Northwestern University

Northwestern University Introduction

There’s a T-shirt with a phrase on it that applies to most Northwestern University students: “Plays well with others.” Although Northwestern undergraduates are unquestionably intelligent and academically driven—approximately eighty-three percent of them graduated in the top ten percent of their high school class—they are also a remarkably collaborative group.

As a result, you’ll find Northwestern students working together on everything from scientific research projects with faculty members to a seemingly infinite number of a cappella and theater groups to the nationally known Dance Marathon, an annual thirty-hours of nonstop dancing fund-raising event for a designated charity. You’ll also find students engaged in community service projects and internships throughout the Chicago metropolitan area where Northwestern is located.

Northwestern students value the challenging intellectual environment as much as they enjoy endless social outlets and easy access to one of the world’s most exciting cities.

In my four years at Northwestern, I cheered wildly as the football team pulled off miracle upsets against Big 10 powerhouses, gussied up with girlfriends before sorority formals at the Sears Tower, and hopped on the “El” for class trips to the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and the Lyric Opera. I also attended lectures by Margaret Thatcher and Tom Brokaw, pulled all-nighters to complete big assignments, and participated in the half-genuine, half-comic primal scream that kicks off every exam week.

Although I earned a degree in English Literature, my Northwestern education is characterized by a balance between the liberal arts, practical skills, and real-world experience. By the time I graduated, I knew how to write an airtight essay, a killer cover letter, a catchy press release, and a working web page. I also knew how to score cheap admission at the Art Institute and where to get the best hot dog in the country on the ride home.

Part of that cooperative ethic stems from Northwestern’s academic culture, which encourages collaborative learning in an unusually broad range of disciplines for a school of its size. Students can explore academic subjects in any or all of six undergraduate schools, regardless of major, either through academic programs such as dual degrees or simply by taking electives. Regardless of academic discipline, you’re likely to end up in classes where you’ll not only have a chance to voice your opinion, you’ll be expected to do so. That means you’re an active participant in your education, not a passive note-taker.

And part of this sense of community also results from the often-unplanned interactions that occur when you get 8,000 intelligent, involved students together in one place. Whether it’s debating the merits of a particular viewpoint in class, hanging out at any of Evanston’s half-dozen coffeehouses near campus, or riding the “El” together to catch events in neighboring Chicago, Northwestern students generally cram as much into their lives as possible. If you want solitude, you can definitely find it at Northwestern—the campus’ mile-long shoreline of Lake Michigan is a favorite place, especially in good weather—but if you’re someone who enjoys “playing well with others,” Northwestern is a good fit.

So why is a private university in the Chicago metro area named Northwestern? When it was founded in 1851, the university’s founders intended it to educate the children of those living in the states that had been carved out of the Northwest Territory, which was created by Congress in 1787. The vast region included all the land between the Ohio River, the Mississippi River, and the Great Lakes. The area ultimately became the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and a portion of Minnesota, and was known for decades as simply “the Northwest.” Today Northwestern attracts students from all fifty states and approximately one hundred foreign countries.

There really isn’t such a thing as a “typical” Northwestern experience, mainly because there are so many different types of people here. That’s probably a good thing, although it makes it hard to characterize the institution. In the end, Northwestern students can make their time here be pretty much anything they want, given the range of choices that exist. For most students, that means four years of a great education—and some really fun times with good friends.

Northwestern was my final stop on a coast-to-coast tour of the nation’s top schools. After spending a freezing afternoon wandering around campus, talking to students, and sitting in on classes, Northwestern just felt right. Four years and one bachelor’s degree later, I’d make the same choice.

Northwestern packs a lot of bang for the buck, which is something to consider when you’re spending so many of them. It’s a Big 10 school with top-ten academics, and it’s not uncommon to bounce from the student section of the football stands to the study carrels of the library in the same afternoon.

