Blog

By Amy Bennett | February 6, 2018

Most colleges and universities today offer online courses and degrees. We all hear the ads on the TV and radio. There’s no shortage of online education options, but how do you make the right choice for you? If you’re reading this blog and you don’t live in Indianapolis, you may be trying to learn more about Marian University and our online courses offered through Marian’s Adult Programs (MAP). Below is a snapshot of who we are and what we’re made of. We’re proud of our heritage, our academic reputation, and our outlook for the future.

• Mission and values – To be a great Catholic university dedicated to providing students with excellent teaching and learning in the Franciscan and liberal arts tradition. When you earn a degree from Marian, you will learn the soft skills that employers are looking for, like good communication skills, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem solving. We welcome students of all faiths and follow the four Franciscan values:
  • Dignity of the Individual
  • Peace and Justice
  • Reconciliation
  • Responsible Stewardship 

• History – Marian University is a private, non-profit university founded in 1930’s, and sponsored by the Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg, Indiana. Our beautiful campus extends over 114 wooded acres and includes the estates of three of the four developers of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Daniel J. Elsener has served as the president of Marian University for over sixteen years.

• Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Regional accreditation matters and it can affect the transferability of your credits to another institution! 

  https://www.hlcommission.org/Student-Resources/how-institutions-are-accredited.html

• Academics and tuition – Whether you want to earn a degree or just take a few courses, you’ll find that our five and eight-week online classes fit into your busy life. You’ll also find opportunities for internships and collaborative community interaction you never thought possible from online education. Our online classes follow the same course learning objectives as our face-to-face classes, and they are all housed in our Learning Management System, Canvas. MAP tuition is extremely reasonable at $390 per credit hour and most MAP classes are two-five credit hours. (For the this year's tuition rates click here.)

• U.S News and World Report – named us one of the "Best Online Bachelor’s Programs" in their 2018 best online program rankings.

• MAP faculty – Our instructors are full-time faculty and highly credentialed working professionals who understand the challenges facing working adults. They bring real-world experience into your classes to help you succeed in your current job or transition into a new career.

• Students – The current MU enrollment is 2,295 undergraduate students and 1,126 graduate students, and students come from 45 states and 23 nations. In 2017, our women’s basketball team won their second-straight NAIA national championship and Marian University has won eleven consecutive national championships in collegiate track cycling.

• Continual growth – Look at what’s happened just in this past year!
  • Indiana’s newest medical school, Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine, was opened in 2013 and we graduated our first class of doctors in May of 2017.
  • On December 8, 2017, Marian University opened the Paul J. Norman Center, home of the Byrum School of Business, which was built to represent the changing work styles and mobile technology of businesses today. 
  • The January 2018 opening of the dining commons marked completion of the first phase of a two-part construction project on a new building housing the dining commons, fitness facility, and arena/convocation center.

Marian University in a nutshell? We put students first. We want you to be successful. We’re a university which is continually growing and improving, but our roots are firmly planted. You can feel confident that our online courses are easy to navigate—even for the online education novices. At some point, you just have to take a leap of faith. You’ve got this; we’re here to catch you.