northwestern economics phd application

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Thank you for your interest in doctoral study at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. We are pleased that you want to become a part of our research community.

Our application for fall 2024 admission is closed. Our application will open again September of 2024 for fall 2025 admission. We admit just once a year, in the fall. We do not offer online or part-time programming. Listed below are the application requirements and supporting documents needed when submitting your online application. For technical support for the online application , contact CollegeNET on their Technical Support Site.

Dual Application with Economics

Academic background, academic statement, personal statement.

• The Graduate School values diverse backgrounds, approaches, and perspectives, understanding them as essential ingredients for true academic excellence. As a Northwestern graduate student, how could you contribute to an intellectual community that prioritizes equity, inclusion, belonging, and cultural humility? Your answer may draw upon past or present experiences, whether in academic work, extracurricular or community activities, or everyday life.

Transcripts

• Northwestern will accept applications from international students earning a three-year bachelor's degree.
• The academic records we refer to as "transcripts" should provide a listing, year-by-year, of all courses taken and the grades or marks received for each one.
• An official English translation of all transcripts submitted must be provided. Northwestern requires literal, certified translations for all documents issued in a language other than English. We accept translations from the institution issuing the transcript, ATA certified translators, or from the consulate.

Courses Taken Form

The "Courses Taken" form lets applicants applying to our economics-based programs highlight advanced-level college/university courses that directly support their chosen field of study and proficiency of the subject matter. The form allows for up to six (6) advanced courses in each specific area. If you cannot access our form, you may create and upload a form that contains the same information in applicable areas of study.

The form is required for those applying to the following programs:

• Accounting Information & Management form
• Finance form
• Financial Economics form
• Operations Management form

The form is highly recommended for those applying to the following programs:

• Managerial Economics & Strategy  form
• Marketing  (quantitative) form

Recommendation Letters

• A description of the nature of your relationship. Did you take one or more classes with the professor? The letter should also provide a ranking – how you compared to other students. 
• A description of a research project or honor’s thesis, discussing the quality of the work, technical and writing skills, research methods used, data analysis, originality, depth of research undertaken, questions/problems raised, contribution to the field, etc.
• Your academic abilities and insights on your character and working style – ability to work on your own, self-starter, complete a project on time, etc. 
• Any research or data analysis you have done within the scope of your work.

Test Scores

English language proficiency for international applicants.

If your native language is not English, Northwestern requires that you certify proficiency in the English language in ONE of the following ways:

• TOELF - Unofficial score report, submitted at the time of application, for the  Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) . Your TOEFL score must be 600 or higher on the paper-based exam, 250 or higher on the computer-based exam, or 100 or higher on the Internet-based exam. TOEFL test scores through their at home testing service are accepted. The TOEFL test must be taken no more than two years before the intended quarter of entry. 
• IELTS - Unofficial score report, submitted at the time of application, for the  International English Language Testing System (IELTS) . The IELTS Academic test must be taken no more than two years before the intended quarter of entry (fall quarter). IELTS test takers should score 7.0 or higher. IELTS scores through their a t home testing service are accepted. 
• MET -  Unofficial score report, submitted at the time of application, for the Michigan English Test . The MET test must be taken no more than two years before the intended quarter of entry. MET test takers should score 70 or higher. 
• Earning an undergraduate or graduate degree from an accredited institution where the language of instruction is English. -  If not indicated on the transcript, documentation regarding English instruction should be included with your application. This degree must be awarded before you enroll in doctoral classes in the upcoming fall quarter at Northwestern.
• Automatically Waived - Applicants that are citizens from the following countries where English is the native language will have the requirement automatically waived upon submission of the application (Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Great Britain, Gibraltar, Israel, Jamaica, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands)

DuoLingo or TOEFL Essentials are not accepted. Kellogg does not require the Test of Spoken English (TSE). Unofficial test score reports are used during the application review process; official test scores are required only if admissions is recommended.

Waivers to the TOEFL or IELTS exam requirement are provided after an application is submitted. Please allow seven (7) business days for your application to be evaluated after submission. Applicants may track their application status within the online application and once complete, a waiver will be noted within the application.

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Economics PhD Program

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Search results

Data and code for: reshaping adolescents’ gender attitudes: evidence from a school-based experiment in india.

