Northwestern University is a private research university with an undergraduate enrollment of 8,494 students, plays a total of 19 NCAA sports, 8 of them for men and 11 for women. In the 2021/2022 season, Northwestern University had a total of 469 NCAA athletes comprising merely 6% of the total student body.

Northwestern is likely to have recruited many of the athletes on its NCAA sports teams through the Division 1 athlete recruitment process, enabling these recruited athletes to leapfrog the normal admissions process. It is our best estimate based on team profiles that about 50% to 75% of their teams comprise of recruited athletes while the remaining athletes are “walk-on” athletes who were admitted to Northwestern University on merits unrelated to sports.

How Top Colleges in Division 1 Select their Athlete Recruits

The table below lists the NCAA and varsity sports played at Northwestern University and the number of athletes in each sports team.

All data compiled from Northwestern University athletic website.