A Parent’s Complete Guide to Marquette University (2026-2027)

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Jump to

• What is the one thing every Marquette University parent needs to know before move-in?
• Quick Facts for Marquette University Families
• A Note on Be The Difference
• How do parents get to Marquette University? Travel guide from Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport
• What do parents need to know about Marquette University move-in day 2026?
• The Residence Halls: Where Your Student Might Live
• How much does Marquette University cost? Tuition, financial aid, and scholarships for 2026-27
• Milwaukee: What Parents Need to Know
• When is Marquette University Family Weekend 2026 and how do parents plan for it?
• How can parents support their Marquette University student’s mental health?
• Who do Marquette University parents contact? Essential numbers and websites for families
• Marquette’s Academic Strengths
• What is Marquette University’s graduation rate?
• Academic Calendar
• What to Pack for Marquette University

What is the one thing every Marquette University parent needs to know before move-in?

When parents picture a Catholic university, they often imagine a self-contained campus set back from a small town, with a quiet quad at the center and cornfields or suburbs in every direction.

Marquette University is the exception to that image, and understanding that exception early will save you significant confusion and open your eyes to what makes this institution genuinely remarkable. Marquette sits embedded in the west side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a mid-size American city with a manufacturing heritage, a dense arts and restaurant culture, a passionate sports community, and all of the authentic urban texture that a suburban campus simply cannot replicate. Your student is not going to a campus near a city. Your student is going to a campus that is part of a city, and that distinction will shape nearly every dimension of their four years.

Milwaukee is an underrated American city, and that underrating is a gift to the families who discover it. Founded by German, Polish, and other European immigrants whose influence still shows up in the food, the architecture, and the work ethic, Milwaukee has a genuine character that feels nothing like the manufactured college-town environment students find at many residential campuses. The Milwaukee Bucks play at Fiserv Forum, which sits so close to the Marquette campus that students can see the arena from their residence hall windows. That adjacency is not incidental: it means your student will have access to NBA games, major concerts, and big-time events within a ten-minute walk of their dorm. It also means that on game nights, the neighborhood has an energy that no rural campus can produce.

Marquette basketball is woven into the identity of the university and the city in equal measure. The Golden Eagles compete in the Big East Conference alongside Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, and Xavier, and the program carries a history that any parent of a sports fan should know: Al McGuire coached Marquette to the 1977 national championship in what became one of college basketball’s most celebrated stories, and Dwyane Wade played three seasons for the Golden Eagles from 2001 to 2003 before his first-round NBA draft selection turned him into one of the league’s all-time greats. Those seasons put Marquette on the national basketball consciousness in a way that still echoes in how the program is discussed and how intensely the community follows it. Home games at Fiserv Forum are not ordinary college basketball experiences. They are played in an NBA arena with NBA production values, and the student section is one of the most committed in the Big East.

The Jesuit mission of cura personalis, which translates roughly as “care for the whole person,” is not a marketing phrase at Marquette. It shapes the curriculum, the service expectations, the faculty culture, and the way student affairs offices approach their work. Every Marquette undergraduate takes coursework across philosophy, theology, writing, science, and the social sciences through the Core of Common Studies, which is Marquette’s version of a liberal arts core. This is not optional, and it is not superficial. Students will read Augustine and Aristotle, will grapple with questions about justice and meaning, and will be expected to bring those questions to bear on their professional formation. Parents who send students to Marquette for a specific professional degree (nursing, engineering, business, communication) will find that their student also becomes something broader: a person trained to think across disciplines and to take seriously questions that purely vocational programs would never touch.

One more thing parents need to understand before anything else: Milwaukee winters are serious. The city sits on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and that proximity creates a lake-effect snow pattern that can drop significant accumulation quickly and unpredictably. January average temperatures hover around 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and the wind chill off the lake can push that number considerably lower. February is the hardest month for students from warmer or coastal climates, and the mental health dimension of a Milwaukee winter is real and worth addressing directly with your student before they arrive. The good news is that Marquette prepares students for this through community programming, warm campus spaces, and a culture of looking out for each other. Students who lean into the Milwaukee experience rather than retreating from it find that the city has extraordinary indoor destinations, from art museums to historic restaurants to Bucks games, that make the winter entirely manageable. Students who isolate and wait for spring find the grey cold accumulates into something heavier.