As a Northwestern student, I had as much fun hitting the books in the library as I did hitting the parties on Friday night or hitting the streets of downtown Chicago, but the good times were just icing on the cake. As a Northwestern graduate, I have the skills I need to reckon with the “real world,” and, in the end, that’s what really counts.

Northwestern University Academics

Choosing Courses

With a full-time undergraduate population of about 8,000, Northwestern provides personal attention and flexibility that is rare in larger institutions. Students also benefit from superior academic advising, career counseling, and student services.

Yet the size of the student body and an easily navigated campus may be the only things about Northwestern that feel small. The broad range of academic opportunities is unmatched in other schools of similar size. In fact, students at Northwestern have a larger pool of courses to choose from—about 4,000 each year—than at most other institutions of comparable size. Undergraduates benefit from the fact that Northwestern is home to six strong and distinctive undergraduate schools that will prepare them for the work place or graduate study.

On the Sunday before finals week, the main library is the hottest scene on campus. Study groups crowd around tables littered with coffee cups, Coke bottles, and bags of M&M’s. Everywhere you look, students are poring over textbooks, recopying notes, or squinting at computer screens. Around midnight, serious studiers with big exams make their way up to Core, the 35,000-volume “library-within-the-library,” which is open twenty-four hours a day during finals. There they camp out with other diehards until the wee hours of the morning. If hunger strikes, tired students make the short trip to Norris University Center, where they break over chips, veggies, and dip at midnight or a full bacon and egg breakfast at 3 A.M.

Surprisingly, there’s something fun and exciting about exam week at Northwestern. The buzz surrounding deadlines and due dates seems to inspire a collective outpouring of intellectual and social energy. Camaraderie accompanies stress, and you often see groups of friends chatting, giggling, and joking within the frantic atmosphere created by ten-page papers, class presentations, and cumulative exams.

Also making it easier to customize a Northwestern education is an academic calendar of three quarters each year (with a fourth quarter of optional summer study)—instead of two semesters—that allows you to take four courses per quarter. It’s an ambitious curriculum that means that you have to hit the ground running in each of your courses. But it also ensures that you’ll have a solid foundation in the liberal arts and a thorough education in your chosen field. And it allows you to explore interests and subjects you might not have thought about before you came to Northwestern.

As a prospective undergraduate, you’ll apply to one of Northwestern’s schools that offer undergraduate programs. At the center of Northwestern is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive of the undergraduate schools, the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Enrolling more than half of the undergraduates, Weinberg combines the vigor of a leading liberal arts college with the resources of a major research university.

Northwestern’s other colleges and schools—McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; School of Education and Social Policy; Medill School of Journalism, School of Communication; and School of Music—offer outstanding preprofessional programs in their respective fields. Regardless of what area you choose, you will enjoy an unusual degree of personal attention—in classrooms, around seminar tables, and in conversation with academic advisers from the university’s many disciplines. You will also be able to work in the laboratories of prominent scientists, study with award-winning scholars, and engage with speakers from around the world.

I don’t mean to blow anyone’s cover here, but it’s pretty easy to get research money at Northwestern. When my thesis adviser suggested I apply for a research grant, I thought it was worth a shot. A month later, I was on a plane to Philadelphia for a weekend visit to Penn’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. I spent my days fishing through Walt Whitman’s personal letters and possessions, from the original scrawlings of Leaves of Grass to a neatly trimmed lock of his long, white hair. I spent my evenings in a cultural tour of downtown Philly, checking out the sights and sampling the food. I returned to Northwestern with a new intimacy with Walt Whitman’s text, a new premise to work into my thesis, and a new appreciation for authentic Philly cheesesteaks, all courtesy of the Office of Fellowships.

In addition to the opportunity to customize academic programs, Northwestern also offers several specialized programs for undergraduate students. Among these is the Honors Program in Medical Education, in which a select group of students complete three years of undergraduate study and in the fourth year are admitted to the entering class of Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Or students may apply to the Integrated Science Program or the program of Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences, which combine small classes with courses from across those respective disciplines. Many students also take advantage of undergraduate research programs, which provide funds for students to conduct in-depth study, either during the year or over the summer, into a particular topic under the guidance of a faculty member.