Dhar, D. (Creator), Jain, T. (Creator) & Jayachandran, S. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2022

DOI : 10.3886/e149882v1 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/149882/version/V1/view

Replication Data for: 'Take-up and Targeting: Experimental Evidence from SNAP'

Finkelstein, A. (Creator) & Notowidigdo, M. J. (Creator), Harvard Dataverse, 2019

DOI : 10.7910/dvn/8awkil , https://dataverse.harvard.edu/citation?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/8AWKIL

Data and Code for: The Marginal Propensity to Consume over the Business Cycle

Gross, T. (Creator), Notowidigdo, M. J. (Creator) & Wang, J. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2020

DOI : 10.3886/e115211 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/115211

Data and Code for: Improving Willingness-to-Pay Elicitation by Including a Benchmark Good

Dizon-Ross, R. (Creator) & Jayachandran, S. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2022

DOI : 10.3886/e159881v1 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/159881/version/V1/view

Replication data for: News, Noise, and Fluctuations: An Empirical Exploration

Blanchard, O. J. (Creator), L'Huillier, J. (Creator) & Lorenzoni, G. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2013

DOI : 10.3886/e112690 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/112690

Replication data for: If Technology Has Arrived Everywhere, Why Has Income Diverged?

Comin, D. (Creator) & Mestieri, M. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2018

DOI : 10.3886/e114122v1-141561 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/114122/version/V1/view?path=/openicpsr/114122/fcr:versions/V1/LICENSE.txt&type=file

Replication material for "Financial Crises, Dollarization and Lending of Last Resort in Open Economies"

Bocola, L. (Creator) & Lorenzoni, G. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2020

DOI : 10.3886/e117047v1 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/117047/version/V1/view

Wind Intermittency Costs

Petersen, C. (Contributor) & Reguant, M. (Creator), Mendeley Data, 2022

DOI : 10.17632/2k375j6pz2.1 , https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/2k375j6pz2

Replication data for: Slow Moving Debt Crises

Lorenzoni, G. (Creator) & Werning, I. (Creator), ICPSR - Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2019

DOI : 10.3886/e116165v1 , https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/116165/version/V1/view

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MBA + MS Design Innovation (MMM Program) at the McCORMICK SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING and KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

• Inside Our Program

The Power of Empathy

It is easy for michael miller to recount the most important lesson he learned in northwestern's mba + ms in design innovation (mmm) program. it's a skill he leverages every day as a program manager at google..

When Michael Miller (MMM ‘20) thinks about the most important lesson he learned from his graduate school experience, one word comes to mind: Empathy.

Miller is a program manager at Google and a graduate of Northwestern's MBA + MS in Design Innovation (MMM) program — a dual-degree program between Northwestern Engineering and the Kellogg School of Management. He said the most important thing he took from the classroom back into the workforce is the ability to step into someone else's shoes when envisioning new products and services.

Miller works for Google Cloud. That section of the company provides a range of services that empower businesses with tools for everything from data storage to security and data analytics to artificial intelligence and machine learning.   

Even in the data-driven world of corporations and business-to-business technology, having genuine empathy for the customer’s current situation is the key to success, Miller said. 

“If I'm meeting with a person, I’m thinking, ‘What are they focused on? What are they trying to get out of it? What am I solving for this stakeholder?’” said Miller, who joined Google in 2022. “That’s the kind of empathy I'm really trying to dig into.”

Miller joined the MMM program three years after earning a bachelor’s degree in economics and financial mathematics. He lived in Chicago at the time and considered pursuing an MBA at Kellogg. When he toured the Northwestern campus, he was paired with a guide in the MMM program.

“I was obviously interested in wanting to hone my business acumen,” he said. “My guide kept talking about dialing in on design innovation and how MMM approaches it, working with clients and working really hands-on with design thinking. That was something I hadn't thought a lot about before.”

Miller was hooked.

He left his job as a consultant with accounting firm Ernst & Young and joined the next MMM cohort. Classes like Research, Design, Build and Business Innovation Lab gave him hands-on experience with industry partners. Throughout those classes was a constant emphasis on empathy through the principle of human-centered design.

That principle teaches that the way to create useful products and services is to start with the end user in mind and then conduct in-depth research to investigate the pain points in their lives. 

Miller said that approach fits well with the natural curiosity he has for people and their problems.   

“Trying to continue to be curious throughout whatever you're doing, whatever you're working on, unlocks so much more potential for other areas to look at,” he said. “It’s all about staying curious and digging in a little deeper to what you’re trying to solve.” 

When Miller graduated, he wanted to work in business-to-business (B2B) technology. His first job was a solutions program manager at Cloudfare, a technology security company. Both that and his current role gave him the B2B tech experience he was looking for. 

What he wasn't expecting was to be a bit of a consultant as well. That, he admitted, goes back to the empathy he learned in MMM.

"Working at Google Cloud sometimes feels like more than just a software business or an infrastructure business," Miller said. "(Clients) are looking to us not only to provide the services but also to show them how to turn their company into a software company. I think that is what's really interesting about being in the B2B space. It's not just the sales, it's the consulting, it's the partnerships, and it's the long-term planning."

