The Marquette Connection (podcast)

When Andy Schneider approaches a California student about coming to Marquette, the conversation doesn’t usually begin with questions about academic majors or the best dorms on campus.

“We instantly talk about snow and how to buy a coat,” said Schneider, assistant dean of Undergraduate Admissions.

Schneider serves as a Marquette admissions counselor for Michigan and Southern California and travels at least a month out of the year recruiting high school students. From representing Marquette at college fairs to making presentations at high schools and interviewing students and parents, he works to both spread the Marquette name and encourage families to visit campus.

Making a one-on-one connection with students is integral to the recruitment process, Schneider said.

“What we like to do as often as possible is have opportunities to meet individually with students and families when we’re in their neck of the woods,” said Schneider. He often meets them in hotel lobbies or at Starbucks.

All 19 Marquette admissions counselors have the same objective in recruiting students across the country, but each gets to know his or her territory and understand what works best for promoting the Marquette mission there.

While the admissions counselors are instrumental in recruiting students from every corner of the country, current students, alumni and faculty — among others — help recruit simply by sharing their Marquette experiences. Schneider describes it as a snowball effect.

“So much of the work that’s done to spread the Marquette name across the country is done by second, third parties, and sometimes by complete strangers,” he said.

Or even dentists. Schneider knew one Marquette student from California whose dentist was the one to drop Marquette’s name and lead him there.

“I hear so many different ways that students get connected to Marquette initially,” he said.

The admissions office also taps into alumni to help make Marquette more visible. Each admissions counselor stays closely connected with the alumni clubs in their regions. There are about 40 alumni clubs in the country.

For the most part, the admissions office relies on alumni to staff tables at college fairs and put a human face to the Marquette name. But alumni are just as valuable in making that one-on-one connection.

Not only will alumni call high school students who have been accepted to congratulate them and answer any questions, but they also gather with first-year students before they leave to send them on their way.

These send-off ceremonies happen all over the country and unite alumni, incoming students and even current students in the Marquette spirit.

Tim Simmons, executive director of the Marquette University Alumni Association, attended a send-off celebration in Seattle where alumni had organized a small Mass and breakfast for incoming students and their parents.

“It gets them started off on the right foot,” Simmons said.

And alumni, with Marquette degrees and the jobs to match, are undoubtedly an encouraging presence for incoming students.

“Alumni were where those students are today,” Simmons said. “They’ve been through the Marquette experience, and certainly show prospective students the success alumni have and the impact they’re making in the world. That’s really an important message.”

Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter further spread the message and mission of Marquette from state to state. The university’s student Facebook page ranks among the most effective in the country, connecting nearly 2,000 students from each class by year’s end.

“They (students) start establishing those geographic connections early on, which is good for two reasons,” Schneider said. “One, they can start to meet people, and two, they can look to see they’re not the only one making that leap of faith.”

Student Stories

Divine Intervention

Amy Lee, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, had never heard of Marquette until receiving her acceptance letter from the university.

While applying to colleges through commonapp.org, a website students can use to submit their applications, a typo led her to the school. Instead of typing “WA” into the search bar to look up universities in Washington, she accidently typed “WI.” And from there, Lee accidentally sent her application in to Marquette.

When her acceptance letter arrived in Wyoming, her mom called her with the exciting news. Lee was studying in Brazil at the time and never even saw the letter. She decided to enroll after her mom told her that several of her dad’s cousins had attended Marquette and still lived in Milwaukee.

She enrolled in two other schools and attended preview sessions at each one. The people she met at Marquette along with nearby family sealed the deal.

“The quality of people here is amazing,” Lee said. “There’s so many great people.”

She was also interested in attending a school where she could learn more about religion, even if it meant traveling across the country to do so.

“It’s only a two-hour plane flight,” she said. “I wouldn’t even consider it that far. I love to travel. My family loves to travel. I would consider this a stone’s throw from home.”

For Lee, Marquette has worked out perfectly.

“I really do think I’m here by an act of God,” said Lee. “I really think it was divine intervention.”

A Jesuit Connection

Alex Lombard’s first step on Marquette’s campus was just days before his first class as a first-year student.

Without having ever toured the campus or even driven through, he leapt halfway across the country in August 2009 to begin four years in Marquette’s College of Arts & Sciences.

“I figured it would be an adventure,” Lombard said. “I’ve lived on the East Coast my whole life, and I’ve always been one to take risks. I figured it’d be worthwhile to spend four years of college in the Midwest.”

And after spending every summer away from home at summer camp since age 10, he had no problem packing his bags to move more than 800 miles.

“I saw it as a challenge to start with nothing somewhere I didn’t know anything about and build myself up,” he said.

Coming from Boston College High, also a Jesuit school, lessened the leap. Although Lombard is not Catholic, he still appreciated his Jesuit education and wanted to continue it. Marquette recruited heavily at his high school and also at his rival high school, St. John’s Prep. Lombard knows at least ten others from both high schools who now attend Marquette.

Although Lombard considered transferring after burning himself out with too many commitments freshman year, he didn’t give up on Marquette, Milwaukee or the Midwest right away.

“I figured I might as well stick it out, and then eventually I grew to be comfortable here and enjoy it,” he said.

A Niche in Time

Brooke Currier’s first semester at Marquette almost came to be her last.

The senior, who studies in the College of Arts & Sciences, didn’t exactly set foot on campus by choice.

“I was kind of dragged there kicking and screaming,” Currier, now a senior, said.

While Currier for years had planned on attending another Jesuit institution, Fordham University in the Bronx, she was diverted to Marquette with the promise of more scholarships.

Currier wanted to go to school at least a day’s drive away from home. She also sought a well-rounded education with a strong core curriculum.

Marquette offered her both of those criteria, plus more affordable tuition.

“I wanted something that forced me outside of my comfort zone,” she said. “I’ve never been a math person or a science person, but I didn’t want to graduate college without forcing myself to study things I had never really been good at.”

She just didn’t want Wisconsin.

“I knew nothing about Wisconsin, other than that it was cold and people hunted,” she said. “There was nothing particularly appealing about it.”

Currier’s first semester challenged her daily with homesickness for Oregon. But a deal she made with her parents to stay at least a year kept her there second semester. This was followed by another three years as she found her niche in Campus Crusade for Christ.

“Around spring break time [freshman year], I had that epiphany and realized that’s where I was supposed to be,” she said. “I knew there was no going back after that.”