When you think of a liberal arts education, the words “practical” or “pertinent” don’t necessarily come to mind. But, by declaring a minor in Northwestern’s Business Institutions Program in the College of Arts and Sciences, I was able to supplement my liberal arts coursework with tangibly applicable classes such as “Bargaining and Negotiation.” In BIP, I created marketing plans, devised P.R. strategies, and analyzed case studies. I also learned how to negotiate my salary, reallocate a budget, and play the stock market.

Northwestern’s Business Institutions Programs provides an invaluable opportunity to acquire real-world experience and real-life exposure. It’s a great way to feel out postgraduate possibilities while acquiring the skills you’ll need in any profession.

Undergraduate Research

Northwestern students have the opportunity to engage in major research projects while still undergraduates. Following is a sample of some of the topics explored by undergraduates who received summer research grants recently:

• Designing the American Metropolis: Buenos Aires and Chicago in the Early Twentieth Century
• The Effects of Proliferin-Related Protein Absence on the Regulation of Angiogenesis During Pregnancy
• The Influence of Maps on the Development of Childrens’ Neighborhood Knowledge
• Them! Dissecting the Cultural Aesthetics of the 1950s American Society
• Drawing on Success: What AIDS Organizations in Kenya Can Learn from Uganda
• The Studies of NOX and HNO 3 on Metal Oxide Surfaces
• Women’s History through Women’s Words, 1770–1820
• Dance and Cubism: Materializing a New Space
• Role of Religious Ethics in Philosophical Ethical Debate: A Study of Charles Taylor and John Milbank

Study Abroad

Every year, nearly 600 students from all of Northwestern’s six undergraduate schools participate in overseas educational opportunities. With affiliated programs at approximately 100 institutions, Northwestern students literally have a world of choices. While Europe remains a popular location, a growing number of students choose to study in Africa, Asia, and South America. Some programs are university-based, meaning that students live in one place and take courses at a university. Others are field-based, focusing more on fieldwork and independent research projects.

Northwestern University Admissions

While I can’t claim to know what goes on behind the closed doors of the Admissions Office, I can attest to the results of the process. It’s one of the best universities in the nation, so I knew going in that my peers would be accomplished and intelligent. And, while I met my fair share of valedictorians, class presidents, and high school busybodies, my classmates consisted of much more than the credentials they listed on their college apps. The friends I made at Northwestern came from all sorts of places, and they were carried by all sorts of passions. Whether I hung out with an aspiring actress from Milan, a hopeful politician from Miami, or a baseball star from Madison, I constantly found myself both challenged and inspired by big personalities with big ambitions to match.

Admission to Northwestern isn’t easy. The university accepts less than thirty percent of the 20,000 plus students who apply each year. Good test scores are a basic requirement, of course, but a more important factor is how well you did in a challenging high school program. If you’ve taken advantage of the most demanding courses offered in your school, such as AP and Honors courses, and excelled in them, that carries a great deal of weight. Northwestern wants to hear your individual voice. The essay is the place to express this. The essay is a chance for you to give Northwestern a better feel as to who you are and whether you’d be a good match for the university. Therefore, taking your time and doing a good job on the essay will definitely help. The application also includes an activity chart that allows you to show important interests you have outside the classroom, so be sure to complete that portion as well.

Admission to Northwestern is “need-blind,” meaning that an applicant’s ability to pay is not considered when the application is being reviewed. Approximately forty-two percent of Northwestern students receive university-funded need-based scholarships and sixty percent receive some form of financial aid: need-based scholarships, loans, and/or work-study jobs. All awards are based on financial need (see the Financial Aid section for more information).

