Northwestern is regularly ranked as one of the top 10 universities in the country, and is considered a powerhouse of the Midwest. Located in Evanston, Illinois outside of Chicago, the school has additional campuses in Chicago proper and in Doha, Qatar. Across the university, Northwestern is home to more than 8,000 undergraduates who pursue more than 100 majors and minors.
One of the things that makes Northwestern stand out is the combination of immense resources and an amazingly customizable experience. The school plays host to more than $1 billion in annual sponsored research awards, and $449M in NIH funding. Parallel to this, a Northwestern education is a hyper-personalized education in a strong community rooted in collaboration and collectivism. Northwestern is also known for being at the cutting edge, and they offer more than 100 courses each year focused on innovation. To take advantage of all these resources, students are encouraged to combine multiple areas of study.
The athletic side of Northwestern is as impressive as the academic core of the university. They field over a dozen varsity teams, and are a founding member of the Big Ten conference in the NCAA Division I program. Northwestern teams regularly win championships, and there is a passionate fan base on-campus and off, keeping games, meets, and matches lively and exciting!
In this post we’re going to break down what you need to know if you are considering playing a sport in college, and you have Northwestern on your shortlist. First, though, let’s talk numbers. Getting into Northwestern isn’t easy. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2028 was less than 8%. This can be a little intimidating, but if you’re an accomplished athlete you can greatly increase your chances of admission by following the appropriate process.
If you’re excited about Northwestern, send us an email. We help top students get into exceptional colleges.
What is Northwestern looking for in Student Athletes?
Northwestern lists 21 sports on their NCAA roster, and they actively seek out top athletes who are also top students to fill these teams. Before you get too deep into the details of the Northwestern programs, though, you must make sure you really understand the NCAA program and the expectations they have of students for them to be eligible, including maintaining amateur status and certain grade thresholds. We find this checklist for the NCAA to be really useful!
Recruited Athletes
Once you have a full understanding of what it means to compete in the NCAA, you’ll want to start taking steps towards building a connection with the university — following NCAA guidelines. Being recruited opens the door to preferred consideration by admissions, and even scholarship opportunities like the Northwestern Athletic Endowed Scholarship Program, so it’s serious business!
Northwestern doesn’t make it easy to find information about recruitment. Where some colleges have questionnaires that are easily accessible, or put the contact information for coaches in easy-to-find spots, Northwestern doesn’t. This may be because the demand is so high that they don’t want coaches being spammed, or it could be that they want students who reach out to really know the program before sending an email. Possibly, both.
To find more information on your sport and the contact information for coaches, you need to go to the individual page for your sport — we’re going to use men’s tennis as an example. From there, you can access a ‘self-guided’ tour pdf, which covers the campus and facilities, under the “more” tab by clicking on “Campus Tour.” Again, remember that the one linked above is for men’s tennis. Each sport as their own version of this pdf focused on different sport-specific components, which makes sense because a potential women’s lacrosse player really doesn’t need to know a lot about the pool complex.
Now, once you get to the end of the self-guided campus tour pdf, you will often see the names, title, and — most importantly — contact information for the team coaches. Once you have that info, you’re almost ready to reach out.
Treat reaching out to coaches like applying for a job. You only have one chance to make a first impression, so you want to have your athletic resume, a transcript showing your academic achievements, and possibly even a highlight reel together in advance of reaching out to coaches. Run any email drafts by a parent or mentor before sending, including the subject line. You want the coaches to be able to immediately envision a role for you on their team, and this email plays a crucial role in that.
Walk-Ons
Northwestern has a long history of accepting, supporting, and elevating walk-on athletes. Walk-ons are students who are not recruited, but who join the team through a tryout process. Walk-ons generally do not have access to scholarships — or, at least, they don’t at first. However, this doesn’t mean walk-ons don’t experience success. Walk-on athletes have risen to captaining the football team and becoming leading scorers for basketball.
However, being a walk-on can also be hard at first, especially on a NCAA Division I and Big Ten team, because you really need to fight for your spot on the team. Some students enjoy this challenge, while others decide to continue playing in a less competitive setting.
Walk-ons are more common for teams that have smaller budgets and limited recruitment quotas, but even the football program at Northwestern has identified walk-ons as the “backbone” of the program. Some students are even given the status of “preferred walk-on,” which means that you have a spot on the team once you get to campus, but they hit their recruitment limits and so can’t offer you the types of admissions and financial support recruited students get. You may qualify for a scholarship in the future, though, based on performance.
Given how much variation there is in the walk-on experience, we encourage students to begin the process as a recruit would — by reaching out to the coaches to express your interest as soon as you have Northwestern in your mind as a possibility.
Intramural and Club Sports
For those who decide that the pressure of a varsity squad isn’t for them, there are tons of other options at Northwestern that vary in time commitment, experience required, and level of seriousness. The school fields 38 club teams, which involve more than 1,200 athletes. Club teams compete against other “clubs, schools, college, and universities,” and even faculty and staff have the opportunity to play. The sports available include all the normal ones you’d see at the varsity level, plus sports like Aikido, archery, pickleball, table tennis, water polo, and both men’s and women’s rugby.
Students who want an even more relaxed setting may prefer intramurals, which include softball, flag football, soccer, and ultimate frisbee (and that’s just the spring line-up). These are organized and competitive, but skill and experience-inclusive.
Fitness Classes
If you’re ready to retire from team sports altogether, but you still want to stay active, Northwestern has some of the best resources for you of any college. There are group classes in water fitness, yoga, dance, pilates, cardio, high-intensity interval training, barre, and more, as well as private pilates and yoga classes. They have a wellness suite that is basically a spa, including white light therapy services for treating symptoms of seasonal affective disorder, depression, sleep disorders, and stress, and students have access to personal training and massage therapy. Oh, and if that isn’t enough there is a dining option in the sports pavilion called “Protein Bar and Kitchen” that is there to serve you the healthiest food on campus. The wildcat smoothie, named for the Northwestern mascot, is a blend of strawberries, blueberries, bananas, vanilla whey protein, and oat milk.
What Northwestern offers student athletes, whether their playing on the starting lineup of a varsity squad, mastering badminton on a club team, or doing yoga classes before getting a smoothie is truly exceptional. From reaching skipper status in the Sailing Center to building lifelong friendships in the locker room, the athletic offerings are an amazing compliment to world-class academics.
Northwestern is a top-tier university with Ivy-level selectiveness. If it’s on your list, we can help.