Quick Facts for Marquette University Families

A Note on Be The Difference

“Be The Difference” is not just a marketing tagline for Marquette. It is the operational expression of a Jesuit educational philosophy that holds, at its core, that education is not complete until it produces a person committed to something larger than themselves.

Cura personalis, the care for the whole person, means that Marquette is institutionally committed to developing students intellectually, spiritually, professionally, and morally at once. For parents who want their student to emerge from college with a strong professional credential and a deeper sense of who they are and what they owe to the world, that commitment is the central selling proposition of a Marquette education.

The Golden Eagles identity and the basketball program are inseparable from what it means to go to Marquette. Al McGuire’s 1977 national championship remains one of the most celebrated coaching stories in college basketball history: a tough, intuitive, deeply human coach led a team of overlooked players to a title, then announced his retirement courtside while the final buzzer still echoed. That story became part of Marquette’s institutional mythology in a way that shaped how the university understands its own identity. Dwyane Wade’s three seasons from 2001 to 2003 added a different chapter, as a player who arrived largely under the national radar developed into one of the great NBA players of his era through his time at Marquette. These are not just sports facts. They are the emotional texture of a university culture that values grit, loyalty, and the capacity to outperform expectations.

The St. Joan of Arc Chapel deserves specific mention. Located on the Marquette campus, this small medieval chapel was transported stone by stone from a village in southern France and reconstructed on the university grounds, making it one of the most extraordinary physical artifacts in the Midwest. One of its stones is said to have been touched by Joan of Arc herself, and tradition holds that this stone remains cooler than the others. The chapel is used for regular services but is also open as a reflective space, and it functions as one of the genuine gathering points for students across faith backgrounds who are looking for quiet and beauty in the middle of an urban university. University Ministry at Marquette offers Jesuit spiritual direction to students of all faith traditions, including those who do not identify as Catholic or Christian, and that openness is characteristic of how Marquette approaches the Jesuit mission in practice.

Service learning and community engagement with Milwaukee’s west side are structural commitments, not optional enrichment. Many Marquette programs require community-based coursework, and the university’s relationship with the surrounding neighborhoods reflects decades of genuine investment in the city. The Milwaukee that surrounds Marquette has faced significant economic challenges, and Marquette’s service learning programs place students in direct relationship with that reality in ways that are educationally serious and personally formative. Parents should know that their student will be asked, in multiple ways across multiple years, to show up for the community that hosts them. That is not a burden. It is one of the most valuable things Marquette does.

How do parents get to Marquette University? Travel guide from Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport

Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE) is the most convenient option for most families flying directly to campus. Located approximately 8 miles south of Marquette, MKE offers nonstop service from Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Minneapolis, and a growing number of other cities.

The airport is modern, manageable in size, and easy to navigate with a carload of dorm supplies. Rideshare service from MKE to campus typically runs 20 to 30 minutes and is affordable by urban standards. For international connections or coast-to-coast travel on routes that do not serve MKE directly, Chicago O’Hare International (ORD) is approximately 90 miles south and offers the full range of international and domestic connections that a major hub provides. Getting from O’Hare to Marquette requires either a rental car on I-94 north, a bus connection, or the Amtrak Hiawatha to downtown Milwaukee followed by a rideshare to campus.

The Amtrak Hiawatha service is one of the practical transportation advantages that Milwaukee holds over many peer college cities. The Hiawatha runs multiple times daily between Chicago Union Station and Milwaukee’s Intermodal Station in downtown Milwaukee, with a travel time of approximately 90 minutes. The train is comfortable, reliable, and significantly more pleasant than driving the I-94 corridor in congested conditions. The Milwaukee Intermodal Station is located approximately 3 miles from campus, making it an easy rideshare connection. For students coming from the Chicago suburbs or from families who connect through Chicago, the Hiawatha is a genuinely excellent option that removes the stress of driving and parking. Families visiting for Family Weekend who are flying into O’Hare might consider taking the Hiawatha to Milwaukee rather than renting a car, particularly if they plan to spend their visit in walkable Milwaukee neighborhoods.

