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Career test for Northwestern students

See which careers fit your traits — based on what 629+ Northwestern alumni actually went on to do.

Private research universityIllinois
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What Northwestern grads actually do

Based on 629 notable Northwestern alumni with Wikipedia pages. Data: Wikidata (CC0).

actor
75
politician
63
television actor
62
film actor
61
journalist
60
writer
56
university teacher
56
American football player
48
screenwriter
39
stage actor
33
film producer
30
businessperson
29

Notable Northwestern alumni

George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin
screenwriter · novelist
Herschell Gordon Lewis
Herschell Gordon Lewis
advertising person · film screenwriter
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
stage actor · film screenwriter
Steve Albini
Steve Albini
audio engineer · poker player
Audrey Niffenegger
Audrey Niffenegger
artist · novelist
Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon
screenwriter · television director
William R. Roy
William R. Roy
politician · journalist
Marc Kirschner
Marc Kirschner
biochemist · university teacher

Salary outlook for top Northwestern career paths

National median annual wage (BLS Occupational Employment Statistics).

politician
10th–90th percentile: $21,010$129,510
$47,290
median / yr
journalist
10th–90th percentile: $31,550$160,360
$57,500
median / yr
writer
10th–90th percentile: $40,900$148,240
$73,690
median / yr
businessperson
10th–90th percentile: $80,000$239,200
$206,680
median / yr

Find your fit in 2 minutes

Take the Career Match test — RIASEC framework used by 60,000+ students. See which careers from this Northwestern alumni list match your traits.

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Big Five and MBTI also available from your dashboard.

About Northwestern

Northwestern University (NU) is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851, it is the oldest chartered university in Illinois. Northwestern was initially affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church but later became non-sectarian. By 1900, the university was the third-largest university in the United States, after Michigan and Harvard. Northwestern became a founding member of the Big Ten Conference in 1896 and joined the Association of American Universities in 1917. Northwestern is composed of eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools in the fields of management, law, journalism, engineering, medicine, and others. As of 2024, the university had an endowment of $15.6 billion, an annual budget of around $3.3 billion, and research funding of over $1 billion. The university fields 19 intercollegiate athletic teams, the Northwestern Wildcats, which compete in the NCAA Division I in the Big Ten Conference. As of September 2020, 37 Nobel Prize laureates and 2 Fields Medalists were affiliated with Northwestern as alumni or faculty. In addition, Northwestern has been associated with 47 Pulitzer Prize winners, 23 National Medal of Science winners, 11 National Humanities Medal recipients, 23 MacArthur Fellows, 20 Rhodes Scholars, and 28 Marshall Scholars. Northwestern alumni also include 10 living billionaires, 2 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and 25 Olympic medalists.

Source: Wikipedia · Licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0.

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