University of Chicago
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The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UofC) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, near the shore of Lake Michigan about Template:Convert from the Loop.
The university is composed of an undergraduate college and four graduate divisions: Biological Science, Arts & Humanities, Physical Science, and Social Science, which include various organized departments and institutes. In addition, the university operates eight professional schools in the fields of business, social work, divinity, continuing studies, public policy, law, medicine, and molecular engineering. The university maintains satellite campuses and centers in London, Hong Kong, Paris, Beijing, Delhi, and Egypt, as well as in downtown Chicago.
University of Chicago scholars have played a role in the development of many academic disciplines, including economics, law, literary criticism, mathematics, physics, religion, sociology, and political science, establishing the Chicago schools of thought in various fields. Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory produced the world's first human-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Chicago Pile-1 beneath the viewing stands of the university's Stagg Field. Advances in chemistry led to the "radiocarbon revolution" in the carbon-14 dating of ancient life and objects. The university research efforts include administration of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university is also home to the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States.
As of 2025, the university's students, faculty, and staff has included 101 Nobel laureates. The university's faculty members and alumni also include 10 Fields Medalists, 4 Turing Award winners, 58 MacArthur Fellows, 30 Marshall Scholars, 55 Rhodes Scholars, 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, 20 National Humanities Medalists, and 8 Olympic medalists.
History
[edit]Old University of Chicago
[edit]
The first University of Chicago was founded by a small group of Baptist educators in 1856 through a land endowment from Senator Stephen A. Douglas. It closed in 1886 after years of financial struggle and a final annus horribilis in which the campus was badly damaged by fire and the school was foreclosed on by its creditors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Several years later, its trustees elected to change the school's name to the "Old University of Chicago" so that a new school could go by the name of the city.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Early years
[edit]Template:EB1911 poster In 1890, the American Baptist Education Society incorporated a new University of Chicago as a coeducational<ref name="goodspeed">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp institution, using $400,000 donated to the ABES to supplement a $600,000 donation from Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and land donated by Marshall Field.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> While the Rockefeller donation provided money for academic operations and long-term endowment, it was stipulated that such money could not be used for buildings. The Hyde Park campus’ construction was financed by donations from wealthy Chicagoans such as Silas B. Cobb, who provided the funds for the campus's first building, Cobb Lecture Hall, and matched Marshall Field's pledge of $100,000. Other early benefactors included businessmen Charles L. Hutchinson (trustee, treasurer and donor of Hutchinson Commons), Martin A. Ryerson (president of the board of trustees and donor of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory) Adolphus Clay Bartlett and Leon Mandel, who funded the construction of the gymnasium and assembly hall, and George C. Walker of the Walker Museum, a relative of Cobb who encouraged his inaugural donation for facilities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The new university acknowledged its predecessor.<ref name="frederick"/> The university's coat of arms has a phoenix rising from the ashes, a reference to the fire and foreclosure of the Old University of Chicago.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A single stone from the rubble of the original Douglas Hall on 34th Place was set into the wall of the Classics Building. The dean of the college and University of Chicago and professor of history John Boyer has argued that the University of Chicago has "a plausible genealogy as a pre–Civil War institution".<ref>John Boyer, The University of Chicago: A History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 59.</ref> Alumni from the Old University of Chicago are recognized as alumni of the University of Chicago.<ref>John Boyer, The University of Chicago: A History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 58–59.</ref>
William Rainey Harper became the university's president on July 1, 1891, and the Hyde Park campus opened for classes on October 1, 1892.<ref name="frederick">Template:Cite book</ref> Harper worked on building up the faculty and in two years had a faculty of 120, including eight former university or college presidents.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Harper was a Semiticist and a member of the Baptist clergy who believed that a great university should maintain the study of faith as a central focus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> To fulfill this commitment, he brought the Baptist seminary that had begun as an independent school "alongside" the Old University of Chicago and separated from the old school decades earlier to Morgan Park. This became the Divinity School in 1891, the first professional school at the University of Chicago.<ref name="goodspeed" />Template:Rp