Driving remains the most practical option for families loading a vehicle with dorm supplies at move-in and move-out. From Chicago, Milwaukee is approximately 90 miles north on I-94, a 90-minute drive in normal traffic that extends significantly in Friday evening rush hour conditions. From Madison, the drive is approximately 75 miles east on I-94, about an hour. From Minneapolis, the drive south on I-94 through Wisconsin takes approximately 5 hours and passes through some beautiful stretches of upper Midwest landscape. Within Milwaukee, the campus is walkable internally, and the surrounding neighborhoods are accessible on foot, by the city’s MCTS bus system, or via the Hop streetcar that serves the downtown and Historic Third Ward areas. A car is useful for wider Milwaukee exploration and for grocery runs beyond what walking distance provides, but many students manage without one, particularly freshmen in residence halls.

What do parents need to know about Marquette University move-in day 2026?

Move-in at Marquette typically happens in late August, and Milwaukee’s late August weather is genuinely cooperative for the task. The city’s position on Lake Michigan moderates temperature extremes, and late summer days generally run from 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit with lower humidity than inland Midwest cities like Chicago or Indianapolis.

That said, the days are warm enough that physical labor in the sun will produce sweat, and packing water bottles and wearing light layers is a sensible approach for everyone hauling boxes and furniture up residence hall stairwells. Marquette organizes move-in with assigned arrival windows to manage the urban parking constraints of a city campus, and the university’s student volunteer corps is one of the largest and most enthusiastic in the region, meaning help will be available the moment you arrive.

Welcome Weekend programming at Marquette is designed to ease the transition for both students and parents. The schedule typically includes orientation sessions, campus tours, community dinners, and the ceremonial moments that mark the beginning of a student’s time at Marquette. Parents who have attended Welcome Weekend at large public universities will notice the difference: Marquette’s scale makes these events feel personal rather than logistical, and the Jesuit community-building emphasis means the programming is designed with genuine intention rather than bureaucratic box-checking. The university also provides programming specifically for parents and families during this first weekend, giving you context for the year ahead before you make the drive home.

The urban campus means move-in parking is more constrained than what you would find at a suburban or rural institution where everyone simply drives to the building and unloads. Marquette manages this through the arrival window system, temporary parking accommodations near residence halls, and the student volunteer presence that speeds the unloading process considerably. The key is to follow the university’s communicated instructions precisely, arrive within your assigned window, unload efficiently, and move your vehicle to a designated lot before going back to help your student settle in. Trying to stay parked in a loading zone past your window creates problems for the families behind you, and the volunteers and Residence Life staff have seen every variation of this situation.

Practical move-in tips for Marquette:

• Bring cash for parking meters and street parking in case lots fill faster than expected
• Label every box and bin with your student’s name, room number, and hall before you arrive
• Pack a small “open first” bag with bedding, toiletries, a power strip, and a phone charger so your student can sleep comfortably even if the rest of the unpacking takes days
• Confirm mattress dimensions for your specific hall before purchasing a mattress topper (sizes vary across Marquette’s residence halls)
• Wear comfortable shoes; the combination of carrying boxes and walking the campus will cover more ground than you expect
• Plan for a brief, intentional goodbye; long lingering farewells in the hallway make the transition harder for everyone, and your student’s new community is ready to welcome them

The Residence Halls: Where Your Student Might Live

Marquette’s residential system spans a range of building styles and living experiences, from traditional freshman halls with double rooms and communal bathrooms to tower apartments designed for upperclassmen who want more independence. Understanding the differences helps set expectations for what your student’s first year living environment will actually look like.

Cobeen Hall is the largest and most socially active freshman assignment, and its reputation as the heart of freshman community life is well earned. Cobeen’s size means a large pool of floormates from the start, and the hall’s programming and Residence Life staff create intentional community-building from the first week. The central location and dining access make it a convenient base for navigating the academic quad and the rest of campus. Students assigned to Cobeen should expect to meet a disproportionate share of their long-term Marquette friendships within the first few weeks of living there.

McCormick Hall is another very common freshman assignment, sitting close to the main academic quad area and offering traditional double rooms with communal floor bathrooms. The hall has a strong community culture supported by active Residence Life programming, and its proximity to academic buildings makes it practical for students whose class schedules require frequent movement across campus.

