Northwestern University

Admission requirements and costs at a glance

Northwestern University is a private nonprofit university in Evanston, Illinois, founded in 1851. It is a mid-sized institution with roughly 8,800 undergraduates on a suburban campus, a student-faculty ratio of 6:1 and a six-year graduation rate of about 95%.

Admission is extremely selective: the university admits fewer than one applicant in ten, with a reported acceptance rate near 7%. Students who enrol typically present SAT scores in the 1490-1560 range or ACT results of 34-35. Those ranges describe the middle half of enrolled students, which means a quarter of them scored below the lower figure — a score outside the range does not by itself decide an application.

Published tuition is about $66,000 per year and applies to every student regardless of the state they live in, which is the normal pattern at private universities. The figure excludes housing, food, books and fees, and institutional aid frequently reduces it substantially — run the university's net price calculator before treating it as the price you would pay.

Test policy: Test-optional. Submit scores only if they sit at or above the enrolled range shown above; otherwise apply without them and let the transcript carry the file. Note that merit scholarships and honours colleges sometimes keep a score requirement the admission office has dropped.

The regular application deadline is January 3, with an early round on November 1 (Early Decision, binding). The application fee is $75, and fee waivers are available for applicants with documented financial need.

Northwestern University is institutionally accredited by HLC, which is what makes its credits transferable and its students eligible for federal financial aid. Our guide to accreditation in the United States explains how to verify this independently and why programme-level accreditation matters separately for licensed fields.

Key facts

Editorial estimates, reviewed 2026-09-20. Official source: https://www.northwestern.edu

Commonly chosen programmes

• Journalism
• Economics
• Engineering
• Theatre

Programme availability, prerequisites and internal admission standards differ from the university-wide figures above. Competitive majors such as computer science, engineering, nursing and business frequently admit a far smaller share of applicants than the institution as a whole, and some require a separate application after the first year.

How to apply

1. Confirm the current deadline and test policy on the official admission page.
2. Check the required secondary school coursework and whether your transcript meets it.
3. Prepare the essay and any supplemental questions — see our essay guide.
4. Ask for recommendation letters at least four weeks before the deadline.
5. File the FAFSA from 1 October, and the CSS Profile if this university requires it.
6. Track scholarship deadlines separately; they are often earlier than the admission deadline.

International applicants add English proficiency scores, certified translations of transcripts and a financial statement before the university can issue the Form I-20. Our international student guide covers the full sequence through the visa interview.