In 1892, Harper recruited Yale baseball and football player Amos Alonzo Stagg from the Young Men's Christian Association training school at Springfield to coach the school's football program.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Stagg was given the position of associate professor in physical education, becoming the first football coach and athletic director in the university's history.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> While coaching at the university, Stagg invented the numbered football jersey and the huddle.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Stagg is the namesake of the university's Stagg Field.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The business school was founded in 1898,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the law school was founded in 1902.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Harper died in 1906<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and was replaced by a succession of three presidents whose tenures lasted until 1929.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During this period, the Oriental Institute was founded to support and interpret archeological work in what was then called the Near East.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the 1890s, the university, concerned that its vast resources would injure smaller schools by drawing away good students, affiliated with several regional colleges and universities: Des Moines College, Kalamazoo College, Butler University, and Stetson University. In 1896, the university affiliated with Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois. Under the terms of the affiliation, the schools were required to have courses of study comparable to those at the university, to notify the university early of any contemplated faculty appointments or dismissals, to make no faculty appointment without the university's approval, and to send copies of examinations for suggestions. The University of Chicago agreed to confer a degree on any graduating senior from an affiliated school who made a grade of A for all four years, and on any other graduate who took twelve weeks additional study at the University of Chicago. A student or faculty member of an affiliated school was entitled to free tuition at the University of Chicago, and Chicago students were eligible to attend an affiliated school on the same terms and receive credit for their work. The University of Chicago also agreed to provide affiliated schools with books and scientific apparatus and supplies at cost; special instructors and lecturers without cost except for travel expenses; and a copy of every book and journal published by the University of Chicago Press at no cost. The agreement provided that either party could terminate the affiliation on proper notice. Several University of Chicago professors disliked the program, as it involved uncompensated additional labor on their part, and they believed it cheapened the academic reputation of the university. The program was ended by 1910.<ref>Gilbert Lycan, Stetson University: The First 100 Years at 70–72, pp. 165–185 (Stetson University Press, 1983)</ref>
In 1900, the university co-founded the Association of American Universities with thirteen other universities, including Harvard, Columbia, and John Hopkins. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1920s–1980s
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In 1929, the university's fifth president, 30-year-old legal philosophy scholar Robert Maynard Hutchins, took office. The university underwent many changes during his 24-year tenure. Hutchins reformed the undergraduate college's curriculum into a liberal-arts curriculum, which survives today in the form of a Common Core.<ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref> He also organized the university's graduate work into four divisions,<ref name="hutchins" /> and eliminated varsity football from the university in an attempt to emphasize academics over athletics.<ref name="hutchins">Template:Cite web</ref> During his term, the University of Chicago Hospitals (now called the University of Chicago Medical Center) finished construction and enrolled their first medical students.<ref name="hospitalhistory">Template:Cite web</ref> Furthermore, the philosophy oriented Committee on Social Thought was created.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Money that had been raised during the 1920s and financial backing from the Rockefeller Foundation helped the school to survive through the Great Depression.<ref name="hutchins" /> In 1933, Hutchins proposed a plan to merge the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, though it was ultimately abandoned.<ref name="merger">Template:Cite web</ref> During World War II, the university's Metallurgical Laboratory contributed to the Manhattan Project.<ref name="manhattan">Template:Cite web</ref> The university was the site of the first isolation of plutonium and of the creation of the first artificial, self-sustained nuclear reaction by Enrico Fermi in 1942.<ref name="manhattan" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the early 1950s, student applications declined as a result of increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood. In response, the university became a major sponsor of an urban renewal project for Hyde Park,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which called for the clearing of 101 acres of land. Of the buildings proposed for demolition, 78% were substandard. During this period the university, and later the affiliated Shimer College, adopted an early entrant program that allowed students with two years of high school education to attend college.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university experienced its share of student unrest during the 1960s, beginning in 1962 when then-freshman Bernie Sanders helped lead a 15-day sit-in at the college's administration building in a protest over the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies. After continued turmoil, a university committee in 1967 issued what became known as the Kalven Report. The report, a two-page statement of the university's policy in "social and political action," declared that "To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The report has since been used to justify decisions such as the university's refusal to divest from South Africa in the 1980s and Darfur in the late 2000s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1969, after the sociology department unanimously declined to rehire assistant professor Marlene Dixon (an open Marxist), over 400 students occupied the Administration Building for two weeks to protest the perceived politically motivated decision.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After the sit-in ended when Dixon turned down a one-year reappointment, 42 students were expelled and 81 were suspended,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the most severe response to student occupations of any American university during the student movement.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1978, history scholar Hanna Holborn Gray, then the provost and acting president of Yale University, became president of the University of Chicago, a position she held for 15 years. She was the first woman in the United States to hold the presidency of a major university.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>
