Northwestern University (NU) is a private research university with campuses in Evanston and Chicago in Illinois, United States, as well as Doha, Qatar. Home to twelve schools and colleges, Northwestern offers 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees. In 1851, Northwestern University was officially established when its Act of Incorporation was passed by the Illinois legislature. Grant Goodrich, John Evans and Orrington Lunt were a few of the University's original founders.

The foundation of Northwestern University is traceable to a meeting on May 31, 1850 of nine prominent Chicago businessmen, Methodist leaders and attorneys who had formed the idea of establishing a university to serve what had once been known as the Northwest Territory.

On January 28, 1851, the Illinois General Assembly granted a charter to the Trustees of the Northwestern University, making it the first chartered university in Illinois. The school's nine founders, all of whom were Methodists (three of them ministers), knelt in prayer and worship before launching their first organizational meeting. Although they affiliated the university with the Methodist Episcopal Church, they were committed to non-sectarian admissions, believing that Northwestern should serve all people in the newly developing territory.

In 1853, the founders purchased a 379-acre tract of land on the shore of Lake Michigan 12 miles north of Chicago. They established a campus and developed the land near it, naming the surrounding town Evanston in honor of one of the University's founders, John Evans. After completing its first building in 1855, Northwestern began classes that fall with two faculty members and 10 students.

Twenty-one presidents have presided over Northwestern in the years since. The University has grown to include 12 schools and colleges, with additional campuses in Chicago and Doha, Qatar.

According to Wikipedia & northwestern.edu