sweetoldetc

I am a recent graduate of Marquette currently living in Germany, where college tuition is virtually nonexistent (in reality you pay about 300 euros a semester, but that's effectively negligible to Americans). When I tell people here what the price of my Marquette education would have been without scholarships, they are absolutely floored -- and it's not like the price of it with scholarships was a steal. Meanwhile, German universities are renowned worldwide for their scholarship and contributions to academia, so it's clear that the lack of tuition is not diminishing the quality of instruction.

Do you see the ever-rising tuition at Marquette as a legitimate problem that needs to be addressed, and if so, do you have plans to address this?

I am proud of the education I received there, but I am not proud of what I had to pay to get it, and I think the system we have in the U.S. right now is downright shameful.

As an American in Germany who speaks basically fluent German, are there opportunities for me to volunteer with or assist organizations like yours in their work? I have always been very interested in supporting and assisting refugee populations in Germany.

Thank you for your answer. I would counter though that I think the one of the most important things Marquette can do as an institution -- and you as an individual -- is lend your voices to the outcry. Scholarships and financial aid are a band aid, and they don't stop the price of tuition from raising.

I recognize you're just doing an AMA and aren't about to launch a radical plan to fight tuition increases, but the U.S. is headed for absolute disaster when it comes to higher ed and I hope more institutions will step up to address the real problems.

But thank you again for doing this; I'm quite impressed.