Northwestern University

Northwestern is committed to excellent teaching, innovative research, and its students' personal and intellectual growth in a diverse academic community.
Northwestern is recognized nationally and internationally for its educational programs.
Northwestern is home to a dozen colleges and schools across three campuses: a 240-acre campus in Evanston, a 25-acre campus in Chicago, and a third campus in Doha, Qatar.
Northwestern is a leading research university home to more than 90 school-based centers and more than 50 University research centers. Our research spans a spectrum of neuroscience, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and drug discovery with an interdisciplinary culture.
Northwestern recruits students of demonstrated academic achievement from diverse social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. More than 90 percent of undergraduate applicants rank in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, and Northwestern's National Merit Scholar enrollment rate is among the nation's highest.
Our 3,344 full-time faculty members include Tony Award winners, Guggenheim Fellows, MacArthur Fellowship Recipients, and numerous honorary and professional societies, including the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Council of Learned Societies.
Academic advisers can help with selecting a degree or significant to prepare for job searching or additional schooling after graduation.
The Bienen School of Music offers classes to all undergraduate students, regardless of major. Options range from an interdisciplinary history of the symphony to jazz's cultural implications and many more.
Northwestern uses technology to foster active learning, both in classrooms and online. Learn more about how instructors incorporate educational technologies in the classroom or explore our free online MOOCs.
Each year, 2,000 first-year students from around the world enroll at Northwestern. Join them by learning more about what we need from you and when we need it.
We admit the best and brightest students from around the globe. We also make your Northwestern education accessible. Our campuses are home to lakefront beaches, high-tech labs, multimedia studios, dramatic performance spaces, and tree-lined streets.
With world-class programs in acting, musical theater, dance, and performance studies, the School of Communication teaches students to build their skills on the stage. Watch them train in productions that are performed year-round. A charter member of the Big Ten Conference, Northwestern sports 19 highly competitive varsity athletic programs. And thanks to numerous intramural and club sports, as well as several athletics and fitness facilities across campus, you do not have to play varsity sports to be a student-athlete.
With well over one hundred research institutes and centers associated with the University, its colleges and schools, and its medical facilities, you are never far from the next discovery. Undergraduates and graduate students alike, regardless of their college or school, are encouraged and provided every opportunity to engage in meaningful research.
On May 31, 1850, nine men gathered to begin planning a university that would serve the Northwest Territory. Given that they had little money, no land, and limited higher education experience, their vision was ambitious. But through a combination of creative financing, shrewd politicking, religious inspiration, and an abundance of hard work, the founders of Northwestern University were able to make that dream a reality.
In 1853, the founders purchased a 379-acre tract of land on Lake Michigan's shore 12 miles north of Chicago. They established a campus and developed the land near it, naming the surrounding town Evanston in honor of one of the University's founders, John Evans. After completing its first building in 1855, Northwestern began classes that fall with two faculty members and ten students.
Twenty-one presidents have presided over Northwestern in the years since. The University has grown to include 12 schools and colleges, with additional campuses in Chicago and Doha, Qatar.