Tests

Northwestern requires that you submit the results of either the SAT or ACT. The median score for admitted students is 720 for the SAT Verbal, 740 for the SAT Math, and 32 for the ACT. While not required, the results of any Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or SAT Subject Tests that you have taken also are considered. If English is not your primary language, you must submit the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) as well.

Early Decision

If you believe strongly that Northwestern is the university you would most like to attend, you should consider applying by November 1 under the Early Decision plan, which allows you to receive a decision in December. Do this only if you’re sure Northwestern is your first choice—by applying under this binding admission option, you agree to withdraw all applications at other colleges, initiate no new applications, and enroll at Northwestern if you’re admitted.

Northwestern University Financial Aid

Financial aid at Northwestern is awarded on the basis of family need, although the university does offer a limited number of merit-based scholarships.

There’s no getting around the fact that a private school college education is a financial stretch for most families. In order to ease the burden for mine, I applied to spend my junior year as a Resident Assistant in a freshman dorm. It turned out to be a great deal. For a year of meeting great new people and taking on some pretty crazy situations and responsibilities, the university picked up my room and board.

Recipients of need-based financial aid come from a wide range of income backgrounds, so if you’re not sure whether you’d qualify for need-based aid, go ahead and apply. To do so, you must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the College Scholarship Service Financial Aid PROFILE. Northwestern awards more than $63 million in grant assistance to undergraduate students each year.

Northwestern University Students

Lakefront Living

Most undergraduates at Northwestern live on the Evanston campus in one of the residence halls, residential colleges, sororities, or fraternities. Some of the halls and residential colleges, and almost all the fraternities and sororities, are in older, ivy-covered houses. Other residence halls and residential colleges are new and feature apartment-style suites with individual bathrooms. Several of the residence halls/colleges overlook Lake Michigan, and all are within easy walking distance of the main classroom buildings.

Regardless of where students live, they can enjoy Northwestern’s beautifully landscaped lakefront campus that stretches for a mile along the shore of Lake Michigan. That location can bring some fairly chilly winds in winter, but it also means an endless horizon to the east, a private beach and boathouse where you can take sailing lessons, and plenty of open space where you can soak up the sun in the spring and fall.

Residential Colleges

Northwestern’s eleven residential colleges provide housing and specialized programs that allow students and faculty to pursue a common interest outside the classroom. Here are some of the disciplines covered by res colleges:

• Communication
• Cultural and Community Studies
• Humanities
• International Studies
• Performing Arts
• Public Affairs
• Science and Engineering
• Women’s Studies
• Commerce and Industry

Activities

Over-opportunity-ed. That was how one student described her undergraduate experience at Northwestern.

There’s something to do almost every night on campus—theater, music, all kinds of things. And if you want, you can go into Chicago. The problem here is that there are too many things to do, especially if you’re worried about keeping your GPA up. — Molly Browne, ’04 from Washington, D.C.

Northwestern students tend to be active, engaged, and involved. That means, at least for most students, that their most important accessory is their day planner (either paper or electronic), followed closely by their cell phones because they keep rescheduling all their commitments.

For many students, those commitments include not just academic studies, but other activities as well. Northwestern has more than 415 extracurricular groups on campus, ranging from cultural groups to religious and spiritual groups to dozens of music and small theater groups open to nonmajors. Every fall during the first week of classes, the Student Activities Fair showcases these organizations, giving new students a chance to find out more and choose which ones they’d like to join. With enthusiastic members promoting each group, it’s easy to jump into lots of organizations. If you’re really good at time management, you can pull it off, but be prepared for some late nights—many groups start their meetings/rehearsals/practices at 9 or 10 P.M.

I can still remember the look on my best friend’s face when I told her I’d joined a sorority. “You!” she exclaimed with a chuckle, “a sorority girl?” I must admit, I never fancied myself as a Greek kind of a gal before coming to Northwestern; however, my experience in Northwestern’s Greek system broke the mold of the superficial sorority stereotypes you see in the movies. My membership in Kappa Alpha Theta sorority opened the door for professional networking, community service, and internship opportunities. It was also a great way to make friends and a fun social outlet in what can be a very stressful environment.

