Marist College one of the most underrated in the nation?

<p>The school no one knows about. Marist is right on the Hudson River, already providing one of the most beautiful and unique backdrops for any campus in the nation and has some of the best on campus housing in the nation as they were featured on Good Morning America. Some of the suites look more like high end apartments than they do dorms. Marist was also ranked one of the nation's 50 best buys, has one of the nicest libraries in the nation ranked in the top 25 and was selected as one of the most "up and coming schools". The acceptance rate from the past year was only 37% putting Marist in a very competitive position. It's a private school with a small, close knit campus with a small student body of just under 5,000. Bill O'Reilly was among the alumni from Marist, and IBM also has a partnership with the school, always updating the technology to stay on the cutting edge. The school is Division I and sports are getting better as better recruits come. The Women's Basketball team is currently ranked #21 in the nation, and even went to the Sweet 16 a few years ago. The Men's Basketball team has been in the NIT, and a famous alumni is "The Dunking Dutchman", Rik Smits who was an All-Star with the Indiana Pacers in the NBA. Marist truly is one of the most underrated colleges in the nation right now. It's comparable with Villanova, Boston College, Providence College, Rutgers, Syracuse, etc. without the current brand name. Has anyone heard of this school? It seems like most people still haven't.</p>

<p>It may be underrated but it is definitely not one of the most underrated and it is not comparable to Villanova, Boston College, Rutgers or Syracuse in my opinion.</p>

<p>Bill O'Reilly went there? No thanks.</p>

<p>I applied early action to Marist and am still waiting to hear back, but I'm not sure if I can afford it. I would love to go there though.</p>

<p>on the Hudson? You see the plane?</p>

<p>I hear Marist is good for Comm/Journalism, so it gits muh respectz. :P</p>

<p>

Right, because the reason Harvard doesn't have 100% matriculation is that there are people who think, The Unabomber went there? No thanks. :p</p>

<p>We visited Marist 2 years ago when my son was first looking at schools. He decided against it for a number of reasons. I don't think it's the most underrated college in the nation.</p>

<p>You're not providing a great argument for why Marist should be rated higher. </p>

<p>The suites look like high end apartments? It's a best buy? It has a nice library? It's small? The sports are good? </p>

<p>All very nice reasons for going there, but that has nothing to do with academic quality or rankings. The IBM thing was a better argument. Anyway, Marist is def underrated but not the most underrated. It's a really good school, and I think the reason most people haven't heard of it is simply because it's small. Also, I wouldn't place it on the same level as BC or Villanova. The students from my HS who got into Marist were pretty much average B students. Nothing wrong with that...not every college is all about recruiting the A+ overachievers, B students need a place to go to as well, and Marist sounds like a great place to spend 4 years. If it was rated as an "up and coming" school, it will probably become more popular in the following years.</p>

<p>Um, I know students you go to Marist because they weren't able to get into schools like Northeastern or BU... plus, Bill O'Reilley went there...</p>

<p>Why do I feel like I'm reading the school's admission pamphlet?</p>

<p>Ooh a retired mediocre basketball player in Rik Smits went there. So compelling. I happen to think that Butler County Community College is the most underrated school in the nation considering Stephen Jackson went there.</p>

<p>Everyone thinks their school is underrated and the other guy's school is overrated. The truth is nobody cares because it's completely meaningless</p>

<p>No thanks, the name is too similar to "Marxist College" for my likings</p>

<p>^ haha. That's exactly how I read it. Then I read Marist and was like "Did they misspell that?"</p>

<p>And that's why I opened the thread. Because I thought it was Marxist. lol</p>

<p>O'Reilly also got his Masters from Harvard University, is Harvard a bad school? </p>

<p>Just because you don't agree with someone's political opinion doesn't mean he's not smart. I don't know him, but he lives in my hometown and he seems friendly. Ann Coulter went to Cornell, George Bush went to Yale, O'Reilly went to Harvard - the top schools churn out both Conservative and Liberals (although they lean liberal). </p>

<p>I wouldn't go to Marist either, but that's cause I wouldn't pay a lot of money for private college unless it's a top private college...otherwise, I'd rather go to state school, but that's just me.</p>

<p>i wished i considered marist earlier.</p>

<p>any opportunities for fruitful internships? any tangible examples of their track record in communications? are the professors currently working in the fields they teach? what is the story with campus security? I can’t tell from their site if photojournalism is an option. okay, if you don’t hike or want to go to one of the 3 or 4 bars, what’s up? how often and what types of on-campus concerts do they have? does the campus have strong community service programs, examples? I hear it’s “clicky” and not really tolerant of diversity — no matter how you’d define that…? the school has been open for how long? surely it has turned out some folks that have made social, professional and political contributions? What is the 411 on study-abroad offerings?</p>

Actually study abroad is included in tuition and more than 75% of the graduating class studies abroad.

I can not help but point out that your user name is the Marist mascot. Also, I concur with everyone else on this thread that sure it may be underrated, but definitely not the most underrated. Also, it does not compare across the board to those institutions. However, I do believe that Marist is on the ascent and it is possible that it will build a strong enough alumni front to recruit higher prestige students and build the reputation of the school.

Marist has an internship program called “Marist in Manhattan” where they hook you up with companies in Manhattan, due to their close proximity. Both Bill O’Reilly and Ian O’Conner (which, despite your opinions of their political positions, are undeniably successful in communications) both graduated there. Their campus security is reliable, using the blue light stations and guards who can walk you home at night. Journalism is an option, but not specifically photojournalism, although they do have a photography club. Poughkeepsie is a relatively small town, so if you’re looking for a plethora of things to do, you’d be out-of-luck; however, it does have a free bus that will take you around town to what attractions Marist does have, and it’s not that far from NYC. Also, they have the “Foxfest” carnival in the spring. The campus does have strong community service, as noted by their Habitat for Humanity program and People for Animal Welfare club. I don’t know if it’s cliquey or not, but from what I gather, Marist students think Vassar is cliquey, so it’d be ironic if Marist was cliquey as well. The school has been open since 1929, founded by the Marist Brothers, although it’s no longer a Catholic institution. They have a number of successful alumni, such as the aforementioned Bill O’Reilly (which, again, despite your opinions of him, is a successful person in his field) and Ian O’Conner, as well as the president of 1-800-FLOWERS Christopher McCann, VP of Global Business Communications at Facebook Michael Buckley, Miami Dolphins Defensive End Terrence Fede, Chairman of NBC Universal International Kevin MacLellan, President and CEO of LDJ Productions Laurie DeJong, and so on and so forth (their booklet they sent me has a long list of successful grads). And as for study abroad, Marist has a campus in Florence, Italy, that along with their other study abroad programs, are included in the tuition.

I know I’m responding to an ancient comment, but I figure I may as well leave it for anyone in the future viewing this thread.

Sincerely,
A transfer student who’s been researching Marist and planning to apply.

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