Marquette University Top Questions

The student government is a complete farce, mostly due to an administration that doesn't generally care about what it says. The students have an almost nonexistent role in how the university operates, with most major policy decisions made unilaterally by the administration. The ROTC program is generally populated by conservative wingnuts that no one takes seriously, and lately there have been protests against this program by opponents of the current US foreign policy. The Jesuits are actually mostly cool people, with some of them teaching cool classes. The financial aid office is generally useless. Their solution for finding more money is, most often, "look on Fastweb," a website which is also generally useless. The food in the dorms is, by and large, pretty bad. College food invariably is, and MU is no exception. The meal plan policy, up until next year, at least, is also complete garbage, and costs entirely too much money. The library is quite nice, with plenty of quiet places to sit down and study or write. The chapel in the center of campus is beautiful, and if you're Catholic the 10PM Tuesday Mass is highly recommended. The surrounding neighborhood is not the safest in the world, but it's not the most dangerous either. There are plenty of places for upperclassmen to live, as long as they are attentive to their safety and surroundings. The dorms are all perfectly safe and well staffed. The public safety department is outstanding, and well armed. They do an excellent job protecting and serving the students and keep campus and the surrounding neighborhood safe.

The area surrounding the school is bad, the students are snotty, and the dorms have too many rules (no opposite sex sleepovers, need to check every person in). However, the class sizes are good, many professors are very credible, and if you find the right group of people for you it can be a very good experience.

The Marquette bookstore (BookMarq) SUCKS! They are a monopoly on campus and rip you off. They refuse to release ISBN numbers of books (which makes sure that students can only buy books from them). They also don't buy back most of your books, and when they do, you get ripped off. I bought a $200 Communications set for one semester and BookMarq wouldn't buy it back. I brought the set to the underground bookstore down the street and got about $5. While I do feel that Marquette's administration cares about student security (which is probably only because bad things happening to students would be bad press), I don't really feel that the administration cares about me. I feel that all they care about is wringing more money out of me. Red tape at Marquette is obnoxious. To set up a philanthropy event I had to fill out like 3 forms from 3 different offices and talk to several people. You wouldn't think a Catholic school would make philanthropy so difficult. Overall, I really don't care about Marquette and don't have Marquette spirit. What I do care about is my fraternity, because they care about me. Why care about something when it doesn't care back?

Marquette: either you love it or hate it. Make sure you really visit the school before deciding.