This spring, over 10,000 high school seniors will receive a special Marquette-branded box at their doors.
“Enjoy a taste of Milwaukee,” each box reads.
To some, what’s inside comes as a surprise. But many will have seen viral social media videos or heard from past admitted students to know what awaits them is a giant, fresh, soft-baked pretzel.
“If you send a student a four-by-six postcard, they’re probably going to throw it away,” says Andy Schneider, dean of admissions. “When they get a big, beautiful box with their name on it, they’re going to open it. And it’s what’s inside that helps us stand out.”
For five years, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has collaborated with Milwaukee Pretzel Company, owned by Marquette alumni couple Matt and Katie Wessel.
But it’s not a partnership that leavened overnight.
This is the story of how the “Marquette pretzel” became a sensation and changed the undergraduate admissions landscape.
Getting in the gift-giving game
Around 2017, the undergraduate admissions marketing team took note of other universities that had begun mailing gifts to perspective students.
“There’s so much noise in higher education marketing,” says Rose Howard, associate director of admissions marketing and communications. “We wanted to send something that would make Marquette stand out that isn’t just a postcard or stickers.”
In many ways, this kind of became like our admissions packet.
Andy Schneider, dean of admissions
The staff set out to cut through the noise.
“Our idea was that we wanted to send something tied to Milwaukee or the state of Wisconsin,” Schneider says.
They stayed away from the basics: shirts, sunglasses, magnets and the like. They also eliminated perishable local food items, such as cheese and sausage.
The first gifts sent to students were jellybeans, delivered in a custom, Marquette-branded tin. However, Schneider notes, the candies didn’t resonate with students and Marquette “heard no feedback.” The team went back to the drawing board.
Kneading a partnership
Ultimately, the pandemic led to more creative concepts. Katie Hennicke, former associate dean of undergraduate recruitment and strategy, proposed the idea of reaching out to the Wessels about a potential partnership. Matt, Comm ’03, Grad ’11, and Katie, Arts ’07, didn’t hesitate to say yes, and offered to produce the packages at cost.
“We saw an immediate impact,” Howard says. “It was so different. It set us apart from every other institution.”
That first year — the spring of 2020 — 2,000 pretzels in unbranded boxes were sent to a select group of admitted students. And, Schneider says, they were finally hearing the positive feedback they’d been seeking for years.
“The pretzels were getting some traction,” Schneider says. “We really suffered with application and visit numbers during the pandemic. So, the Provost’s Office gave us a budget to do something fun and big. In the end, we decided to throw it all into pretzels.”
In 2021, the number of pretzels increased to 5,000 households and playful Marquette branding was printed on the boxes.
“We were seeing videos on social media with hundreds of thousands of views, and we were having families email us ‘thank yous’ for the first time,” Schneider recalls. “In many ways, this kind of became like our admission packet. It was the thing we knew people were going to be excited to open.”
Proof of impact
This year, about two-thirds of students admitted to Marquette will receive a pretzel. Each box, hand-packed by Milwaukee Pretzel Company employees, includes a personal letter from the Wessels.
“The best part of the partnership, in my mind, is that, yes, they get this delicious pretzel, but it’s more the gesture the university is displaying by saying, ‘We’re so excited to be able to potentially welcome you and we are here for you,’” Matt Wessel says. “There’s also an implication that the people before you at Marquette have gone on to have great careers. And they’re here for you, too, which is something that letter to students that Katie and I wrote is meant to reinforce.”
@itschameleon06 Marquette University sent me a pretzel! #marquetteuniversity #marquette2029 #fyp #pretzels #viral #collegelife ♬ Yacht Club – MusicBox
Tessa Renyi, a freshman majoring in criminology and law studies, says the letter had as much impact on her as the pretzel (which her family enjoyed so much, they placed an order for her high school graduation party).
“I loved the aspect that this is coming from alumni and it’s showing a Marquette success story,” Renyi says. “It’s showing future students that they can have success upon leaving, too. And the personal touch, having something besides just a stack of stickers or just a generic letter, I think that’s huge.”
The Wessels and the admissions staff say they’ve heard stories and read emails from dozens of students and families over the past five years that the Marquette pretzel convinced them to consider a visit to Milwaukee or solidified their decision to attend Marquette.
“I think this initiative — whether it’s a pretzel or some other Milwaukee-made product — reinforces the notion that Marquette and Milwaukee are hand-in-hand,” Matt Wessel says. “Your time on campus gives you the opportunity to spend those four years to the extent that you want to explore this amazing city with all of these amazing opportunities and connections.”
While Schneider and his staff are constantly exploring new ideas to connect with students, he says the popular pretzel program is here to stay.
“Every year I kind of expect them to come back and say, ‘All right, we’ve exhausted the pretzel bit,’” Matt Wessel jokes. “But every year they tell us they want to do it again, and we’re here for it. We love doing it.”
