西北大学（美国）世界排名_王牌专业_nwu院校简介-申请方

Just outside of big city Chicago, Evanston provides Northwestern with an appropriately collegiate suburban support system right by Lake Michigan. Student-friendly clothing stores (Urban Outfitters, Gap, American Apparel), cafes, and bars are all within walking distance of campus in upscale downtown Evanston, and a nice selection of grocery stores (including a Whole Foods) and late-night diners keep Northwesterners fed. The town and campus share access to Lake Michigan’s shores, which attract beach and lake enthusiasts year-round. Evanston’s half-dozen bars might seem like slim-pickings for a party scene, but considering Evanston was a dry town until fairly recently, there options feel sufficient. For real bar-hopping and city bustle, Northwestern students can jump on the Purple El-train running parallel to the university and be in downtown Chicago in a matter of minutes. Evanston is a predominantly wealthy, suburban town and it has begun to push back against the condos and skyline-dominating academic buildings flooding in, spurring by the expansions of Northwestern and Chicago. Northwestern’s original deal with the town protects the school from having to pay property taxes on anything, so Evanston administrators (who do pay sizable property taxes on their large lake-front houses) have vocalized their displeasure over perceived sponging on the university's part.

Northwestern’s Evanston campus, fenced in by Sheridan Road on one side and Lake Michigan on the other, is a campus divided. The South end primarily hosts dorms and classrooms for its well-known creative and communications programs, including theaters, a museum, concert hall, observatory, and the McCormick Tribune Center, which houses the Medill School of Journalism. The North end gathers engineering and research facilities, as well as rowdier student housing that includes frats and sorority houses (although there is a university-mandated “mile-wide” gap between sorority and fraternity housing). Buildings on campus are usually fairly modern, big, well-maintained, and include touches of neo-Gothic architecture and stone construction to echo the East Coast Ivies. To get to more remote locales, like Ryan Field, students can bike, walk, or jump on the El at any of the four stops it makes close to campus. Behind the front gates at the South end, students are greeted by the typical grassy patches, walkways, and shady trees. The Lakefill (which covered several acres of lake with land) houses the Norris Student Center, a concert hall, and a field where students can walk, relax, and eat lunch on nice days.

Compared to other universities, dormitory-living at Northwestern is relatively popular. Real estate prices in upscale Chicago ‘burbs are sky high, and Evanston is no exception. Many students live on campus both as freshmen and sophomores, and it is by no mean unpopular to continue living in the dorms junior year. That said, some university housing is much more coveted than others. For those interested in the typical, party-hardy Animal House-in-a-dorm-style living, Bobb-McCullough Hall is definitely the dorm of choice. Bobb-McCullough houses nearly 600 men and women in (technically) two dorms attached at the center by a few massive “connector” rooms. Widely considered the most social dorm on campus, Bobb-McCullough sits just across the sidewalk from Fraternity Row and is home to drunken debauchery, laid-back C.A.s, and trash cans chained to the walls. With no air conditioning, perpetually stained carpets, and constant noise, it is not exactly luxury living, but few argue it wasn’t the time of their lives. Just across Sheridan Road, Elder Hall is the only all-freshman dorm on campus. Known for its community-verging-on-cult atmosphere, Elder is populated by relatively social students as well as a large number of athletes. On the other side of campus, Allison Hall is the toned-down, artsy version of Bobb-McCullough. Allison parties, but stricter C.A.s and a quieter crowd make it more contemplative and less crazy. Unlike Allison, Elder, or Bobb-McCullough, Willard is a residential college--a smaller housing option with more community opportunities. Incoming freshmen must apply for placement in Willard, but it comes with dorm excursions, facilitated faculty meetings and increased student interaction.

Northwestern’s Wildcat football team is sometimes the butt of many Big-10 jokes. As the only private university in the conference, Northwestern hold records for losses in Division I-A play, points allowed, and the longest losing streak in division history—-34 games. But the team has made strides, and even a few bowl appearances, towards building the program back in recent years. One place Northwestern’s football players do win is in the classroom, with a consistent 90 percent-or-better graduation rate for team members. Other teams aren’t so unlucky. The women’s lacrosse program has won four straight NCAA championships, and softball, golf, swimming, and tennis teams are regularly competitive in NCAA play. In addition to the standard varsity offerings, Northwestern fields some intramural options for students, including soccer, ultimate Frisbee, floor hockey, and dodgeball.