Northwestern student to graduate with four degrees in four years with a 4.0 GPA

ORANGE CITY (KTIV) - On Saturday, A student at Northwestern College will graduate with four degrees in four years with a 4.0 GPA.

After graduation, Isaiah Gritters will pursue an M.D degree at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine this fall, after graduating from Northwestern College, located in Orange City, Iowa, with the following majors:

• Biology-Health
• Business Administration

Sioux County Radio says as the son of a doctor, Gritters loved STEM and knew he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. In high school, Gritters became interested in finance and added that to his biology and chemistry majors at Northwestern. After a class in economics, Gritters added it as his fourth major.

“I just love all four disciplines and love to challenge myself,” said Gritters.

Gritters said that he envisions all four majors working together to help him serve patients and achieve the long-term goal of operating his very own private medical practice.

As a student at Northwestern College, Gritters kept busy as a member of several organizations on campus, including:

• Student Government Association
• Investments Club
• Pre-Health Professions Club
• A student Representative of the Academic Affairs Committee
• A teaching assistant, peer tutor and research assistant

Gritters also participated in a Spring Service Partnership to Costa Rica and a summer study abroad trip with his fellow Honors program members in Greece.

Aside from academics and campus life, Gritters also participated as an EMT with the Orange City Health System for half of his college years and completed an internship in internal auditing at Stryker, a medical equipment and technology manufacturer in Michigan during the summer.

Described as a driven and humble servant who always goes the extra mile by his professors; Gritters says the key to completing four majors is time management.

Copyright 2024 KTIV. All rights reserved.

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Northwestern to Lead Midwestern Carbon-Capture Hub

Project receives nearly $4 million to test feasibility of direct air capture technologies.

Recognizing that carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) removal is a critical tool for thwarting the worst of climate change impacts, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has dedicated billions of dollars to explore the potential of direct air capture (DAC) technologies that can pull CO 2  out of the atmosphere. 

Regional DAC Hubs are a key part of DOE’s strategy and are supported with $100 million in DOE investments. Northwestern University is leading one of these hubs with nearly $4 million invested by DOE and partner companies. The award will be administered through the  Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy .

The DOE-funded projects will work to demonstrate the capture, processing, delivery and sequestration or end-use plans for captured carbon. Called the Midwest Nuclear DAC Hub (MINDAC), the Northwestern-led program will unite a diverse group of research and commercial partner institutions to test the feasibility of using a zero-emission nuclear fleet to power air handling units that remove CO 2  from the atmosphere.

MINDAC, which officially started on May 1, is one of only two DAC hubs located in the Midwest as well as one of two hubs with plans to harness nuclear energy as a power source.

Funded by the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Regional DAC Hubs Program will accelerate the demonstration and deployment of DAC technologies, supporting efforts to create jobs, reduce pollution and reinforce the United States’ global competitiveness in clean energy technologies.

After feasibility testing and engineering are complete, together these Hubs are expected to capture 1 million metric tonnes of CO 2  annually from the atmosphere. This is 250 times more CO 2  than the largest operating DAC facility currently removes.

“While we need to amplify efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all economic sectors, given the urgency and severity of climate change we need all options on the table — full speed ahead,” said Northwestern Engineering’s  Jennifer Dunn , the principal investigator of the project. “These options include direct air capture. We are excited to work with all our MINDAC partners and the Department of Energy to build a viable carbon capture hub in our region.”

While we need to amplify efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all economic sectors, given the urgency and severity of climate change we need all options on the table — full speed ahead.

Jennifer Dunn Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

An expert on the environmental impacts of emerging technologies, Dunn is a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, director of the  Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience , and a faculty affiliate of the Trienens Institute.

MINDAC’s co-principal investigators are:  Ted Sargent , the Lynn Hopton Davis and Greg Davis Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern’s  Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences , a professor of electrical and computer engineering at McCormick, and co-executive director of the Trienens Institute;  Omar Farha , the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Weinberg and (by courtesy) professor of chemical and biological engineering; and  Brad Sageman , a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Weinberg and co-director of the Trienens Institute.  Mar Reguant , a professor of economics at Weinberg, will serve as a senior adviser.  Ke Xie , a research assistant professor in Sargent’s laboratory , will serve as the Hub’s project manager.

“This initiative will make an important contribution as we develop solutions to tackle the global challenge of climate change,” Sargent said. “The issue requires diverse solutions — ones that can be used in combination with one another — and this includes direct air capture. As one of the world’s leading universities in engineering, materials science, chemistry, and the social sciences, Northwestern will bring unparalleled expertise to this vital initiative.” 

