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Northwestern alumni

If I was guessing probably about 75-90k

1500 undergrads graduate a year times 50-60 yrs post graduation. Some older and some younger didn’t make it that far.
 
If I was guessing probably about 75-90k

1500 undergrads graduate a year times 50-60 yrs post graduation. Some older and some younger didn’t make it that far.
I'd add 30-40k from graduate school depending on whether you count them as alumuni.
 
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How many living alumni does Northwestern have?
Depends on what you count as an alum. Undergrad, probably 75-100K but if you include grad schools you can increase that significantly.
 
If I was guessing probably about 75-90k

1500 undergrads graduate a year times 50-60 yrs post graduation. Some older and some younger didn’t make it that far.
But there are also now about 2000 per year graduating
 
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We should have around 90k surviving undergraduate alumni. We've been graduating 2000-2200 annually for at least 20-30 years now since the undergrad expanded back in the 80s-90s.

If you assume we've graduated around an average of 1700 undergrads over the last 60 years, you basically get around 100k possible graduates. Of course demographics/mortality come into play which probably brings that to around 90k.


As far as graduate school alumni goes, that number is growing hugely because of all the masters degrees that the university hands out; Northwestern granted 5400 Masters+Doctoral+Professional degrees last year.

Back before the big boom that number was around 3000 graduate degrees conferred annually during the 90s.

Of course that number was also much lower back in the 70s and 80s. Average number over past 55 years (reducing by 5 due to older ages of those alumni compared to undergrads) is probably around 3200 which gets you around 175k graduate alumni; factoring demographics/mortality probably brings that number down to around 160-165k.


So the grand total is probably around 250k surviving alumni at the moment if you're including all alums, and given that the university is handing out around 7,500 degrees annually, the number is likely to grow to around 300k over the next 20-25 years.

But the undergrad alumni number is likely to stay pretty stable, undergrad has been at a stable 2100-2200 new alumni per year for a while and that won't change much; we'll probably hover around 90-100k living alumni of the undergraduate school.
 
My University of Michigan friends love to brag about how they (supposedly) have the most living alumni in the country. My retort is always: Why is that a point of pride? Wouldn't you want to have fewer alumni to demonstrate exclusivity?
 
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My University of Michigan friends love to brag about how they (supposedly) have the most living alumni in the country. My retort is always: Why is that a point of pride? Wouldn't you want to have fewer alumni to demonstrate exclusivity?
Why? More alums means a larger potential network.
 
I’m class of 88. We entered with 1850. With transfers and co-op only about 1550 actually graduate in four years. So I used that number to estimate. The 93% graduation rate if I recall, would include those who start and make up the additional 150 or so that graduate in 5 years.
 
I’m class of 88. We entered with 1850. With transfers and co-op only about 1550 actually graduate in four years. So I used that number to estimate. The 93% graduation rate if I recall, would include those who start and make up the additional 150 or so that graduate in 5 years.
Yes but even in your class Northwestern handed out over 2000 undergraduate diplomas. You're underestimating the # of transfers that we net annually (it's a significant addition to class size, we take in much more than we lose every year) and the fact that the class grows when you consider that the 4th year class includes 5th/6th/7th years from previous years.

So the average "4th year class" of undergraduates at Northwestern is very often 2400-2500 in recent years even though an incoming 1st year class is still around 2000.

Back in the late 1980s, I'd imagine that the "4th year class" was around 2100-2200 in size annually, and from that you'd get the 1900-2100 diplomas while the remainder continue on as "4th year class" for another year or drop out.

After 1984, NU has handed out 1900+ Bachelor's degrees every year except 1995 when the number was 1882.

1980-1984 is when the university dramatically expanded the undergraduate program by around 300 students per year.
 
I'd add 30-40k from graduate school depending on whether you count them as alumuni.
My daughter never followed football until she was at NU grad school, now she watches parts of the game every Saturday and wears Purple NU gear all the time. I suppose night school grad students might not have the same experience as she did living in Evanston for three years.
 
Whatever the total, I’d subtract the number of alumni sitting in Section 129. I don’t think any of them are actually alive.
 
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