Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.Chartered by the Illinois General Assembly in 1851, Northwestern was established to serve the former Northwest Territory. The university was initially affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, but soon grew to be non-sectarian. In 1896, Northwestern became a founding member of the Big Ten Conference, and later joined the Association of American Universities as an early member in 1917. The university grew to be the third largest university in the United States by the turn of the 20th century.The university is composed of eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, which include the Kellogg School of Management, the Pritzker School of Law, the Feinberg School of Medicine, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the Bienen School of Music, the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Medill School of Journalism, the School of Communication, the School of Professional Studies, the School of Education and Social Policy, and The Graduate School. Northwestern's campus lies along the shores of Lake Michigan in Evanston. The university's law, medical, and professional schools, along with Northwestern Memorial Hospital, are located in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood. Medill's graduate programs are located on the New Eastside. The university also maintains a campus in Education City, Qatar and academic centers in Miami, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.Northwestern has an endowment of $16.1 billion, one of the largest university endowments in the world, as well as an annual budget of around $2.5 billion. As of fall 2019, the university had 21,946 enrolled students, including 8,327 undergraduates and 13,619 graduate students. Fielding eight men's and eleven women's sports teams, the Northwestern Wildcats represent the university to compete in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference and has remained the only private university in the conference since 1946.

Past and present Northwestern faculty and alumni have included numerous heads of state, 22 Nobel Prize laureates, 42 Pulitzer Prize winners, 23 MacArthur Fellows, 28 Marshall Scholars, 94 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 16 Rhodes Scholars, 10 living billionaires, and 24 Olympic medalists.