We may be suffering through one of the roughest Chicago winters to date right now, but we still bleed purple for our Wildcats. Our campus of about 8,000 undergraduates is located in Evanston, IL just outside of Chicago. Something we absolutely love about our school is our beautiful campus. It sits right on Lake Michigan, just minutes from the cute downtown of Evanston and just a train ride away from downtown Chicago.
Right now, our campus always looks like this:
(Photo Credit: Alyssa Raiola)
It isn’t so bad to walk to class with snow lightly sprinkling down and creating that sparkly effect all over campus.
We embrace our blanket of white, but we also look forward to spring quarter, when our whole campus loves to gather on the “Lakefill,” a man-made patch of land right along the coast of lake Michigan complete with running paths, shady trees for lounging, and a gorgeous view of the Chicago Skyline.
(Photo Credit: Alyssa Raiola)
We are also home to six different undergraduate schools with a variety of majors and programs including the:
- Weinberg School of Arts and Sciences
- McCormick School of Engineering
- Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communications
- The School of Communication
- The School of Education and Social Policy
- The Binen School of Music
We have students in our engineering school working with real clients in Chicago to design rehabilitation products through our DTC Program at the same time as Students working to put on major productions through our theatre department.
We all unite in our shared nerdiness and love for purple. We love to support our Big Ten Teams, even when they may not have the best records. This year, we even had college game day visit our campus for a show right on the Lakefill.

Thousands of students wait for the College Game Day Broadcast to begin as the sun rises over Lake Michigan
(Photo Credit: Alyssa Raiola)
We also have a vibrant extracurricular community whether it’s through our hundreds of student groups, tons of on campus shows, or our strong Greek community.
Our academic schedule is pretty demanding here, so most of us are pretty well acquainted with the libraries. But like any college student we find time to procrastinate a whole lot on Facebook and have some amazing events.
One of my favorites is Dance Marathon, which is one of the largest student run philanthropy events in the country. We dance for 30 (yes 30) hours straight to raise money for a different children’s philanthropy each year.
(Photo Credit: Northwestern University Dance Marathon.com)
And the most famous is “Dillo Day.” Each spring quarter we host a completely free concert right on Lake Michigan for all of our students. We bring 3 or 4 different artists each year and the entire day is spent partying and listening to great music.
(Photo Credit: Alyssa Raiola)
See, nerds know how to have fun too! Go U, NU!
(Feature Photo Credit: Alyssa Raiola)