“Success with purpose.”
Marian University is a private Roman Catholic university on a 200-acre campus about four miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The institution traces its origins to 1851, when the Sisters of St. Francis of Oldenburg founded what would become Marian in Oldenburg, Indiana, as a liberal-arts school for teacher preparation; the college moved to its current Indianapolis site in 1937, became the first co-educational Catholic college in Indiana in 1954, was known as Marian College until 2009, and became Marian University in 2010. Today it serves roughly 5,100 students, including around 4,000 undergraduates and 1,200 graduate students, and is organised around a Franciscan values proposition of dignity, peace, reconciliation, responsible stewardship, and service. Marian is one of only three Catholic universities in Indiana (alongside Notre Dame and Saint Mary's) and is explicitly mission-driven. Academically, Marian is organised into six schools, including the Fred S. Klipsch Educators College, the E.S. Witchger School of Engineering, the Leighton School of Nursing, and the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MU-COM) — the only osteopathic medical school in Indiana and one of the newest and fastest-growing DO programs in the country. The Byrum School of Business provides AACSB-accredited undergraduate and MBA pathways, and the School of Liberal Arts anchors Catholic theology, philosophy, and the humanities. Nursing, exercise and sport science, pre-health tracks, engineering (notably mechanical and biomedical engineering in the Witchger School), and teacher preparation are all major pipelines, and the university has moved up 16 spots to No. 257 in US News's 2026 National Universities ranking. For international students, Marian pairs a small Catholic-university student-life experience with Indianapolis — a mid-size Midwestern capital with Eli Lilly's global pharmaceutical headquarters, Salesforce, Cummins, Indiana University Health, and a growing tech corridor. The Office of International Student Success & Global Engagement handles I-20 issuance, SEVIS reporting, and advising on CPT, OPT, and the 24-month STEM-OPT extension for qualifying majors. Students describe the campus as friendly and community-oriented, rooted in Franciscan values and daily opportunities for service; the mostly residential undergraduate population lives on a compact, walkable campus with direct highway access to downtown Indianapolis.
Visa, OPT, H-1B alumni outcomes, and acceptance rates by country — sourced from FOIA, USCIS H-1B Hub, and DHS SEVIS.
Test Optional — You can submit scores if they help your case, but they're not required.
Official SourceRolling Admission (Fall)
Applications reviewed on a rolling basis. Fall semester deadline. Decisions made continuously as files are completed.
Rolling Admission (Spring)
Spring semester rolling deadline. International students: fall deadline June 1, spring deadline October 1.
The deep admissions playbook beyond the headline acceptance rate — round-by-round breakdowns, nationality data, requirements, and contact paths.
Tuition & Fees (All Students)
$40,664
/yr
Beyond the sticker price — every named scholarship, the financial aid policy, need-aware notes, and a personalized net-cost estimate.
How life on campus actually feels — clubs, sports, traditions, housing realities, and how the school integrates with its city.
Liberal arts and sciences
Business programs
Teacher preparation
Engineering programs
Nursing programs
DO medical education
4 years
The Leighton School of Nursing's traditional BSN has clinical rotations across IU Health, Community Health Network, and Ascension St. Vincent hospitals in the Indianapolis metro; strong NCLEX pass rates and direct pipeline into Indiana acute-care nursing.
4 years
Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine is Indiana's only osteopathic medical school, founded in 2013 and graduating successive classes into Indiana and national residencies; substantial commitment to training primary-care physicians for underserved Indiana communities.
4 years
A small, hands-on engineering program emphasizing mechanical and biomedical engineering; supported by industry partnerships with Cummins, Rolls-Royce, and Indianapolis-area biomedical firms.
Where alumni go after graduation — top industries, grad-school continuation, and the qualitative outcomes story.
Sticker price (annual, out-of-state): $40,664
Net-cost estimate is US-resident-only — international applicants are typically excluded from need-based aid at most schools and should treat the sticker price as the planning baseline.