In 1989, the Graduate Library School was closed.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
1990s–2020s
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In 1999, President Hugo Sonnenschein announced plans to relax the university's core curriculum, reducing the number of required courses from 21 to 15. When The New York Times, The Economist, and other news outlets picked up this story, the university became the focal point of a national debate on education. The changes were ultimately implemented, but the controversy played a role in Sonnenschein's decision to resign in 2000.<ref name="corewar">Template:Cite book</ref>
From the mid-2000s, the university began a number of multi-million dollar expansion projects. In 2008, the University of Chicago announced the establishment of the Milton Friedman Institute, which attracted both support and controversy from faculty members and Template:Nowrap The institute was later merged with the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory to form the new Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2008, investor David G. Booth donated $300 million to the university's Booth School of Business, which is the largest gift in the university's history and the largest gift ever to any business school.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2009, planning or construction on several new buildings, half of which cost $100 million or more, was underway.<ref name="construction">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Since 2011, major construction projects have included the Jules and Gwen Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, a ten-story medical research center, and further additions to the medical campus of the University of Chicago Medical Center.<ref name="knapp">Template:Cite press release</ref> In 2014, the university launched the public phase of a $4.5 billion fundraising campaign.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In September 2015, the university received $100 million from The Pearson Family Foundation to establish The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts and The Pearson Global Forum at the Harris School of Public Policy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2019, the university created its first school in three decades, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.<ref name="wsjarticleonnewengineeringschool">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On April 29, 2024, students at the University of Chicago set up an encampment on the university's main quad<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as a part of the nationwide movement in support of Palestine at institutions of higher learning across the country. The encampment was cleared by the University of Chicago Police Department on May 7.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Campus
[edit]Main campus
[edit]The main campus of the University of Chicago consists of Template:Convert in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn, approximately Template:Convert south of downtown Chicago. The northern and southern portions of campus are separated by the Midway Plaisance, a large, linear park created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed the university as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The first buildings of the campus, which make up what is now known as the Main Quadrangles, were part of a master plan conceived by two University of Chicago trustees and plotted by Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb.<ref name="famousbldgs" /> The Main Quadrangles consist of six quadrangles, each surrounded by buildings, bordering one larger quadrangle.<ref name="goodspeed" />Template:Rp The buildings of the Main Quadrangles were designed by Cobb, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, Holabird & Roche, and other architectural firms in a mixture of the Victorian Gothic and Collegiate Gothic styles, patterned on the colleges of the University of Oxford.<ref name="famousbldgs">Template:Cite book</ref> (Mitchell Tower, for example, is modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower,<ref name="mitchell">Template:Cite magazine</ref> and the university Commons, Hutchinson Hall, replicates Christ Church Hall.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the University of Chicago Quadrangles<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
After the 1940s, the campus's Gothic style began to give way to modern styles.<ref name="famousbldgs" /> In 1955, Eero Saarinen was contracted to develop a second master plan, which led to the construction of buildings both north and south of the Midway, including the Laird Bell Law Quadrangle (a complex designed by Saarinen);<ref name="famousbldgs"/> a series of arts buildings;<ref name="famousbldgs"/> a building designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the university's School of Social Service Administration,<ref name="famousbldgs"/> a building which is to become the home of the Harris School of Public Policy by Edward Durrell Stone, and the Regenstein Library, the largest building on campus, a brutalist structure designed by Walter Netsch of the Chicago firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Another master plan, designed in 1999 and updated in 2004,<ref name="twentytwenty">Template:Cite magazine</ref> produced the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center (2003),<ref name="twentytwenty"/> the Max Palevsky Residential Commons (2001),<ref name="famousbldgs"/> South Campus Residence Hall and dining commons (2009), a new children's hospital,<ref name="milestones">Template:Cite magazine</ref> and other construction, expansions, and restorations.