Mashuda Hall is a co-educational traditional residence hall with a good central location on campus. It shares the basic configuration of McCormick but draws a mix of freshmen and returning students, which can give the community a different social texture than a hall that is predominantly first-year.

Carpenter Tower is a high-rise residence hall with suite-style rooms that make it popular with upperclassmen who want more privacy and a different living environment than the traditional corridor hall. The views from upper floors of Carpenter are genuinely striking, and the suite configuration means smaller shared-bathroom groups, which students who have survived one year of communal bathrooms tend to appreciate.

Straz Tower is another high-rise option that skews toward upperclassmen, offering excellent views of the Milwaukee skyline and the lake horizon. The tower configuration and its population of returning students give Straz a more independent, apartment-adjacent feel that suits juniors and seniors who are transitioning toward post-graduation urban living.

Schroeder Hall is a traditional hall with a notable campus adjacency: it sits connected to the Haggerty Museum of Art, giving students in Schroeder a distinctive proximity to one of Marquette’s underappreciated cultural assets. The hall draws students from across class years and has a quieter, somewhat more intimate community culture than the larger freshman-heavy halls.

The Commons at 17th represents Marquette’s apartment-style upperclassman housing option, offering a living situation that bridges the gap between traditional residence hall life and full off-campus apartment living. Students in The Commons have private or semi-private bedroom arrangements within shared apartment units, making it a popular transition step for juniors who are not yet ready for the full independence of off-campus housing but want more space and autonomy than a traditional hall provides.

After freshman year, a significant portion of Marquette students move off campus into the surrounding Milwaukee neighborhoods. The Avenues West neighborhood immediately west of campus and the Story Hill neighborhood further west offer abundant housing at prices that are reasonable by urban standards. The Historic Third Ward to the east, while farther from campus, attracts students who want to be immersed in Milwaukee’s most vibrant commercial and arts district. The availability of off-campus housing is one of the practical advantages of an urban campus, and students who plan ahead typically find comfortable, affordable arrangements without the scramble that characterizes off-campus housing searches at cities with fewer rental options.

How much does Marquette University cost? Tuition, financial aid, and scholarships for 2026-27

The sticker price at Marquette is substantial, and many families see those numbers and conclude, incorrectly, that the university is out of reach. The more important figure is the net price after financial aid, and for families with demonstrated financial need, that figure is often significantly lower than the published cost of attendance.

The sticker price at Marquette is substantial, and many families see those numbers and conclude, incorrectly, that the university is out of reach. The more important figure is the net price after financial aid, and for families with demonstrated financial need, that figure is often significantly lower than the published cost of attendance. Marquette meets meaningful portions of demonstrated need through a combination of grants, scholarships, and work-study, and the university’s institutional commitment to financial accessibility reflects the Jesuit mission of educating students who might not otherwise have access to a high-quality private university education.

At the merit level, the Ignatius Scholarship is Marquette’s most prestigious merit award, providing full-tuition support to a select group of incoming students who demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and leadership. The Presidential Scholarship and the Dean’s Scholarship recognize strong academic profiles at the next tier, providing substantial annual awards to students who meet competitive GPA and test score thresholds. Departmental scholarships are available through the College of Business Administration, the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing, and other units for students whose profile and intended major align with specific program priorities. The combination of institutional aid and departmental awards means that families should calculate Marquette’s cost not from the catalog page but from the actual award letter that arrives in the spring.

Completing both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile is essential for families seeking need-based aid at Marquette. The CSS Profile provides the institution with a more detailed picture of family financial circumstances than the FAFSA alone, and submitting it on time is a prerequisite for full consideration of institutional grant funding. Missing the Profile deadline can leave need-based grant money unclaimed, so families should calendar both submission deadlines in the fall of senior year and treat them with the same urgency as application deadlines.

FAFSA guide for Marquette families

Full college cost planning guide

Milwaukee: What Parents Need to Know

Milwaukee is one of the most genuinely underrated American cities, and the families who discover it during a Marquette visit tend to leave with a changed perception of what a Midwestern city can be.

