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''For other schools named'' Northwestern ''please see Northwestern College .'' Northwestern University is a Private , Coeducational , Non-sectarian university, located in Evanston, Illinois and Chicago, Illinois . Northwestern's main campus is a 240-acre (970,000 m&2) parcel in Evanston, along the shore of Lake Michigan . Several of Northwestern's professional schools are located in Chicago, on a 25-acre (101,000 m&2) campus near the Magnificent Mile . Many regard Northwestern as one of the world's leading educational institutions. As of 2005, Northwestern's endowment and other trust funds totaled approximately $4.92 billion. Northwestern University enrolls approximately 15,000 full-time students (including approximately 8,000 undergraduates) and employs nearly 7,100 faculty and staff members. Northwestern's student newspaper is '' The Daily Northwestern '' and its student radio station is WNUR . It is a member of the Big Ten Conference for college athletics. The official school color is Purple . HISTORY campus]] The university was founded in , Indiana , Illinois , Michigan , Wisconsin , and Minnesota . The phrase on Northwestern University's seal is ''Quaecumque sunt vera'' -- in Latin , "Whatsoever things are true" from Philippians 4:8. The university's founding charter granted the school a permanent exemption from paying property taxes. For this reason, Evanston's government has often endured a difficult relationship with Northwestern. Tensions have arisen regarding building codes, law enforcement, and politics. Recently, factions of the city government have attempted to divide Northwestern's campus into several different wards, so as to reduce students' voting potency. The Chicago Transit Authority 's Elevated Train running through Evanston is called the Purple Line , inheriting its name from Northwestern's school color. Although the majority of the campus sits two to four City Block s from the Purple Line, the Foster Station is within walking distance of the southern end of the campus, while the Noyes Station is close to the northern end of the campus. The Central Station is close to Ryan Field , Northwestern's football stadium. Northwestern's professional schools and hospital in downtown Chicago are about four blocks east of the Chicago Stop on the CTA Red Line . TRADITIONS ''The Rock'' is one of Northwestern's best-known landmarks, a quartzite boulder set in a plaza in the south end of campus. Originally a simple stone monument, and later a fountain, vandalism of the Rock gradually increased, particularly during the Vietnam War . It became a canvas for student art, opinions, advertising, messages, proposals, and jokes. Tradition holds that if a student wishes to paint something on the Rock, he/she must guard and paint it from sundown to sunup; many student groups start guarding even earlier, to ensure that they'll be first. At the kick-off of NU football games, students used to throw marshmallows. Northwestern archivist Patrick Quinn says that students were likely "trying to get them into the tubas, and then started throwing them at each other," leading to the tradition of throwing marshmallows at the field. While Gary Barnett was football coach, he banned marshmallows because they supposedly detracted from the serious level of football that he wanted for the school. The tradition of jingling car keys, however, still continues. It began as an arrogant taunt; Big Ten rivals often bested Northwestern at football, and the keys implied "while your school may win the football game, in a few years your school's graduates will be parking Northwestern graduates' cars." Also during football games, students extend their hands in a claw-shape and "growl" during all plays that the other team is on the offensive. Each winter, on the second-to-last weekend of the quarter, hundreds of students participate in Dance Marathon . The 30-hour event raises several hundred thousand dollars for national and local charities and is one of the largest student-run philanthropy organizations in the world. Thrice-yearly, at 9 p.m. on the Sunday before finals week, students lean out windows and scream bloody murder; this tradition is known as the ''Primal Scream''. Each spring, on the Saturday before Memorial Day, an all-day music festival known as Armadillo Day, or more commonly Dillo Day , is held on Northwestern's Lakefill -- an area of land reclaimed from Lake Michigan. The event was founded in the 1970s as a small party by a group of students from Texas, hence 'Armadillo'. It is the culmination of Northwestern's ''Mayfest'', an end-of-school-year celebration that dates back to the 1890s . Student theater enjoys a highly visible presence on campus. Two annual productions are especially notable: the Waa-Mu show, and the Dolphin Show. Waa-Mu is an original musical, written and produced almost entirely by students. The Dolphin Show is the nation's largest student produced musical. In addition, Northwestern boasts the largest student-theatre community in the nation. Students produce over sixty independent productions each year. Many Northwestern alumni have used these productions as stepping stones to successful television and film careers. STUDENT BODY Northwestern University's admissions are among the "most selective" in the nation, according to U.S. News And World Report . Among national undergraduate programs, the publication ranked Northwestern 11th overall in selectivity. As of the 2005-06 academic year, there are 7,947 undergraduates and 5,460 graduate students enrolled full-time. 909 students were enrolled part-time in the School of Continuing Studies. In early April, it was confirmed that for the undergraduate class of 2010, there were 18,419 total applicants, up 18% from the year before. 