About Northern Michigan University

Northern Michigan University, located in Marquette, Michigan, is a dynamic four-year, public, comprehensive university that has grown its reputation based on its award-winning leadership programs, cutting-edge technology initiatives and nationally recognized academic programs.

Northern Michigan has a population of about 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers 147 degree programs, including 25 graduate programs.

Programs Offered

The university has two semesters per year, a fall and winter semester, and two summer sessions. NMU’s most popular bachelor’s degrees for international students include art and design, business management, computer science, construction management, and biology.

The university’s fastest growing academic areas are clinical science, biology, and the geographical and environmental sciences.

Some of the NMU degree programs to receive national or international recognition in the past three years have been art and design, business, computer science, education, English and nursing. Some unique aspects of Northern’s academic menu include:

• NMU is the only university to offer five national Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science accredited programs in the United States
• NMU is one of three universities nationwide with both diagnostic molecular science and cytogenetics programs.
• NMU is one of only two Michigan universities to have an entrepreneurship major.
• Programs that boast 90 percent placement rate or higher are business, clinical sciences, engineering technology, music education, line and power technician, and theater, as well as our pre-medical and pre-dental students for professional school admittance

Personal Attention

One of Northern’s most consistent traits is providing outstanding personal attention to students. More than 75% of NMU's 300-plus full-time faculty members have doctorates or the highest degree in their fields, and a hallmark of the NMU experience is that full-time faculty members teach at all levels - freshmen through graduate courses.

NMU’s 1,100 employees view helping students succeed as not only a university priority, but a personal goal.

Acclaimed Leadership Programs

Northern Michigan University has two highly acclaimed leadership programs: the Student Leader Fellowship Program (SLFP) and Superior Edge. The SLFP, which has been in existence for more than 20 years, is a highly selective, two-year leadership experience for the 50 selected students each year. The Superior Edge program is open to all NMU students and has nearly a third of the student population participating in the program’s four edges: citizenship, diversity awareness, leadership and real-world application of classroom theory.

These two programs, along with NMU’s efforts in academic service learning, an active volunteer center on campus that does extensive outreach throughout Michigan’s Upper Peninsula region, and about 300 student organizations combine to make the NMU campus a place where involvement is a natural component of the Northern student experience. Northern is one of about 300 colleges and universities nationwide to have the Carnegie Foundation’s “community-engaged campus” designation.

Other NMU programs of note include the First Year Experience program, Honors Program, Freshman Fellows, which matches incoming freshmen with faculty members for collaborative research. Northern also offers outstanding study abroad opportunities.

Athletics

Northern sponsors 13 intercollegiate sports: five men’s (basketball, football, golf, ice hockey Nordic skiing) and eight women’s teams (basketball, cross country, Nordic skiing, soccer, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field and volleyball). Most of the programs compete at the NCAA Division II level in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Wildcat men’s ice hockey program is NCAA Division I and a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

NMU has won NCAA team titles in football (1975), men’s hockey (1991) and women’s volleyball (1993, ’94)

Top Computer Campus

Over the past 13 years, Northern Michigan University has been selected for numerous international and national awards for its use of next-generation technology in the higher education setting.

NMU is one of the largest notebook computer campuses in the United States, with all full-time students receiving either a ThinkPad or MacBook as part of tuition. The university has been cited as one of the most wired and most densely wireless campuses in the country.

Northern was the first U.S. university to own and operate a WiMAX (4G) network, which now spans about 40 square miles. Northern’s work with WiMAX technology was so innovative it resulted in President Barack Obama choosing the NMU campus as the site to announce his national wireless initiative in 2011.

Welcoming Environment

Northern’s hometown of Marquette is a city of 20,000 residents located along the southern shore of Lake Superior. Michigan’s Upper Peninsula region is known for its safe, friendly and natural environment. The Marquette community and Northern Michigan University are intricately intertwined, which adds to the vitality of the area and to the opportunities available to NMU students.