From intensifying storms to declining biodiversity to rising sea levels, the tragic effects of worsening climate change are becoming more visible each year. According to the United Nations, emissions need to decrease by 45 percent by 2030 in order to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Simply decreasing the volume of emissions is not enough. To hit this critical target, scientists estimate that billions of tons of CO 2  also must be removed from the atmosphere.

DAC technologies can reduce this lingering legacy CO 2  by literally pulling it out of the air. The CO 2  then can be safely and permanently stored deep underground or upcycled into valuable products, contributing to a circular carbon economy.

“The Illinois Basin has a number of deep rock formations with favorable properties for CO 2  storage,” Sageman said. “And successful CO 2  sequestration already has been demonstrated in the basin.”

For multiple reasons, the Midwest is uniquely positioned as an ideal location for a DAC Hub. Home to industry and high-traffic roadways, the Midwest region is a large emitter of CO 2  in the United States. As a consequence of climate change, the region is subject to extreme temperature and precipitation fluctuations — with cold air masses from the far north converging with warm, humid air masses from the Gulf of Mexico.

The issue requires diverse solutions — ones that can be used in combination with one another — and this includes direct air capture. As one of the world’s leading universities in engineering, materials science, chemistry, and the social sciences, Northwestern will bring unparalleled expertise to this vital initiative.

Ted Sargent Lynn Hopton Davis and Greg Davis Professor of Chemistry, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Illinois also has  the most nuclear power of any state in the nation , making nuclear energy an attractive and reliable zero-carbon energy source to power the capture process. Nuclear energy facilities also produce abundant waste heat, which can be integrated into capture facilities to further reduce energy costs.

“Incorporating CO 2  captured from air into building materials or plastics can sequester carbon,” Dunn said. “Alternatively, processes can convert captured CO 2  into fuels that can replace energy from fossil fuels. When the processes that capture CO 2  use nuclear power, the potential for carbon neutral or carbon negative products and fuels arises, which is very exciting.” 

MINDAC’s feasibility study will develop a model to integrate carbon capture technologies, manufacturing at scale, CO 2  utilization, and CO 2  transportation and geological sequestration. To unify expertise in nuclear energy, DAC technologies, site development and manufacturing, Northwestern has partnered with a host of major research and industrial partners including Argonne National Laboratory, Constellation, Siemens, 3M, Energy Capital Ventures, LanzaTech, RepAir, and Avnos.

Each partner will bring a specialized contribution to the team. Global leaders in DAC technologies, RepAir and Avnos will test the carbon capture and carbon removal systems. With the largest nuclear fleet in the nation, Constellation will explore the viability of its clean energy centers to supply carbon-free nuclear power to the MINDAC Hub. LanzaTech, a carbon capture and use company that uses synthetic biology to convert waste carbon into materials and higher-value products, will explore uses for the captured carbon. 

“RepAir Carbon's electrochemical technology operates solely on electricity, without the need for heat, enabling ultra-low energy consumption,” said Amir Shiner, CEO of RepAir. “Today, as direct air capture requires a baseload, low-carbon power source, RepAir emerges as an ideal solution for integration with nuclear power supply. We are honored to be included in Northwestern's DAC hub and to be collaborating with such strong companies.”

Northwestern has a long legacy of leading DOE hubs and being at the forefront of carbon capture research. The newly launched  Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen  (MachH2) serves as the most recent example, with Dunn as the project’s chief decarbonization officer. Farha also leads one of nine projects selected by the DOE to study carbon capture systems. His team studies metal-organic frameworks, porous materials with uniform structures that are promising solid sorbents – a sponge of sorts for capturing CO 2  from air. 

“Finding ways to remove and store carbon directly from the air is an absolute necessity in our fight against the climate crisis,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said. “This investment in carbon capture technology research through universities and DOE laboratories will position America as a leader in this growing field, create good-paying jobs, and help make our carbon-free future a reality.”

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THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

• Application Procedures

Non-Degree Exchange Students

The Graduate School at Northwestern University participates in multiple partnerships and exchange programs to provide students with the opportunity to study abroad.

Participating NU PhD Programs :  

• Comparative Literary Studies  
• English  
• French and Francophone Studies  
• History  
• Sociology  
• Philosophy  
• Political Science  

International Partner Institutions:  

• Ecole Normale Superieure Paris  
• Ecole Normale Superieure Lyon  

Application Procedures:

For students applying to northwestern university for non-degree graduate study.