5,200 students were admitted (about 28%). In the class of 2009, 6.4% are Black , 17.4% are Asian , 6.5% are Hispanic and 1.8% are Multiracial . The class is 52.1% female and 47.9% male. The mean high school rank was the 94th percentile and the combined SAT score 1402 (out of 1600), marking the highest SAT average of any class in Northwestern history and making Northwestern the most selective Big Ten university. Of those enrolled in the class of 2009, 126 graduated as valedictorian of their high school class. According to numbers posted by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, 36% of Northwestern students were affiliated with a Fraternity or a Sorority in Spring 2005. This is the highest percentage of students involved in Greek life among Big Ten universities. RANKINGS According to US News & World Report , as of 2006 , Northwestern's undergraduate program ranks 12th among all American undergraduate programs. Similarly, many of Northwestern's graduate programs are highly esteemed. For example, Northwestern's Kellogg School Of Management consistently ranks as one of the world's finest business schools; Northwestern's School Of Law consistently ranks among America's top ten law schools; the Feinberg School Of Medicine consistently ranks among the top twenty medical schools, and Northwestern's Medill School Of Journalism is among America's top journalism schools. Also, US News & World Report ranks Northwestern's Materials Science program 2nd overall. Northwestern's School of Music often ranks first among non-conservatory-based music programs. Other esteemed programs include Learning Sciences, Engineering, Theatre, Communications, Psychology, Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences (MMSS), Art History, and Integrated Science (ISP). ATHLETICS Northwestern's athletic teams are nicknamed the Wildcats. Before 1924 , they were known as "The Purple" and unofficially as "The Fighting Methodists." The name Wildcats was bestowed upon the university in 1924 by a writer for the Chicago Tribune who published an article that described the football team as, "a wall of purple wildcats." The name was so popular that university board members made "wildcats" the official nickname just months later. The mascot is Willie the Wildcat. The football team plays at Ryan Field ; the basketball and volleyball teams play at Welsh-Ryan Arena . Northwestern University is the only private university member of the Big Ten Conference , of which it was a founding member. Northwestern has eight men's and eleven women's Division I sports teams. Northwestern's athletic history is somewhat checkered. The football team once had the longest losing streak in NCAA Division I-A history at 34 games. The men's basketball team has never made it to the NCAA tournament. The school has put most of its athletic woes behind it, however, and currently fields some very competitive teams. Notable programs that are usually ranked in the Top 20 include men's swimming, and women's tennis, fencing and lacrosse. The football team was recently ranked 21 by the AP poll and 23 by the Coach's poll, marking the team's first appearance in a national poll in 4 years. The Wildcats finished the year ranked 25 by BCS and lost against UCLA in the Sun Bowl . Over the past decade they have had an increase in players going into the NFL including defensive lineman Luis Castillo ( San Diego Chargers ); running backs Darnell Autry ( Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles ), Noah Herron ( Green Bay Packers ), Jason Wright and Damien Anderson ( St. Louis Rams ); linebackers Napoleon Harris ( Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings ), Barry Gardner ( Philadelphia Eagles ) and Kevin Bentley ( Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks ); receiver D'Wayne Bates ( Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings ); offensive linemen Austin King, Matt O'Dwyer and Jeff Roehl; Safety Louis Ayeni ( Indianapolis Colts ) and field goal kicker Brian Gowens ( Chicago Bears ). Other notable alum athletes include MLB's Joe Girardi ( Chicago Cubs , New York Yankees , St. Louis Cardinals , current Florida Marlins manager), and Mark Loretta ( Milwaukee Brewers , San Diego Padres , Boston Red Sox ), as well as English Golf er Luke Donald . Yearly, Northwestern and the University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign play football for the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk . Another strong rivalry is developing with the University Of Wisconsin although there is currently no official trophy for the football game. In 2005 Northwestern won the National Championship in Women's Lacrosse . The women's lacrosse team, after only 4 years as a varsity sport, defeated many long-established east-coast schools to capture the school's first national championship in over 50 years. In doing so, it became the farthest-west institution to win the title. Soon after, the team made national news when members appeared in a White House photo with President Bush wearing thong sandals, or Flip-flops . SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND DEPARTMENTS Undergraduate programs
Graduate and professional programs
NOTABLE ALUMNI ''Main article:'' List Of Northwestern Alumni SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS Professional Schools Undergraduate and Graduate
Miscellaneous
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