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Northwestern is a major research university located on lakefront campuses in Chicago and suburban Evanston, Illinois. While Northwestern is small compared to other members of the Big Ten, it is one of the nation's largest private universities. The overall ratio of full-time students to faculty is 9 to 1, one of the lowest in the country.
The Department of Mathematics is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the oldest and largest of eight graduate and undergraduate schools located on the 230-acre Evanston campus. The quiet setting of the campus, bounded on the east by Lake Michigan and on the west by the stately homes and tree-lined streets of Evanston, provides an excellent environment for academic pursuits. The resources of the nation's third-largest city are only 30 minutes away by car or public transportation, but Northwestern has a feeling of spaciousness and serenity usually found only on a geographically isolated campus.
A series of oak groves, meadows, and gardens links the old campus with the new. Ivy-clad Dearborn Observatory, with its telescope dating from the Civil War, overlooks Lake Michigan. The crenellated towers of the modern University Library, which houses more than 4 million volumes, rise above the graceful limestone spire of University Hall, built in 1869.
The College of Arts and Sciences shares the Evanston campus with the Graduate School, the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Medill School of Journalism, and the Schools of Education and Social Policy, Music, and Speech. On the Chicago campus are the Dental School, the School of Law, the Managers' Program of the Kellogg School, the Medical School, and University College (Northwestern's continuing education division). Together, these schools make Northwestern one of the country's leading educational institutions.
The Evanston campus stretches for a mile along the shore of Lake Michigan past intramural playing fields, sandy beaches, boat launches, and bike and jogging paths. Campus landmarks that front the lake include the sports and aquatics center, the fine and performing arts complex, and Norris University Center, where you can rent rollerblades, study the art of wine tasting, listen to lunchtime outdoor concerts, or buy specially priced tickets to a variety of on-campus and Chicago events.
Approximately 11,000 graduate and undergraduate students live on and around the Evanston campus. Their varied ages, interests, and goals give campus life breadth and vitality and support a wide range of events and activities within the University community. Recreational programs of all kinds, lecture series and concerts, dance and nationally renowned theater, and film series crowd the academic calendar. The lake itself provides limitless opportunities for recreation. The University's north beach, minutes from mathematics department offices in Lunt, is popular with swimmers and volleyball enthusiasts. The University Sailing Center on the south beach maintains launching facilities and a fleet of sailboats and windsurfers, drawing both experienced and novice sailors.
Pick-Staiger Concert Hall hosts distinguished international artists and student performers in concerts open to the public. Several campus music groups, such as the University Chorus and the University Symphony, are open to graduate students. The School of Speech sponsors classical, contemporary, and experimental theater performances year-round at the Theatre and Interpretation Center, located on the Arts Circle. The Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, also on the Arts Circle, presents a wide range of special exhibitions as well as lectures, films, and workshops with visiting artists. The gallery's outdoor Sculpture Garden is open for browsing any time.
Northwestern's membership in the Big Ten Conference and the National Collegiate Athletic Association brings exciting intercollegiate athletic events to campus. Admission to most of these events and many other campus activities is free to full-time students.
In addition to the nearby Vogelback Computing Center, which is the University's main computing center, our facilities include the mathematics department's network of sun work-stations, housed in Lunt and used exclusively by mathematics faculty and graduate students. The suns boast excellent graphics capabilities and run in a unix operating system environment with either OpenWindows or XWindows graphical user interface. They support a C-language compiler along with both Mathematica and Maple for symbolic and numeric mathematical calculations, as well as graphical display of their output. We also use more specialized packages in algebra and dynamical systems. The sun network is connected to the main University network, which offers access to the Internet and Bitnet e-mail networks and allows mail to be sent electronically around the world.
The R. P. Boas Mathematics Library, located on the first floor of the Lunt Building, features a large collection of books and journals. Normal library hours are weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; you may also request keys for access at other hours. A short walk away, the Seeley G. Mudd Library for Sciences and Engineering offers more than 200,000 books and journals, especially useful in applied mathematics. Northwestern is one of 137 members of the Center for Research Libraries, through which you can obtain infrequently used materials. All students may also take advantage of the University Library.