• When prompted to select an Academic Program (page 3), applicants should choose Exchange Program X10ND . The program name is also listed under the Interdisciplinary Organization.  
• On the Academic Program page (page 4), you will be asked, “ Are you applying as a dual-degree (or exchange) student with one of our foreign partner institutions (Examples include: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ENS Lyon, Other Institutions). ” Applicants should answer “yes” and list their home institution.
• Academic Statement :    Applicants are asked to upload an academic essay outlining their objectives for pursuing graduate study at Northwestern. The Academic Statement is required for all applicants, including international, non-degree exchange students. Within the Academic Statement, nominees must present a clear and detailed plan of study and must identify a primary adviser to whom they will report while a visiting student.  
• If admitted, enrolling students will be required to request an official transcript from their current institution (transcript must be submitted by the issuing institution to The Graduate School directly) with accompanying English translation. Students can also request a credential evaluation in place of official transcripts. The Graduate School prefers WES or ECE.  
• Test Scores : The Graduate School does not require the GRE, GMAT or English Language Proficiency scores for non-degree exchange students, though individual programs may have stricter requirements. Please check with host program regarding any additional requirements.  
• Confirmation of the applicant’s enrolled graduate student status   
• The applicant's proposed plan of study at Northwestern and its relevance to the applicant’s academic and scholarly progress  
• No application fee is required.    

Application Deadlines  

The Graduate School has set the following deadlines for Fall 2024:  

• May 15, 2024 : Deadline by which students must submit completed application for admission.  
• May 22, 2024 : Deadline by which programs must enter an admissions decision.  
• June 3, 2024 : Deadline by which applicant must enter their enrollment decision.  

For general questions about the program

For questions specific to the application process.

Northwestern Hit with Lawsuit, Civil-Rights Complaints over Concessions to Encampment Organizers

T hree Northwestern University students have filed a class-action breach-of-contract lawsuit against  their school, alleging that the university violated its duty to abide by its own policies by allowing a climate of antisemitism on its campus.

Attorneys from the Chicago-based Much Shelist, P.C., who brought the suit in Cook County’s circuit court on Wednesday, wrote in the filing that the plaintiffs “expected Northwestern to fulfill a modest core promise it made to them and all other similarly situated, tuition-paying students: the conduct of your student peers and faculty will be governed by rules, and — once you enroll — you will be free to safely move about and avail yourself of our beautiful campus in accordance with those rules.”

“Rather than conduct the business of the campus in accordance with the clear rules of conduct that everyone signed up for,” the attorneys wrote, “Northwestern ignored those rules, opting instead to facilitate, encourage, and coddle a dystopia cesspool of hate in the school’s lush green center, Deering Meadow.”

The lawsuit comes after Northwestern leaders offered concessions to anti-Israel activists who violated university policies, including setting up tents and occupying a campus lawn. On Monday, the university announced an agreement with the encampment’s organizers, and unveiled, among other items, a promise to offer full-ride scholarships to Palestinian students and guaranteed faculty jobs for Palestinian academics.

Pointing to incidents like a student wearing a sweatshirt with an image of a Hamas member on the front demanding that passersby state whether they speak Hebrew; a sign bearing a drawing of university president Michael Schill, who is Jewish, with devil horns and drops of blood; and another with a struck-through Star of David, the attorneys described the antisemitism that has been allowed to flourish on campus. They also noted that Schill acknowledged antisemitism at Northwestern in an April 30 video message to the university community.

“Rather than enforce its express and implied promises to Plaintiffs that Northwestern is a place of civility where free expression is governed by transparent, content-neutral codes of conduct, Northwestern twisted itself into a pretzel to accommodate the hostile and discriminatory encampment, legislate around it, and ultimately reward it,” the attorneys wrote. “But Northwestern may not suspend its rules just because student organizations prefer to pitch tents and sleep on the central campus lawn, promoting discriminatory, terror-supporting ideologies until their ‘demands’ are met.”

The filing also includes examples of antisemitism experienced by the plaintiffs, referred to in the suit as “Jane Doe,” “John Doe 1,” and “John Doe 2.”

Jane Doe, according to the attorneys, missed out on participating in her graduate program because the university could not guarantee students’ safety. She also had two run-ins with protesters near the encampment, the filing states.

“Jane Doe was walking with a friend near the encampment when she was accosted by a demonstrator wearing a surgical mask and a keffiyeh. The woman struck Jane Doe’s friend with her protest sign and walked away,” the attorneys wrote. “The following day, when Jane Doe was walking near the encampment, protesters screamed at her to ‘burn in hell.’ As Jane Doe left the area near the encampment, she was followed by the protesters.”

John Doe 1, according to the filing, was told that Jewish students should “go back to Europe, to Poland.” As John Doe 2 “walked near the encampment with several friends, a protester physically harassed one of the people in his friend group,” prompting John Doe 2 to avoid the lawn going forward.