The German and Polish immigrant heritage that shaped Milwaukee’s character shows up everywhere: in the architecture of the historic neighborhoods, in the food culture (which runs deep on sausage, beer, and dairy in ways that are not ironic or nostalgic but simply authentic), and in a work ethic and unpretentious social culture that feels nothing like the more self-conscious coastal cities. Milwaukee has a thriving arts scene, a walkable downtown core, and a culinary landscape that is significantly more sophisticated than its national reputation suggests.

The Historic Third Ward is the destination you should know for parent visits. Located east of campus, approximately 15 minutes by rideshare, the Third Ward is Milwaukee’s arts, restaurant, and boutique shopping district, occupying a repurposed warehouse neighborhood with brick streets, excellent independent restaurants, and a weekend energy that makes it one of the most pleasant urban neighborhoods in the Midwest. The Milwaukee Public Market sits in the Third Ward and is an excellent Saturday morning stop, with local vendors selling cheese, bread, charcuterie, pastries, flowers, and prepared food in a covered market hall that rewards a slow, grazing visit. Brady Street, north of the Third Ward near the lakefront, is the city’s eclectic alternative corridor: independent coffee shops, ethnic restaurants from Ethiopian to Thai, vintage stores, and the kind of neighborhood mix that students who grew up in cities will recognize immediately as their people.

For dinner during a parent visit, Bartolotta’s Lake Park Bistro is the recommendation that consistently earns its reputation. Set in a historic pavilion overlooking Lake Michigan in Lake Park, it serves French bistro cuisine at a level that would be notable in any major American city, and the lakefront setting on a clear evening is genuinely beautiful. Bacchus, in downtown Milwaukee, is a more formal option with an exceptional wine list and the kind of service that suits a celebration dinner. For something more casual and student-friendly, Comet Cafe on Brady Street offers hearty, unpretentious American comfort food in a space that draws students and parents with equal comfort. Lakefront Brewery, located along the Milwaukee River, offers tours and a beer hall experience that is a Milwaukee institution: expect good lager, a loud friendly crowd, and polka music.

The Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum are worth attending if you visit during the NBA season. The arena sits immediately adjacent to campus, and the combination of a world-class NBA facility and a genuinely competitive franchise means that attending a Bucks game during a parent visit produces a better arena experience than most American cities can offer at any level. Marquette basketball at the same venue is equally worth planning around: Big East games against Georgetown, Seton Hall, Villanova, and Xavier in an NBA building create a college basketball atmosphere that is genuinely among the best in the conference.

What parents from southern and coastal states most need to prepare for is the Milwaukee winter, and preparing means both packing and conversation. January in Milwaukee averages around 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and Lake Michigan wind-chill can push the effective temperature well below that. Lake-effect snow falls quickly and accumulates meaningfully; the campus and the city manage it competently, but students who have never experienced sustained cold and snow will encounter something unfamiliar and potentially uncomfortable. The right outerwear, boots, and layers make the Milwaukee winter manageable and even beautiful on the clear, cold days when the lake freezes at its edges and the campus looks like a snow globe. The wrong gear, or the refusal to acquire the right gear, makes February feel like an endurance test. Send your student to Milwaukee with a real winter coat, waterproof boots, thermal layers, and the knowledge that the city has extraordinary indoor destinations waiting on the coldest days.

When is Marquette University Family Weekend 2026 and how do parents plan for it?

Marquette Family Weekend typically takes place in October, organized by the Office of Student Development, and it is one of the most anticipated events on the university calendar.

The timing is well chosen: October in Milwaukee offers some of the most beautiful weather of the year, with cool, clear days and turning foliage in the parks and neighborhoods surrounding campus. The programming spans campus tours, faculty meet-and-greet sessions, Mass, athletic events, and dinner options that give families a structured way to reconnect with their students while experiencing the university as a community. If you can make only one trip to Milwaukee each academic year, Family Weekend is the optimal moment to schedule it.

Marquette basketball is the social anchor of campus life from November through March, and the Big East schedule provides a series of genuinely memorable events that families can plan visits around. Home games against Georgetown, Seton Hall, Villanova, and Xavier at Fiserv Forum are electric, and the student section at Marquette basketball games has a reputation for sustained noise and commitment that is unusual even by Big East standards. The Marquette versus Wisconsin rivalry in basketball, which has historically drawn significant interest from both institutions’ fan bases, represents the kind of crosstown state competition that college sports does especially well. If your student is a basketball fan, or if they become one after their first home game at Fiserv Forum, planning a parent visit around a Big East home game will produce an experience neither of you will forget.

