News flash: Not every one automatically knows Northwestern University is located in suburban Chicago.
If anecdotal, as well as personal, experience indicates anything, a sizable number of us have been met with less-than-ideal reactions upon hearing that we are students at Northwestern University. Occasionally, either people ask something along the lines of, “Where’s that school?” or, depending on the geographic location of where the conversation is taking place, has gotten it mixed up with some other institution closer by with the word Northwestern in its name. This phenomenon happens quite often, it seems, despite the university’s nationally-renowned academics, lacrosse team and attempts at breaking the record for the largest group of people dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
Anyway, why do we attend a school called Northwestern located in the Midwest? In 1850, the founders of the university, wanted to build a school to serve the former Northwestern Territory, which covers present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota.
Beyond the bubble of our own Northwestern University, take a look at other Northwesterns around the U.S., as well as a number of them abroad.
[ Clarification: A production error caused Northwestern Michigan College to be misplaced on the map, and the description of Northwestern Health Services University to be incorrect. Thanks to commenter david for pointing out the error. ]