The plaintiffs requested that the court declare that the university administration’s actions constitute breach of contract, issue an injunction against Northwestern, and require the university to comply with its own policies.

One of the attorneys representing the students, Steven Blonder, told National Review that the purpose of the lawsuit is to change the environment on campus.

“We want Jewish students to be protected alongside all other students, so students can go to school to learn, to thrive, to grow, and to have the college experience,” Blonder said. “Right now, the situation at Northwestern is that Jewish students are scared. They’re being harassed. They’re being targeted. … One of the students said point-blank that, if he were making the decision today, he would not come to Northwestern because of the reputation of the school.”

He said the suit is about holding the university to its word.

“This lawsuit is not about dollars. It’s not about money,” Blonder said. “It’s not about anything else other than to get the university to uphold its agreement with students that it will give them the experience it promised — with policies, procedures, and rules in place to get there. They’re not enforcing them right now, and the result of that is Jewish students are on the losing end.”

The class-action lawsuit is only one of the potential legal problems Northwestern is facing. Legal experts told National Review  that the promised full-ride scholarships for Palestinian students — which university leadership gave as a concession to protesters — may not be lawful.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits entities receiving federal funding from allowing discrimination, exclusion, or denial of benefits on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The scholarships could pose Title VI concerns for Northwestern, given that, according to Schill’s press release , they have been earmarked for students of a particular national origin, the lawyers said.

So far, at least two organizations have filed Title VI complaints against Northwestern.

The Equal Protection Project, a nonprofit organization that describes itself as being “devoted to the fair treatment of all persons without regard to race or ethnicity,” submitted its complaint to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on Wednesday. The nonprofit’s founder and director, Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson, told National Review that he believes the scholarship and Northwestern’s declaration that it will “provide and renovate a house for MENA/Muslim students” violate the Civil Rights Act.

“The university is giving ethnic, national-origin, and shared-ancestry preference to what it described as ‘Palestinian’ and ‘MENA/Muslim’ students. I think that’s a clear violation,” Jacobson said. “They need to be called out on it and to have legal consequences. The hope is that the department of education will take this seriously, and I think they will. There is already an open investigation on the antisemitism problem on campus, and while this is not necessarily part of that, we think the [Office for Civil Rights] will take it seriously because Northwestern has problems that they’re already investigating.”

Jacobson said Northwestern’s decision to grant the encampment organizers concessions is a dangerous precedent to set.

“It’s worse than capitulation,” he said. “It’s encouragement, and it is giving them something they probably never even dreamed of when they established their campaign.”

The second complaint filed Wednesday, this one with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, came from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, or WILL, which brought its complaint on behalf of Northwestern’s campus Young America’s Foundation chapter. WILL deputy counsel Dan Lennington told National Review that, like Jacobson, he believes the university will be out of compliance with Title VI by enacting its announced scholarships.

“If you give a benefit to someone for being Palestinian, that’s national-origin discrimination, and that violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” he said. “As a recipient of federal funds, Northwestern can’t discriminate based on race or national origin, and giving a benefit based on national origin — which is what ‘Palestinian’ is — is illegal.”

Lennington said that Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard , the 2023 United States Supreme Court case dealing with affirmative action in college admissions processes, provides an example of Title VI law in action.

“In that case, the Supreme Court was confronted with the idea of a university basically giving benefits based on race in the form of preferential treatment in admissions,” he said. “In that decision, the court said that, when a university gives a preference to someone based on race, it may be a positive for the people receiving that benefit, but it’s a zero-sum game.”

Meanwhile, on Northwestern’s campus, student activists are still occupying the lawn and staying overnight — just without tents — and many Jewish students, faculty, and staff seem to have lost faith in the school’s administration.

That discontent reached a high-water mark on Wednesday, when seven members of the university’s “Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate” resigned , writing in a statement that they no longer felt Schill was operating in good faith after he neglected to consult them on the deal with encampment organizers. On Thursday, the eleven remaining members of the committee announced that the task force would cease operations.

Martin Eichbaum, an economics professor at Northwestern and a former member of the committee, told National Review that the decision to offer protesters concessions without discussing the move with the task force was the last straw.

“The agreement was reached during a period of widespread antisemitic activity on campus,” he said. “Yet the committee played no role in the deliberations. So, what was the point of the committee? We felt that we were just wasting our time.”

Efraim Benmelech, a professor of finance and real estate at the Kellogg School of Business and a former co-chairman of the committee, told National Review that, even before the mass resignations, the committee did not seem to be working.

