Evanston, IL 60208, Top 100 Universities in USA 2014 – Rank – 47, Northwestern University In Illinois

Northwestern University

633 Clark Street, Evanston, IL 60208, United States

Northwestern University (NU) is a private research university with campuses in Evanston and Chicago in Illinois, United States. Northwestern has 12 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees.^[4][5]

Northwestern was founded in 1851 by John Evans, for whom Evanston is named, and eight other lawyers, businessmen and Methodist leaders to serve the people of a region that had once been known as the Northwest Territory. Instruction began in 1855; women were admitted in 1869. Today, the main campus is a 240-acre (97 ha) parcel in Evanston, along the shores of Lake Michigan. The university’s law and medical schools are located on a 25-acre (10 ha) campus in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. In 2008, the University opened a campus in Education City, Doha, Qatar with programs in journalism and communication. In academic year 2010-2011, Northwestern enrolled 8,397 undergraduate and 7,870 graduate and professional students.^[6]

Northwestern has one of the largest university endowments in the United States, valued at $7.9 billion in 2013.^[7] One of only 62 institutions elected to the Association of American Universities (1917), Northwestern was awarded more than $500 million in research grants in 2010–2011, placing it in the first tier of the major research universities in the United States by the Center for Measuring University Performance.^[8][9] Its schools of journalism, management, engineering, and communication, for example, are among the most academically productive in the nation.^[10] Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and remains the only private university in the conference. The Northwestern Wildcats compete in 19 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA‘s Division I.

RANKINGS

Academics[edit]

Northwestern is a large, residential research university.^[8] Accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and the respective national professional organizations for chemistry, psychology, business, education, journalism, music, engineering, law, and medicine,^[72] the university offers 124 undergraduate programs and 145 graduate and professional programs.^[4][5] NU conferred 2,219 bachelors degrees, 2,971 masters degrees, 447 doctoral degrees, and 444 professional degrees in 2009–2010.^[6]

The four-year, full-time undergraduate program comprises the majority of enrollments at the university and emphasizes instruction in the arts and sciences, plus the professions of engineering, journalism, communication, music, and education.^[8] Although a foundation in the liberal arts and sciences is required in all majors, there is no required common core curriculum; individual degree requirements are set by the faculty of each school.^[61] Northwestern’s full-time undergraduate and graduate programs operate on an approximately 10-week academic quarter system with the academic year beginning in late September and ending in early June. Undergraduates typically take four courses each quarter and twelve courses in an academic year and^[73] are required to complete at least twelve quarters on campus to graduate. Northwestern offers honors, accelerated, and joint degree programs in medicine, science, mathematics, engineering, and journalism.^[74] The comprehensive doctoral graduate program has high coexistence with undergraduate programs.^[8]

Undergraduates with grade point averages in the highest three percent of each graduating class are awarded degrees summa cum laude, the next 5 percent magna cum laude, and the next 8 percent cum laude.^[75] Northwestern also has chapters of academic honor societies such as Phi Beta Kappa (Alpha of Illinois), Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Sigma Phi (Beta Chapter),^[76] Lambda Pi Eta,^[75] and Alpha Sigma Lambda (Alpha Chapter).^[77] Since 1951, Northwestern has awarded 520 honorary degrees.