The All University Communion Mass is one of the most distinctive traditions in American Catholic higher education. The campus-wide gathering brings students, faculty, staff, and the broader Marquette community together for a Mass that underscores the shared identity and mission of the institution in a way that no lecture or orientation session can replicate. For families who share a Catholic faith, attending the Mass during a campus visit is a moving and memorable experience. For families of other faiths or no faith, understanding that this tradition exists and that it is welcomed rather than required gives useful insight into how Marquette integrates its Jesuit Catholic identity with genuine respect for students of all backgrounds.

For hotel accommodations during Family Weekend and Bucks game weekends, book early. Milwaukee has strong hotel inventory for a mid-size city, but the combination of Fiserv Forum events, Marquette family visitors, and the general October tourism draw on the city’s supply in ways that can leave desirable options sold out weeks in advance. The Pfister Hotel is Milwaukee’s historic grand hotel, a Victorian landmark downtown that is about 10 minutes from campus by rideshare and represents the most prestigious accommodation in the city. The Marriott Milwaukee Downtown and the Hilton Milwaukee City Center are both strong options for families who want reliable full-service hotels at a more moderate price point. All three are within comfortable rideshare distance of both campus and Fiserv Forum.

How can parents support their Marquette University student’s mental health?

The Milwaukee winter is the most predictable mental health challenge for Marquette students, and it is worth naming directly rather than leaving your student to discover it unprepared.

The grey, cold, and wind that accumulate from November through February create a seasonal pressure that affects mood, motivation, and social behavior in ways that students from warmer climates find genuinely surprising. February is the hardest month: the novelty of winter has worn off, spring is not yet visible, and the Lake Michigan wind has been stripping warmth from every outdoor walk for months. Marquette’s counseling and student wellness systems are well aware of this pattern and build programming around it, but the most effective preparation happens before your student arrives, in conversations about what to expect and how to respond.

Marquette’s Counseling Center is the primary clinical resource for students with mental health concerns, offering individual therapy, group counseling, psychiatric services, and crisis intervention. The university’s Be Well Marquette program takes a broader wellness approach, addressing not just clinical mental health but sleep, physical activity, nutrition, stress management, and the social dimensions of wellbeing that interact with mental health in complex ways. TimelyCare, if available through Marquette’s current service agreements, provides telehealth mental health support as a bridge resource for students who need to speak with a counselor outside of regular Counseling Center hours or who face wait times for scheduled appointments. Parents should verify current service offerings with the Counseling Center directly, as telehealth partnerships evolve from year to year.

The University Ministry and pastoral care infrastructure at Marquette represents a resource that many parents overlook because they associate it exclusively with religious practice. Jesuit spiritual direction is available to students of all faith backgrounds, including those who do not identify as Catholic, Christian, or religious at all, and it can be a meaningful complement to clinical counseling for students who are working through questions of meaning, purpose, and identity alongside the more clinical dimensions of anxiety or depression. The urban environment is also a mental health asset in a way that is easy to underestimate: Milwaukee’s cultural richness gives students who engage with it a genuine alternative to the claustrophobia that can settle over isolated rural campuses in winter. Students who attend Bucks games, explore the Third Ward, visit the Milwaukee Art Museum, or simply make a habit of getting off campus regularly tend to weather the Milwaukee winter better than those who retreat to their rooms and wait for spring.

Mental health resources for Marquette families:

• Counseling Center: contact via marquette.edu/counseling
• University Ministry: contact via marquette.edu/ministry
• Crisis Line: call or text 988
• Marquette Public Safety (non-emergency): contact via marquette.edu/publicsafety

Who do Marquette University parents contact? Essential numbers and websites for families

Key bookmarks to save now: marquette.edu/parents (your central resource portal), marquette.edu/financialaid (financial aid status and award information), and marquette.edu/reslife (residence life and housing information). Saving these pages and checking them proactively before calling any office will often get you to answers faster than waiting in a phone queue.