In addition to antisemitism, Benmelech said, the committee was “also tasked with dealing with Islamophobia. I’m all for it. I’m all for eradicating any form of hate. And I was trying to make progress, though it wasn’t always easy because — as you can imagine — not everyone agrees on what constitutes antisemitism.”

Eichbaum said there were committee members who essentially blocked the drafting of a statement condemning antisemitism. That comes after three members previously signed an open letter opposing the formation of the task force in the first place. At least one student on the committee is a member of an organization that issued a celebration of Hamas immediately after the October 7 attack.

“The committee couldn’t reach a consensus on a simple condemnation of antisemitism episodes. Examples include a depiction by protesters of President Schill with horns dripping with blood and a Star of David crossed out,” Eichenbaum said. “We also couldn’t agree that chants calling for ‘intifada’ were threatening because one member pulled out an obscure reference offering an alternative interpretation of the word. Similarly, ‘from the River to the Sea’ was construed as not threatening despite its obvious meaning and the fact that Jews did, in fact, find it threatening.”

Eichenbaum also said the focus on Islamophobia is disproportionate.

“There was clearly a wave of antisemitic activity on campus,” he said. “Yes, there were isolated instances of anti-Islamic episodes. And I condemn those episodes. There is no room for antisemitic or Islamophobic behavior on campus. However, the scale of the two types of behavior was fundamentally different. Despite that fact, som committee members insisted on a false equivalence. At that point, I concluded that the committee was dysfunctional and was not serving any useful purpose.”

Benmelech, the committee co-chair, said the university had not taken his reports of threats toward Jewish students particularly seriously.

“My personal perspective — and here I don’t represent the others — is that Northwestern failed to protect Jewish students, faculty, and staff,” Benmelech said. “I was involved 24 hours a day with students who called me and were worried because some outside radicals and professional troublemakers could access the dorms. I was in touch with the relevant university authorities to make sure that they fixed any issues they had to solve. There was a naive view that the dorms can be entered by card access and hence are secured. I had to say, ‘Yes, but they’re giving them the cards. They’re holding the doors for them. You have to put security there.'”

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A Black conservative reflects on his past, shocking behavior and all

In “Late Admissions,” the economist, social critic and podcast host Glenn Loury recounts his eminent career and his ideological journeys.

About a month ago, before the publication of his disarmingly candid new memoir, “ Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative ,” Glenn Loury — the eminent economist and social critic — announced he was undergoing a major surgery. “I have got spinal stenosis with a vengeance,” he told followers of “The Glenn Show,” his popular weekly video podcast. Thankfully, Loury’s ailment is not life-threatening, but at 75 and on the cusp of retirement, he is in the twilight of a distinguished and often contentious career, and “Late Admissions” is certain to impact his legacy.

“I am going to tell you things about myself that no one would want anybody to think was true of them,” Loury warns early in the book. Fans of “The Glenn Show” admire Loury’s probing intelligence and forceful charisma. But he has many detractors, too. He was arrested twice in 1987, first for assaulting his girlfriend, then for drugs. Though the assault charge was dropped, it was a terrible look for someone who was up for a job in the Reagan administration at the time. More recently, Loury has drawn criticism for inveighing strongly, and occasionally profanely, against America’s post-George Floyd “racial reckoning.”

In “Late Admissions,” he intertwines his intellectual journey with unexpectedly juicy personal disclosures. By confessing to some reprehensible behavior, Loury says, he hopes to earn his readers’ trust and, paradoxically, their respect and admiration. If this seems like a risky gambit for such a polarizing thinker, you are onto something.

Loury was born and raised in Park Manor, a Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Socioeconomically, most of its law-abiding residents cruised at medium altitude, but some descended into the underground economy. Loury warmly portrays his vexing and often amusing extended family. His Aunt Eloise became his primary caregiver. Generous, decorous and churchgoing, Eloise enjoyed standing in her community. She had two beguiling brothers, however. Loury’s Uncle Adlert was brilliant but erratic; he became a successful lawyer back when that was uncommon among Black men, only to be disbarred over some unspecified “shady family business.” Meanwhile, Uncle Alfred fathered an astonishing 22 children by four women. “Alfred’s appetites may have outstripped the confines of respectability,” Loury acknowledges. “But he was quite the patriarch. His sense of duty as a father, stretched thin though it may have been, gave his life meaning.”

Loury finished high school “both a valedictorian and a virgin,” though he had two kids by the time he was 19. It was the beginning of a lifetime of assiduously wooing women. While attending junior college, Loury worked as a clerk in a printing plant. It was a solid entry-level job for a young man, and he seemed destined to work a 9 to 5, until an instructor recognized his potential.