<ref>The University of Chicago Magazine Template:Webarchive. Magazine.uchicago.edu. Retrieved on August 15, 2013.</ref> In 2011, the university completed the glass dome-shaped Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, which provides a grand reading room for the university library and prevents the need for an off-campus book depository.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The site of Chicago Pile-1 is a National Historic Landmark and is marked by the Henry Moore sculpture Nuclear Energy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Robie House, a Frank Lloyd Wright building acquired by the university in 1963, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site<ref>UNESCO World Heritage Site</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as well as a National Historic Landmark,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as is room 405 of the George Herbert Jones Laboratory, where Glenn T. Seaborg and his team were the first to isolate plutonium.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hitchcock Hall, an undergraduate dormitory, is on the National Register of Historic Places.<ref name="nrhp">Template:Cite web Resource Name = Hitchcock, Charles, Hall; Reference Number = 74000751</ref>
Adjacent to the campus in Jackson Park is the home of the Obama Presidential Center, the Presidential Library for the 44th president of the United States<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with expected completion in 2026. The Obamas settled in the university's Hyde Park neighborhood where they raised their children and where Barack Obama began his political career. Michelle Obama served as an administrator at the university and founded the university's Community Service Center.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Campus of the University of Chicago
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Snell-Hitchcock, an undergraduate dormitory constructed in the early 20th century, is part of the Main Quadrangles.
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Rockefeller Chapel, constructed in 1928, was designed by Bertram Goodhue in the neo-Gothic style.
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The Henry Hinds Laboratory for Geophysical Sciences was built in 1969.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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The Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, opened in 2003 and designed by Cesar Pelli, houses the volleyball, wrestling, swimming, and basketball teams.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Transportation
[edit]The university participates in the U-Pass program with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), which provides unlimited rides on CTA busses and trains for undergraduate students during the school year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The campus is served by the CTA Red Line and Green Line, as well as the Metra Electric District Line and the South Shore Line.<ref name=":7">Template:Cite web</ref> All of these lines provide access to downtown Chicago.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The campus is also served by a network of CTA bus lines.<ref name=":7" />
The university provides a shuttle program that runs year-round. There are both day-time and night-time routes, most of which operate within Hyde Park.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2022, the university added a Downtown Campus Connector to its shuttle program, which runs on the weekdays and connects the main Hyde Park campus to the Gleacher Center and downtown UChicago Medicine clinics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There are also a number of Divvy bike sharing locations on campus.<ref name=":8" />
In 2024, the University unveiled a Via program ahead of the 2024-2025 school year, which provides unlimited free rides on campus in shared vans. The program replaced the previous Lyft Ride Smart Program, which provided students seven rides per month, subsidized up to $10.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Safety
[edit]In November 2021, a university graduate was robbed and fatally shot on a sidewalk in a residential area in Hyde Park near campus;<ref name="could be anyone">University of Chicago international students rally to demand safety upgrades a week after fatal shooting of recent grad. 'The next one ... could be anyone in this crowd.' Template:Webarchive PAIGE FRY, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, November 16, 2021</ref><ref name="Suspect Charged">Suspect Charged in Death of University of Chicago Student Template:Webarchive WTTW/Associated Press, November 13, 2021</ref> a total of three University of Chicago students were killed by gunfire incidents in 2021.<ref name="Suspect Charged" /><ref name="could be anyone" /> These incidents prompted student protests and an open letter to university leadership signed by more than 300 faculty members.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In response, the university introduced measures including increased foot and vehicular patrols near campus, expanded coordination between the university police department and the CPD, and greater use of security cameras and license plate readers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university continues to maintain one of the largest private police forces in the country.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Satellite campuses
[edit]The university also maintains facilities apart from its main campus. The university's Booth School of Business maintains campuses in Hong Kong, London, and downtown Chicago.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Center in Paris, a campus located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, hosts various undergraduate and graduate study programs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In fall 2010, the university opened a center in Beijing, near Renmin University's campus in Haidian District. The most recent additions are a center in New Delhi, India, which opened in 2014,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and a center in Hong Kong which opened in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2024, the university opened the John W. Boyer Center in Paris, designed by architectural firm Studio Gang and nearly tripling the size of the Center in Paris which had opened in 2003.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Academics
