2011 Surveys of Juniors and Graduating Seniors
Findings of Note

Students continue to report very high rates of satisfaction with their Marquette education. 85% of graduating seniors would chose to attend Marquette again if starting over (down slightly from 89% in 2010 and 2009) and 85% would recommend their major area of study to a new Marquette student. 94% indicated that their Marquette education met their overall goals “well” or “very well” and 86% reported that they were completing their degree as quickly as they had planned.
Graduating seniors continue to report high rates of involvement in student organizations (85%) and community service (83%) during their time at the university. Additionally, 52% of seniors report holding leadership roles in student organizations. It is estimated that Marquette undergraduates spend 455,000 hours of service in the community each year.
The future plans for graduating seniors at the time the survey was completed were similar to the past three years, although still markedly different from 2008 (all three surveys were conducted in April – one month prior to graduation). The rate of graduating seniors applying for full-time employment was 52% (compared to 57% in 2010 and 2009 and 64% in 2008). Graduating seniors had also been offered jobs by April at the roughly the same rate as the previous two years year (25% in 2011, compared to 26% in 2010 and 2009) and that figure was also down from 2008 (42%). The rate of graduating senior applications to graduate or professional degree programs was roughly equivalent to the previous years (35% in 2011, 34% in 2010; 36% in 2009; 32% in 2008) and application rates for full-time service positions were also between where they had been in previous years (12% in 2011, 13% in 2010; 16% in 2009; and 8% in 2008).
A series of questions asked graduating seniors about their participation in high impact learning experiences. Not surprisingly, the most marked impact came from experiences with significant duration and intensity (study abroad, international experiences, internships, practicum/co-op/clinical/field experiences, and research with a faculty member beyond course requirements). When factoring for both rates of participation as well as level of perceived impact, participation in a student organization continues to be the greatest source of impact on undergraduate students of the all the co-curricular learning opportunities measured by the survey.
Participation rates for high-impact learning experiences measured on the survey have remained fairly constant in recent years, with slight decreases in the percentage of students completing internships (for-credit or non-credit), and increases in participation in student organizations, culminating academic experiences (e.g. capstones or senior projects), and international programs or experiences (including study abroad).