Overview of institution

This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.

• Institution kind: Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity

• Undergrad program: Arts & sciences plus professions, high graduate coexistence

• Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Comprehensive programs, with medical/veterinary school

• Enrollment profile: Majority graduate (see more details below)

• Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $22,095 (1.1 times the equivalent cost of Harvard).

• Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.

• Size and setting: Four-year, large, primarily residential

• In state percentage: 22% of first year students come from Illinois

• In US percentage: 89% of first year students come from the US

• Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 96.5% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)

• Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 87%

• Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 6.2 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]

• Student to faculty ratio: 3.6 (undergrads to all faculty)

• Degrees offered: Certificate of at least 1 year but less than 2 years, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Post master’s certificate, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice

• Schedule: Quarter

• Institution provides on campus housing: Yes

• Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 4456 students

• Freshmen required to live on campus: No

• Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes

• Disabilities: 11.00 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.

Map

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Comparisons

The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. In fields where there is a common view that higher (or lower) values are better, the best values are in blue, the worst values are in red. If there isn’t a sense of a particular value being better, values are shown in varying shades of green. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.

• Northwestern University lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: University of Chicago, Cornell University, Brown University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Vanderbilt University, University of Southern California, Washington University in St Louis, Tulane University of Louisiana, Carnegie Mellon University, Rice University, Emory University, Boston University, University of Rochester, Brandeis University
• Northwestern University compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University in the City of New York, Princeton University, Duke University, California Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University
• These institutions compare themselves to Northwestern University, but not vice versa: University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, United States Naval Academy, University of Notre Dame, Dartmouth College, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, University of Virginia-Main Campus, Tufts University, Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus, Bowdoin College, Boston College, Wellesley College, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Maryland-College Park, Lehigh University, George Washington University, Baylor University, Syracuse University, Michigan State University, Fordham University, University of Delaware, Pepperdine University, Nova Southeastern University, Northeastern University Professional Programs, Midwestern University-Glendale, Midwestern University-Downers Grove, Graduate Theological Union

Enrollment

General

Teaching

Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.

Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.

Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.

Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.

Geography

This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated.

Financial Aid

Graduation

Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).

Library

Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.

Diversity

The US Census Bureau has a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. In their words, “A 0-value indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.” This uses their formula, but with the resolution available for the federal IPEDS data (which does not separate for a given demographic group whether members identify as Hispanic or not). This metric is about heterogeneity within the population, not the proportion of the population that comes from historically excluded groups.

Following the practice of the census, the index is multiplied by 100 to give the percentage probability a random pair of individuals will have a different background. Most institutions argue that diversity is a benefit, so by default a higher number is listed as better, but there may be cases where this measure does not reflect the mission of a college (for example, 70% of the students at a tribal college or university may be American Indian: that could be low-scoring by this metric but should not be read as “bad” given the institution’s mission).

These numbers are based on the most recent year available, generally 2023, which predates effects of the US Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action. This has often changed, sometimes dramatically, the incoming student demographics at some institutions.

Overall diversity

Freshman profile

Demographic data for first time degree-seeking students. Note that this uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.

Freshman geography