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The academic bodies of the University of Chicago consist of the college, four divisions of graduate research, seven professional schools, and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university also contains a library system, the University of Chicago Press, and the University of Chicago Medical Center, and oversees several laboratories, including Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), Argonne National Laboratory, and the Marine Biological Laboratory.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref> The university is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission.<ref name="collegenavigator" />
The university runs on a quarter system in which the academic year is divided into four terms: Summer (June–August), Autumn (September–December), Winter (January–March), and Spring (April–June).<ref name="calendar" /> Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every quarter<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> for approximately nine weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in late May.<ref name="calendar">Template:Cite web</ref>
Undergraduate college
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The College of the University of Chicago grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 51 undergraduate courses of study<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (since 2005 known as majors) and 33 secondary courses of study, now know as minors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The college's academics are divided into five divisions: the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division, the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, the Social Sciences Collegiate Division, the Humanities Collegiate Division, and the New Collegiate Division.<ref name="collegiatedivisions">Template:Cite web</ref> The first four are sections within their corresponding graduate divisions, while the New Collegiate Division administers interdisciplinary majors and studies which do not fit in one of the other four divisions.<ref name="ncd">Template:Cite web</ref>
The college introduced a now-widespread model of the liberal arts undergraduate program which featured the Socratic method in undergraduate contexts, the Great Books program, and the core curriculum.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Since the 1999-2000 school year, 15 courses across seven subjects and demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language are required under the core curriculum.<ref name=":6" />
Graduate schools and committees
[edit]The university graduate schools and committees are divided into four divisions (biological sciences, humanities, physical sciences, and social sciences), and eight professional schools.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the autumn quarter of 2022, the university enrolled 10,546 graduate students on degree-seeking courses: 569 in the biological sciences division, 612 in the humanities division, 2,103 in the physical sciences division, 972 in the social sciences division, and 6,290 in the professional schools (including the Graham School).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university is home to several committees for interdisciplinary scholarship, including the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Research
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According to the National Science Foundation, University of Chicago spent $423.9 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 60th in the nation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is a founding member of the Association of American Universities, and was a member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation between 1946 and 2016, when the group's name was changed to the Big Ten Academic Alliance. The University of Chicago is not a member of the rebranded consortium, but continues to be a collaborator.<ref name="btaa_chicago">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university operates more than 140 research centers and institutes on campus. Among these are the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa—a museum and research center for Near Eastern studies owned and operated by the university—and a number of National Resource Centers, including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Chicago also operates or is affiliated with several research institutions apart from the university proper. The university manages Argonne National Laboratory, part of the United States Department of Energy's national laboratory system, and co-manages Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), a nearby particle physics laboratory.<ref name=":5" /> It was also part of the Astrophysical Research Consortium that constructed the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Faculty and students at the adjacent Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago collaborate with the university.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2013, the university formed an affiliation with the formerly independent Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.<ref>Marine Biological Laboratory to affiliate with University of Chicago – Health & wellness Template:Webarchive. The Boston Globe (June 12, 2013). Retrieved on August 15, 2013.</ref> The National Opinion Research Center maintains an office at the Hyde Park campus and is affiliated with multiple academic centers and institutes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The University of Chicago has been the site of various experiments and academic movements. The university has played a role in shaping ideas about the free market<ref>Kasper, Sherryl (2002) The Revival of Laissez-Faire in American Macroeconomic Theory: A Case Study of Its Pioneers. