Northwestern University (NU) is a
private research university with campuses in Evanston and Chicago in Illinois,
United States, as well as Doha, Qatar. Composed of twelve schools and colleges,
Northwestern offers 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional
degrees.
Northwestern was founded in 1851 by
John Evans, for whom the City of Evanston is named, and eight other lawyers,
businessmen and Methodist leaders. Its founding purpose was to serve the Northwest
Territory, an area that today includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota.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 just 12 miles north of downtown
Chicago. The university's law, medical, and professional 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.
Northwestern is a large research
university with a comprehensive doctoral program and attracts over $550 million
in sponsored research each year.In addition, Northwestern has one of the largest
university endowments in the United States, currently valued at $10.19 billion.
In 2015, the university accepted 13% of undergraduate applicants, making
Northwestern one of the most selective universities in the country.
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'sDivision I Big Ten Conference.
The foundation of Northwestern
University is traceable to a meeting on May 31, 1850 of nine prominent Chicago
businessmen, Methodist leaders and attorneys who had formed the idea of
establishing a university to serve what had once been known as the Northwest
Territory. On January 28, 1851, the Illinois General Assembly granted a charter
to the Trustees of the North-Western University, making it the first chartered
university in Illinois.The school's nine founders, all of whom were Methodists
(three of them ministers), knelt in prayer and worship before launching their first
organizational meeting. Although they affiliated the university with the
Methodist Episcopal Church, they were committed to non-sectarian admissions,
believing that Northwestern should serve all people in the newly developing
territory.[20] John Evans, for whom Evanston is named, bought 379 acres (153
ha) of land along Lake Michigan in 1853, and Philo Judson developed plans for
what would become the city of Evanston, Illinois. The first building, Old
College, opened on November 5, 1855.To raise funds for its construction,
Northwestern sold $100 "perpetual scholarships" entitling the
purchaser and his heirs to free tuition.Another building, University
Hall, was built in 1869 of the same Joliet limestone as the Chicago Water
Tower, also built in 1869, one of the few buildings in the heart of Chicago to
survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.In 1873 the Evanston College for Ladies
merged with Northwestern, and Frances Willard, who later gained fame as a
suffragette and as one of the founders of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union (WCTU), became the school's first dean of women. Willard Residential
College (1938) is named in her honor. Northwestern admitted its first women
students in 1869, and the first woman was graduated in 1874.
Northwestern fielded its first
intercollegiate football team in 1882, later becoming a founding member of the
Big Ten Conference. In the 1870s and 1880s, Northwestern affiliated itself with
already existing schools of law, medicine, and dentistry in Chicago. The Northwestern
University School of Law is the oldest law school in Chicago. As the university
increased in wealth and distinction, and enrollments grew, these professional
schools were integrated with the undergraduate college in Evanston; the result
was a modern research university combining professional, graduate, and
undergraduate programs, which gave equal weight to teaching and research The
Association of American Universities invited Northwestern to become a member in
1917.
Under Walter Dill Scott's presidency
from 1920 to 1939, Northwestern began construction of an integrated campus in
Chicago designed by James Gamble Rogers to house the professional schools;
established the Kellogg School of Management; and built several prominent
buildings on the Evanston campus, Dyche Stadium (now named Ryan Field) and
Deering Library among others. In 1933, a proposal to merge Northwestern with
the University of Chicago was considered but rejected. Northwestern was also
one of the first six universities in the country to establish a Naval Reserve
Officers Training Corps (NROTC) in the 1920s. Northwestern played host to the
first-ever NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship game in 1939 in the
original Patten Gymnasium, which was later demolished and relocated farther north
along with the Dearborn Observatory to make room for the Technological
Institute