Affordable Alternatives to Marian University

What the IPEDS & College Scorecard Data Shows for Alternatives to Marian University

Marian University posts an average net price of $21,937 after grants and scholarships, the IPEDS-derived figure used to anchor this alternatives search. No institutions matched our similarity threshold at a lower net price, which suggests Marian University already sits near the bottom of its peer-group cost distribution.

Savings figures are not available because no qualifying alternatives were returned. None of the alternatives exceeded Marian University’s reported earnings, so the trade-off on this list is cost savings at the potential expense of outcome parity.

The similarity scoring treats enrollment size, Carnegie classification, and ownership sector as high-weight features because those structural attributes correlate most strongly with student experience and post-graduation outcomes in the College Scorecard literature. Admission rate and graduation rate enter as secondary features, while net price drives the cost-ranking that determines which institutions appear. Net price is an IPEDS-reported figure calculated as the average cost of attendance minus institutional and federal grants for first-time, full-time undergraduates receiving Title IV aid — so it already accounts for the aid a typical admitted student would receive. That makes it a more honest cost comparison than sticker-price tuition alone.