The Greek system is fairly big at Northwestern, but if you choose to join, it won’t be the dominant force of your social life, and it won’t distract you from academic pursuits. I know that the system has some cheesy implications, but at Northwestern, it’s really worth a try.

Plan-it-Purple

Along with their daily planners, a key source for Northwestern students is Plan-It Purple (www.planitpurple.northwestern.edu), the on-line calendar that lists nearly every event that occurs at Northwestern. More than 600 organizations and on-campus entertainment venues list their events on Plan-It Purple (named for Northwestern’s official color of purple). Students can even create their own customized version to remind them of their own meetings and events.

Community Service

Another key interest for Northwestern students is community service. Approximately 3,000 students perform some sort of community service each year, ranging from tutoring at local schools to service projects in Chicago. The largest student group on campus is the Northwestern Community Development Corps, which serves as an umbrella organization for many of the service groups on campus. In addition, the web site at http://www. volunteer.northwestern.edu/ matches up students with volunteer opportunities in the community.

Northwestern University Athletics

Northwestern is a charter member of and the only private university in the Big Ten, one of the premier Division I athletic conferences in the country. Some of the nation’s best teams, including Northwestern, play regularly on the Evanston campus and the football and basketball games provide a social experience for undergraduates, as well as great competition. Northwestern offers twenty-three intercollegiate athletic teams (ten men’s and eleven women’s). Sports at Northwestern are not just for watching, however, as club and intramural sports attract approximately 2,000 participants each year. The thirty-four club sports include crew, Ultimate Frisbee, ice hockey, equestrian, water polo, and a host of others, many of which compete at the highest levels. Intramural offerings range from casual softball leagues to competitive basketball, and many of the outdoor sports are played on Northwestern’s lakefront fields.

Northwestern University Local Community

Evanston and Chicago

One of the major factors that came into play when I was picking a school: location, location, location. And it’s tough to beat Northwestern’s prime turf on the North Shore of Lake Michigan. A short ride on the “El” can lead to a shopping extravaganza on the Magnificent Mile, a cultural afternoon at the Art Institute, or an evening full of laughs at Second City. When the big city seems daunting, downtown Evanston is full of cozy coffeeshops, cute boutiques, quality restaurants, and neighborhood bars. And, after spending the winter braving Chicago’s infamous cold winds and snowstorms, nothing beats that first spring day when it’s warm enough to study out on the lakefront.

Evanston isn’t a typical college town. While Northwestern is a vital part of the community, it doesn’t dominate the city of 75,000 that adjoins Chicago as a large university often does a small town. So you won’t find a large area of somewhat shabby student apartments just off campus or rows of bars catering to the just-of-age (or perhaps not) crowd.

Instead, Northwestern’s campus is bordered by a neighborhood of beautiful old homes and a vibrant downtown. Downtown Evanston has dozens of interesting locally owned shops and more than sixty restaurants, ranging from student budget-friendly cafés to fancier places that are great for Family Weekend. Within walking distance of the campus is an eighteen-screen movie theater, with six of the screens devoted to showing independent and foreign films. Best of all, the theater—and almost all the stores and restaurants downtown—offer a discount if you show your WildCARD, the Northwestern student ID.

Then there’s Chicago, one of the world’s truly great cities. The third-largest city in the country, a place with world-class museums, an incredible theater scene, ethnic restaurants, and nightlife galore. Students can take advantage of such great opportunities as the Chicago Art Institute’s free admission day and student-discount tickets to the Chicago Symphony (as cheap as $10), and, of course, a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.

