Marquette is a Jesuit Catholic university with roughly 8,000 undergrads. Its campus in downtown Milwaukee, the largest city in Wisconsin, sits on the western shore of Lake Michigan.
The university has 11 schools and colleges, and it offers around 80 majors for students to choose from. Biology, finance, engineering and nursing are all popular degree programs, and students go on to earn comparatively high salaries, with median earnings of about $78,000 a decade after enrollment. In fact, Marquette shines in Money’s outcomes bucket, scoring well in typical alumni salaries and the share of grads who are working after graduation.
About 20% of its students are the first in their families to attend college. At the beginning of each semester, they can learn about campus organizations at the popular Organization Fest (or “O-Fest”). Marquette is widely known for its athletics, too, with 14 men's and women's teams competing in the Big East Conference.
The school's Jesuit affiliation makes its mark on campus life: The 600-year-old St. Joan of Arc Chapel, which has been at Marquette for six decades, is the heart of campus, and Mission Week is an annual opportunity for students to reflect on spirituality.