Visitors to campus often remark that it's difficult to tell where Northwestern ends and the city of Evanston begins. One of the oldest and most beautiful communities in the metropolitan Chicago area, Evanston shares the residential feel of the campus. In the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the campus, stately historic homes and apartments alternate with public parks and gardens.
Downtown Evanston blends cosmopolitan convenience with small town charm; fine restaurants, specialty shops, and hotels share prominence with the public library, post office, and farmer's market. The city's three shopping districts are within easy walking distance of campus; each has laundromats, dry cleaners, pharmacies, markets, and grocery stores. Affordable restaurants and cafes offer courtyard and sidewalk dining, and public plazas cater to brown bag lunchers and people watchers.
Evanston's public school district is widely regarded as one of the best in the nation, and the city's park district offers a variety of moderately priced recreational programs. In addition to an ice skating arena, a public golf course, tennis facilities, and a fine arts center, the city maintains lakefront parkland that includes two public beaches, a fitness course, and a scenic bike path that continues for 20 miles into Chicago and beyond.
Most important, you can easily find affordable apartments within three miles of the University, and public transportation is readily available. This means that you can live close to campus and still enjoy the benefits of a large metropolitan area and a pleasant community.
Newcomers to the area are often pleasantly surprised by Chicago's beauty, especially along Lake Michigan and the downtown skyline. From the Evanston campus, it's about 30 minutes on public transportation to the Loop, Chicago's traditional business district. The system of elevated trains (commonly known as "the EL" that encircles the district extends into Evanston, connecting you to some of the finest museums, libraries, art galleries, concert halls, theaters, and sports centers in the nation.
Chicago is definitely a music lover's town. Clubs throughout the city provide the best of the current music scene -- especially in folk music, electric blues, jazz, and gospel music. The city is home to the internationally acclaimed Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera, and such nationally renowned performing groups as the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Second City.
Chicago's world-class museums include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Science and Industry, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Conservatories at Garfield Park and Lincoln Park offer a spectacular year-round look at tropical and flowering plants. Also home to the Chicago School of Architecture, the city showcases the masterpieces of Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe.
Chicago's taverns and night spots feature outstanding entertainment, and an endless array of ethnic restaurants beckons the adventuresome and homesick alike with cuisines of every description: Thai, Japanese, French, Vietnamese, German, Indian, Ethiopian, Greek, Moroccan, Szechuan, Mexican, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Armenian, and Jamaican, to mention a few. Outdoor festivals give a holiday atmosphere to the summer months, drawing students to sample the music of the Jazz Festival and the food of Taste of Chicago. An afternoon at Wrigley Field with the Cubs, at the new Comiskey Park with the Sox, or at Soldier Field with the Bears -- or an evening enjoying a Bulls game -- are all great ways to unwind.
Engelhart Hall is the graduate student residence on campus. Many students also find affordable apartments in and around Evanston. The off-campus housing office maintains up-to-date, computerized listings of available housing in the area for walk-in visitors and provides phones for students using this service. The data base allows you to select for a variety of characteristics, among them geographic area, number of rooms, and rent level. If you're making a special trip to find an apartment, bear in mind that this office is open weekdays only, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Further information is available at the web-site of the Graduate School.
Metropolitan Chicago's outstanding system of public transportation makes owning a car unnecessary; many Evanston residents who work in Chicago or the suburbs choose to commute by rail or bus rather than drive. Immediately adjacent to campus are el trains leading into and around the city, as well as commuter trains that connect Chicago's Union Station with all major United States cities. Two major airports serve the Chicago metropolitan area, with connections to Evanston by airport shuttles, trains, buses, and fixed-rate taxis.
As a full-time graduate student enrolled at Northwestern, you will receive a U-Pass, which covers all transportation on the CTA (Chicago "El" and bus networks) and PACE (suburban bus network). For information on this program, see the web-site of the Graduate School.
Two-career couples appreciate the wealth of job opportunities the Chicago metropolitan area offers. For spouses in academic or scientific fields, there are five major universities, dozens of small colleges, and a high-technology corridor that includes Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Laboratory, and high-tech companies such as Amoco. Chicago is also a center of international banking, trade, and business. Many spouses find positions at Northwestern, which is Evanston's largest employer.
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