Colleges Northwestern University

Northwestern University www.northwestern.edu

Northwestern University (often abbreviated as Northwestern or NU) is a private research university located in the suburbs of Evanston, Illinois just north of Chicago. The campus spans an area of 240 acres and is characterized by its blend of modern and historic gothic architecture. Established in 1851 to serve the former Northwest Territory, it is the oldest chartered university in Illinois. The university’s main campus lies along the shores of Lake Michigan in the Chicago metropolitan area, and has additional campuses in Coral Gables, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Doha, Qatar. The school has hundreds of campus organizations to fulfill students’ varied interests. All first-year students are required to live on campus for two years. The school’s 10 residential colleges offer thematic living quarters for social and academic programming.

Academics

Northwestern offers unusual flexibility combined with a wide choice of academic concentrations. In addition to over 70 established majors, students can choose or design non-traditional combinations. Of Northwestern’s dozen schools, nine offer undergraduate programs and 10 offer graduate and professional programs. Northwestern’s graduate schools include the Kellogg School of Management, the School of Education and Social Policy, the Pritzker School of Law, the Feinberg School of Medicine, the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Interdepartmental Biological Sciences Program. The Medill School is known for its strong journalism graduate program. The student-faculty ratio at Northwestern University is 7:1, and the school has 78% of its classes with fewer than 20 students. Popular majors include Economics, Psychology, and Digital Communication and Media.

Special Highlights

Evanston Campus. Northwestern’s Evanston campus, where the undergraduate schools, the Graduate School, and the Kellogg School of Management are located, runs north-south from Lincoln Avenue to Clark Street west of Lake Michigan along Sheridan Road. North Campus is home to the fraternity quads, athletics facilities including the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion and Norris Aquatics Center, the Technological Institute, Dearborn Observatory, the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Hall for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly, and the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center, among others. South Campus is home to the university’s humanities buildings, music buildings like the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, and the sorority quads.

Performing Arts. Northwestern is a prolific producer of successful entertainers and a nationally reputed hub for collegiate performing arts. The Student Theatre Coalition, or StuCo, organizes nine student theater companies, multiple performance groups, and over 60 independent productions each year. Productions include The Waa-Mu Show, an original musical written and produced entirely by students, and the Dolphin show. Children’s theater is represented on campus by Griffin’s Tale and Purple Crayon Players. Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company, which began life in Jones Residential College, was founded by several university alumni, and received the Regional Tony Award and over 45 Joseph Jefferson Awards in its 30 Seasons. The undergraduate students maintain 12 a cappella groups, including THUNK a cappella, the Northwestern Undertones, Freshman Fifteen A Cappella, ShireiNU A Cappella, and Purple Haze.

School Mission & Unique Qualities

Northwestern is committed to excellent teaching, innovative research, and the personal and intellectual growth of its students in a diverse academic community. Northwestern is a comprehensive research university that is deeply interdisciplinary across multiple schools and units. Our rigorous yet empathetic academic environment provides a robust mixture of theory and practice, with an emphasis on top-tier research, new knowledge, creative expression and practical application. Northwestern is home to more than 90 school-based centers and 35 University research centers. With an interdisciplinary culture, our research spans a spectrum of areas including neuroscience, nanotechnology, biotechnology and drug discovery.

Student Reviews…

“I love the academic flexibility of Northwestern, it is definitely rigorous and the quarter system makes everything fast-paced but I appreciated that it allowed me to take many classes as an undecided major. There is a wealth of awesome student communities to join, which really contributed to my experience.”