• Family Programs / Parent Resources: contact via marquette.edu/parents
• Dean of Students: contact via marquette.edu/studentaffairs
• Residence Life: contact via marquette.edu/reslife
• Financial Aid: contact via marquette.edu/financialaid
• Counseling Center: contact via marquette.edu/counseling
• University Ministry: contact via marquette.edu/ministry
• Public Safety (non-emergency): contact via marquette.edu/publicsafety
• Registrar: contact via marquette.edu/registrar
• Emergency: 911

Key bookmarks to save now: marquette.edu/parents (your central resource portal), marquette.edu/financialaid (financial aid status and award information), and marquette.edu/reslife (residence life and housing information). Saving these pages and checking them proactively before calling any office will often get you to answers faster than waiting in a phone queue.

Marquette’s Academic Strengths

Marquette is a university with genuine depth across a range of professional and liberal arts programs, and parents who think of it primarily as a basketball school will miss the academic substance that makes it one of the stronger private universities in the Midwest.

Marquette is a university with genuine depth across a range of professional and liberal arts programs, and parents who think of it primarily as a basketball school will miss the academic substance that makes it one of the stronger private universities in the Midwest. The Marquette University Law School is consistently ranked among the best law schools in Wisconsin and is well regarded across the broader Midwest legal community, with strong alumni representation in Wisconsin’s judicial system, major law firms, and public service offices throughout the region. For students who are considering law school as a post-undergraduate path, Marquette’s pre-law advising and its pipeline to its own law school represent a coherent and well-supported academic trajectory.

The College of Business Administration draws strong placement into Chicago and Milwaukee financial, accounting, marketing, and consulting firms, benefiting from the density of Marquette alumni in both cities and the university’s reputation for producing graduates who combine professional competence with the ethical grounding that Jesuit education provides. The College of Engineering maintains strong programs in biomedical, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering, with particularly deep connections to Milwaukee’s manufacturing and technology industry base. Students who want to build careers in engineering within the Great Lakes industrial region will find that a Marquette degree carries recognition and relationships that are hard to replicate at a school without Marquette’s specific regional network. The College of Nursing is one of the strongest Catholic nursing programs in the country, with hospital placement partnerships spanning the Milwaukee and Chicago healthcare systems and a clinical training infrastructure that prepares graduates for immediate professional effectiveness.

The Diederich College of Communication offers strong programs in journalism, public relations, and digital media that benefit from Milwaukee’s proximity to Chicago’s major media market while maintaining the smaller class sizes and faculty access that a large public journalism school cannot match. The College of Education has a respected teacher education and counseling program with strong relationships across the Milwaukee public and private school systems. Across all of these professional colleges, the Jesuit core curriculum ensures that every Marquette graduate carries exposure to philosophy, theology, writing, mathematics, and the social sciences, and employers in every sector consistently value that breadth in graduates who might otherwise be narrowly trained.

You Are a Golden Eagle Family Now

Choosing Marquette is choosing a particular vision of what a university education should accomplish. It is choosing a Jesuit institution that takes seriously its obligation to educate the whole person and to place that person in service of something larger than professional success. It is choosing an urban campus embedded in a genuine American city with all the richness and complexity and challenge that implies. It is choosing a basketball program that plays in an NBA arena and carries the legacy of Al McGuire, Dwyane Wade, and a tradition of competing well against programs that have more resources and more national attention. It is choosing Milwaukee winters and Midwest work ethics and a community of students who, by the end of four years, call this city home with a loyalty that surprises them.

Your student will come back changed, as all students do. But the particular shape of the Marquette change tends to be one that combines professional readiness with an unusual depth of character, a capacity to engage across difference, and a genuine relationship with a city that most of the country has not yet discovered. The cura personalis that Marquette promises is not delivered in a single moment or a single course. It accumulates across four years of small encounters with demanding faculty, of service-learning placements that challenge assumptions, of Jesuit spiritual direction at moments of uncertainty, and of the daily practice of being part of a community that holds you accountable to something more than your grade point average.

Be The Difference. That is what Marquette asks of your student, and it is what the best Jesuit education has always asked. Welcome to the Golden Eagle family. Milwaukee is waiting.

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Last updated: May 2026. Tuition, dates, and policies subject to change. Verify all time-sensitive information at marquette.edu and marquette.edu/parents.