College of Business Administration

Throughout your time in Marquette's College of Business, the administration and professors constantly strive to prepare you for your career. In every class there are real world examples that we can apply to our own careers. Each class readies you for the transition into the business world, and help you to make your decision as to what industry and career you want to pursue.

Marquette is a very humble school, and I believe that many high-profile employers (e.g. management consulting firms) do not recruit from our business school because they are not aware of the quality of the program. Marquette should try to do a better job advocating its students and the quality of a Marquette business degree to a wider variety of high-profile employers.

The feel of a medium sized business program but resources of a large one are what make Marquette's College of Business unique. Teachers and career counselors are so readily available and genuine in their interest in helping concerned students. They have mandatory office hours where teachers and advisers must be in their office to answer questions for students and are always available at many other times. I have been impressed time and again with all the networking opportunities available to those who wish to take advantage and am so happy with the decision I made in Marquette. This feel is the result of the medium sized, close-knit feel of the College of Business. However, given Marquette's outstanding academic reputation, as many companies are interested in recruiting from Marquette as at any other large College of Business.

The program would be stronger if it increased its minimum acceptable standards. MU business students are required to get at least a C in all business classes, and at least a 2.5 cumulative business GPA. I feel that raising these lower bounds may encourage students to work a little harder.

The applied learning programs available at Marquette are unique, especially the Applied Investment Management Program. It was the first CFA partner in the world to have the core curriculum of the program to be based on the CFA.

The business building could be renovated because I feel like that would make the environment a lot more up to date. Also, I feel some students stray away from looking at jobs or talking to professionals if they think their GPA isn't high enough, so I feel like the program could stress other ways to talk to them. Otherwise, I have been very impressed with the classes.

My two favorite aspects of Marquette's business program are the class sizes and the difficulty of the classes. I have friends that go to Big 10 and other large state schools that tell me about their business programs. Although the schools they go to have the "higher rank" they don't put in half the work I do. Because the classes are so small and challenging at Marquette, it is extremely competitive. Even if I don't get the highest grade in the class I am always confident I learned the necessary material that I will apply to my job some day. Classes are rarely curved which I respect.

The biggest thing the school could do is allow students to jump into low level business classes like accounting as a freshman. There are a lot of career development classes that teach business etiquette and excel skills that are not as useful to freshman as sophomores and juniors who will apply the knowledge while it is still fresh in their minds.

As an accounting major, the accounting courses I have taken thus far have been very heavy with CPA material. The professors all hint at prepping us for the CPA, which is a strong factor. Also, Marquette uses a "Matching Program" which allows accounting students to interview with many firms. After the interviews, internships are offered based on mutual interest between the student and the firm, giving both parties a say in the process. This made my internship search extremely simple. Many of the interns receive full-time offers as well.

We have fantastic real world involvement with the finance program, but increasing it even more would be fantastic. Make students get off campus and do a project for a local firm. Force networking events, as well.

Our teachers have extensive outside experience working in these fields, but they still do consulting work on the side for many globally known businesses. They also have good contact networks inside these corporations that give their students an edge in placement into internship programs or full time jobs.

The advising could be much better by giving students more resources to choose the right courses and also with advisers who really do care about their students rather than just completing the job to be done with it.

What makes Marquette's business program unique is the amount of resources available to students. There is a strong alumni presence on campus and networking is highly encouraged. The business school has its own career center and the best student advising on campus. It is very easy to double major or start taking graduate courses while completing an undergrad. Students can choose to apply for or enroll in courses that focus on applied studies. For example, there is a one-credit course where students help evaluate and make recommendations on the portfolio of a local non-profit.