yes it is segmented but in training they told us to ask $500 no matter what the segment unless there was a previous donation that was higher then 500. Almost nobody actually did but that doesn’t mean we weren’t supposed to

Interesting. Thanks for clarifying.

[WarriorDad]

MU needs to get housing act together.  Last night was the third attempt for Freshmen and Sophomores to register for their student housing for next year that failed.  Students log in to a website based on a lottery number to select their dorm and meal plan. That began a few weeks ago, but had to be shut down as students with better lottery numbers were not able to login and passed by.

MU reset the process to ensure fairness after students loudly complained to Residence Life.  A second attempt happened with same results and the entire process was delayed a few weeks until last night.  Unfortunately, after several tests that said the system was ready to go, the system failed again last night.  Students received an email saying no further attempts until they are certain their vendor can fix the problem.

Apparently some students are furious and several have already stated to Residence Life they are transferring from the school after the latest mishap.  Others are frustrated at the lack of accountability and inability to get this right on three separate occasions.  That's word from McCormick and O'Donnell students.  As one student stated it might be nice if they got out of a DOS environment and had an internet presentation that appeared post 2001.   For any parents out there that have to deal with the tuition payment process online at MU they can relate.  Marquette needs to step up their game for the amount they are charging.

[warriorchick]

MU needs to get housing act together.  Last night was the third attempt for Freshmen and Sophomores to register for their student housing for next year that failed.  Students log in to a website based on a lottery number to select their dorm and meal plan. That began a few weeks ago, but had to be shut down as students with better lottery numbers were not able to login and passed by.

MU reset the process to ensure fairness after students loudly complained to Residence Life.  A second attempt happened with same results and the entire process was delayed a few weeks until last night.  Unfortunately, after several tests that said the system was ready to go, the system failed again last night.  Students received an email saying no further attempts until they are certain their vendor can fix the problem.

Apparently some students are furious and several have already stated to Residence Life they are transferring from the school after the latest mishap.  Others are frustrated at the lack of accountability and inability to get this right on three separate occasions.  That's word from McCormick and O'Donnell students.  As one student stated it might be nice if they got out of a DOS environment and had an internet presentation that appeared post 2001.   For any parents out there that have to deal with the tuition payment process online at MU they can relate.  Marquette needs to step up their game for the amount they are charging.

Of course, every rising sophomore wants to get into Wild Hall, and they will blame the process if they don't get it.


This whole process has been a huge failure, but transferring is a terrible knee-jerk reaction.  Good luck to those students in finding decent housing at another school after all the current students have made their choices.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

MU needs to get housing act together.  Last night was the third attempt for Freshmen and Sophomores to register for their student housing for next year that failed.  Students log in to a website based on a lottery number to select their dorm and meal plan. That began a few weeks ago, but had to be shut down as students with better lottery numbers were not able to login and passed by.

MU reset the process to ensure fairness after students loudly complained to Residence Life.  A second attempt happened with same results and the entire process was delayed a few weeks until last night.  Unfortunately, after several tests that said the system was ready to go, the system failed again last night.  Students received an email saying no further attempts until they are certain their vendor can fix the problem.

Apparently some students are furious and several have already stated to Residence Life they are transferring from the school after the latest mishap.  Others are frustrated at the lack of accountability and inability to get this right on three separate occasions.  That's word from McCormick and O'Donnell students.  As one student stated it might be nice if they got out of a DOS environment and had an internet presentation that appeared post 2001.   For any parents out there that have to deal with the tuition payment process online at MU they can relate.  Marquette needs to step up their game for the amount they are charging.

Should go to General Admission for students, aina?