Founded in 1851, Northwestern University is one of the country's leading private research and teaching universities and the oldest chartered university in Illinois. Northwestern maintains three campuses: a 240-acre campus on Lake Michigan in Evanston, the first suburb north of Chicago, a 25-acre campus in the city of Chicago, and another campus located in Doha, Qatar. Enrolling 21,000 students across 12 schools and colleges, Northwestern is recognized both nationally and internationally for the quality of its educational programs at all levels, and, for the third year in a row, U.S. News & World Report has ranked the institution as the ninth-best university in the country for 2022. A charter member of the Big Ten and one of only five private AAU members/top research universitie