Loury transferred on a scholarship to Northwestern University, where he was swiftly discovered to be a math prodigy. In 1972, at 23, he started working on his PhD in economics at MIT. “I am coming in hot,” Loury reminiscences about his arrival on campus. “I’m about to begin a steep professional and intellectual ascent. I know this, and I’m excited by the thought.” As a young man, he published blockbuster works in technical economic theory, and in 1982 he became the first Black economist to earn tenure at Harvard. That is where his path to academic stardom stalled.

Loury faced a conundrum. Was he building a career as an economist, or as a Black economist? It did not help that liberal intellectuals tended not to appreciate his social critiques. Loury surmised that, given American history, it was probably unwise for disadvantaged African Americans to rely upon Whites to help them. Instead, he thought that Black people should follow his Uncle Moonie’s common-sense formula for poverty relief: “Get up and get busy.” Loury recalls a senior colleague warning him to be “very, very careful” about saying this publicly, for fear he could be labeled “conservative” and therefore on the “wrong side” of the early-1980s inequality debate.

Meanwhile, Loury’s ideas in his primary field started drying up. “I began to doubt I had what it takes to be a Player in the big league economics game,” he writes. Many academics suffer from “impostor syndrome,” but Loury actually became one: In the evenings, he would drive his late-model Saab into Boston’s Black neighborhoods, turn his baseball cap sideways (it was the ’80s, remember) and engage in tawdry high jinks. When he trawled nightclubs, hired prostitutes and smoked crack — to which he became powerfully addicted — nobody in those circles knew that he was an Ivy League professor by day. Likewise, his Harvard colleagues had no idea that Loury was paying the rent on a “love nest” for his barely-out-of-college mistress, after having been delinquent on payments for student loans and child support.

Even after his double life was discovered and made national news, Loury could not stop smoking crack. Several of his book’s passages recounting his self-sabotaging escapades induced queasiness in this reader.

Loury’s addiction eventually landed him at the Appleton clinic, an inpatient program at the storied McLean Psychiatric Hospital. After spending several weeks there, he moved into a halfway house and attended daily AA meetings, which may be where he grew comfortable sharing the types of unflattering self-disclosures that appear throughout his memoir. In 1989, Loury and his wife became born-again Christians and found solace and community in a Black church, though only temporarily. Regarding the divinity of Christ, Loury says, “I now have my doubts.”

Upon resuming his career in the early 1990s, Loury continued to surprise, criticizing some erstwhile intellectual allies: He mocked Charles Murray, co-author of “The Bell Curve,” for dodging his critics and for his perceived lack of technical facility. He found Dinesh D’Souza’s “The End of Racism” pathetic, dishonest and contemptuous of Black people. Loury had been friends with Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, vocal opponents of affirmative action, but in 1996, at a backyard barbecue, an argument he had with the couple about the urban crisis grew very heated. The following year, Loury eviscerated their tremendously hyped co-written opus, “America in Black and White,” at length in the Atlantic.

Some were correct to wonder: Was Loury becoming progressive? His next research topic was mass incarceration, and back then “there was no blacker project than criticizing America’s prisons,” Loury writes. He found a role that suited his talents, delivering fiery sermons on the United States’ “moral decrepitude.” Though he enjoyed the rush that came from speaking before validating crowds, he eventually concluded that the New Jim Crow narrative — the idea that prisons could be likened to a racial caste system — was “wildly overstated.” He likewise could not get behind the Black Lives Matter movement, which started garnering headlines in 2014. “I had to acknowledge that my social critique and my disposition were better suited to the right,” he writes. “I was a conservative, and in truth I suspected that’s what I always had been.”

A poignant moment arrives toward the end of “Late Admissions.” Glenn’s second wife, Linda, had just died from cancer, at 59. Going through her possessions, he found a self-help book. “It was about learning how to forgive those who have wronged you,” he writes. Many of its passages were underlined, and Loury did not have to wonder why.

So, does Loury’s delicate gambit — his attempt to garner sympathy while revealing some of his worst behavior — work? For this reader, the answer is unequivocally yes. “Late Admissions” is a zestfully written book, packed with humor, pathos and hard-earned wisdom. Even its distasteful revelations are, for the most part, in keeping with Loury’s rigorous ethic of self-scrutiny. He has long insisted that when social science professors play to the crowds or are too timid to speak the truth as they see it, they dishonor their vocation. Now he’s applied that spirt to his autobiography. Loury’s body may be showing the signs of age, but his famously independent thinking is as strong as ever.

John McMillian is an associate professor of history at Georgia State University, in Atlanta. He is writing a book about crime and policing in New York City since the 1960s .

Late Admissions

Confessions of a Black Conservative

By Glenn C. Loury

W.W. Norton. 428 pp. $32.50

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