This past weekend while I was home for fall break, I visited a friend who attends a similar private college as Marquette. While I was there, I was shocked by a comment I received about my university. While explaining to someone how much I enjoy Marquette, a young man turned to me and said, “Why would you want to go to Marquette? Don’t you want a job when you graduate?”
Besides the blatant rudeness and falsity of the comment, I was mostly surprised that someone would come down so harshly on the very difficult and personal decision that I made to attend Marquette. I did not share this with the stranger who made the comment, but I specifically chose Marquette to experience something different than the city in which I grew up. The college I visited may be statistically rated higher in certain areas than Marquette, but that in no way takes away from the exceptional academic experience I have obtained on this campus. It does not change my absolute certainty that I will leave this campus feeling optimistic about my future.
Beyond the academics, there were so many other reasons I chose Marquette that had nothing to do with statistics. I chose a beautiful campus in an exceptional city, filled with some of the friendliest and most genuine people I have ever known. For such a big campus, something about the community on these ten blocks makes it seem small and safe to me. People who chose this school for reasons both similar and very different than my own surround me, but I believe we all ended up here for our own reasons. I know I will never regret choosing Marquette, because my time here has changed me in ways that I know a campus in my home city never would have been capable. It sounds cliché to say it broadened my horizons, but it is not incorrect. I love the person I am becoming at Marquette, and I know others around me feel the same.
It is important to remember, both for current college students and students making the big college decision, that statistics are just numbers. There is no statistic that accounts for all the times professors have helped me, or fellow students have helped make me feel at home when I am thousands of miles away from my real home. There is no statistic that can measure the lasting friendships I am building or the lessons I am learning that have nothing to do with my major. Every student is different, and the college choice is his or hers to make. No one can take that away from you. I know I am not going to let that ignorant stranger take it away from me.
Marquette Fanatics photo credit to Marquette Wire.