Getting to Chicago is easy. The CTA rapid transit (“the El”) has three stops near campus and even runs express from Evanston during rush hours. In addition, the university runs a shuttle bus on weekdays between the Evanston campus and the Chicago campus (home to the law school, medical school, and part of the business school), which is only two blocks from Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, one of the best shopping streets in the world.

Northwestern University Alumni

Northwestern alumni, and their employers, regularly comment on how much they value a Northwestern education. Of the most recently surveyed graduating class, fifty-four percent accepted full-time employment, thirty percent entered a graduate or professional program, and sixteen percent pursued full-time community service or volunteer work, an internship or fellowship, or other endeavors.

Few students view graduation as the end of their education, however. The majority of Northwestern’s undergraduate alumni eventually go on to earn advanced degrees. Another survey found that sixty percent of a typical graduating class earned a higher degree within ten years of graduating. Of those alumni, twelve percent obtained M.B.A.s; eleven percent law degrees; nine percent M.D.s; and six percent Ph.D.s, while the rest received other graduate degrees.

Northwestern alumni, numbering approximately 160,000, include leaders in business, government, law, medicine, media, education, and the performing arts. In addition, alumni are engaged and active in their communities and their professions.

Although NU arms its students with a variety of skills, perhaps the most valuable assets of a Northwestern graduate are confidence and capability. At Northwestern, there is no typical answer to the question, “What are your plans after graduation?” Six months after my graduation, I have friends all over the world engaging in all sorts of activities. Whether they’re studying at the nation’s premier graduate schools, trying out for Broadway plays, researching for a Fulbright, or working in the business world, my former peers are all deftly doing the things they’ve always wanted to do.

Prominent Grads

• Greg Berlanti, Writer/Director
• Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois
• Nick Chabraja, Chairman and CEO, General Dynamics
• Johnetta Cole, President, Bennett College
• Richard Gephardt, Former U.S. Representative, House Minority Leader
• Heather Headley, Tony Award– winning Actress; Star of TheLion Kingand Aida
• Brigid Hughes, Executive Editor, The Paris Review
• Sherry Lansing, Chairman, Paramount Pictures
• George McGovern, former U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate
• David Schwimmer, Actor
• Ellen Soeteber, Editor, St.Louis Post-Dispatch
• Graham Spanier, President, Pennsylvania State University
• John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Mary Zimmerman, MacArthur Fellowship Recipient, Tony Award–winning Director, and Northwestern Professor of Performance Studies

Northwestern University Faculty

In my 398 American Literature Seminar, skipping the reading wasn’t an option. We were a class of six, and my professor wasn’t one to tolerate silence when it came to discussion. We’d show up for class every Tuesday and Thursday, armed with texts extensively decorated with pink highlighters and yellow Post-its. For the next hour and a half, we’d pick apart the language of Emerson’s Nature or Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, challenging one another to define words in new ways and defend unique textual interpretations. I found that the expectations that came with small class settings inevitably led to confidence, capability, and deeper understanding. When it’s taboo to simply show up and clam up, and when you’re expected to make pithy and valuable contributions, you make a point to read more closely and think harder as you prepare for class.

Small classes are common at Northwestern, especially at the upper levels. Many professors strictly cap their classes at twenty students, and, though it’s a drag to get shut out of a course you want, the challenges and rewards of learning in an intimate setting are worth it when you do make enrollment the following quarter.

Northwestern has nearly 1,000 full-time faculty who teach in its undergraduate college and schools. One of the hallmarks of Northwestern historically has been that almost all faculty members teach undergraduate students; that remains true today. That means you’ll be taught, mentored, and advised by Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur Fellowship recipients, and members of numerous honorary and professional societies.

Carnegie Foundation Classification

Research Universities (very high research activity)

General Characteristics

Highest offering	Doctoral degree
Calendar System	Quarter
Years of college work required	N/A
Variable Tuition

Special Learning Opportunities

Distance Learning
ROTC — Army / Navy / Airforce	— / /
Study Abroad
Weekend College
Teacher Certification