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Template:ISBN</ref> and is the namesake of the Chicago school of economics, the school of economic thought supported by Milton Friedman and other economists. The university's sociology department was the first independent sociology department in the United States and gave birth to the Chicago school of sociology.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university was the site of the Chicago Pile-1 (the first controlled, self-sustaining human-made nuclear chain reaction, part of the Manhattan Project), of Robert Millikan's oil-drop experiment that calculated the charge of the electron,<ref name="oildrop">Template:Cite web</ref> and of the development of radiocarbon dating by Willard F. Libby in 1946.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The chemical experiment that tested how life originated on early Earth, the Miller–Urey experiment, was also conducted at the university.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> REM sleep was discovered at the university in 1953 by Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics operated the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin from 1897 until 2018,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> where the largest operating refracting telescope in the world and other telescopes are located.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Professional schools
[edit]The university contains eight professional schools: the University of Chicago Law School, the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Booth School of Business, the University of Chicago Divinity School, the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies (which offers non-degree courses and certificates as well as degree programs) and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="wsjarticleonnewengineeringschool" />
The Law School is accredited by the American Bar Association, the Divinity School is accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, and Pritzker is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.<ref name="collegenavigator">Template:Cite web</ref>
Associated academic institutions
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The university runs a number of academic institutions and programs apart from its undergraduate and postgraduate schools. It operates the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (a private day school for K-12 students and day care),<ref name="lab">Template:Cite web</ref> and a public charter school with four campuses on the South Side of Chicago administered by the university's Urban Education Institute.<ref name="charter">Template:Cite web</ref> In addition, the Hyde Park Day School, a school for students with learning disabilities,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, a residential treatment program for those with behavioral and emotional problems,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> maintains a location on the University of Chicago campus. Since 1983, the University of Chicago has maintained the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, a mathematics program used in urban primary and secondary schools.<ref name="ucsmp">Template:Cite web</ref> The university runs a program called the Council on Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, which administers interdisciplinary workshops to provide a forum for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present scholarly work in progress.<ref name="CAS">Template:Cite web</ref> The university also operates the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States.<ref name="autogenerated2">Template:Cite web</ref>
Library system
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The University of Chicago Library system encompasses six libraries that contain a total of 11 million volumes, the 9th most among library systems in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university's primary library is the Regenstein Library, which contains over 4.5 million print volumes on a variety of subjects and is the largest on campus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, built in 2011, houses a large study space and an automated book storage and retrieval system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The John Crerar Library contains more than 1.4 million volumes in the biological, medical and physical sciences and collections in general science and the philosophy and history of science, medicine, and technology.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university also operates a number of special libraries, including the D'Angelo Law Library, the Social Service Administration Library, and the Eckhart Library for mathematics and computer science.<ref name="autogenerated1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="petersons">Template:Cite web</ref> Harper Memorial Library, the first library of the university, is now a reading and study room.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Arts
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The University of Chicago Arts program joins academic departments in the Division of the Humanities and the college, student art programs, and professional organizations including the Court Theatre, the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, the Smart Museum of Art, and the Renaissance Society.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university has an artist-in-residence program, which has supported over 32 individual artists as of May 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university offers graduate degrees in music, cinema and media studies, visual arts, and the humanities, among other subjects.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It also offers bachelor's degree programs in visual arts, music, art history, cinema and media studies, and theater and performance studies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The college's general education core includes an arts requirement, which can be fulfilled by taking classes in subjects such as art history, creative writing, or music.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Several thousand major and non-major undergraduates enroll annually in creative and performing arts classes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university was home to the improvisational Compass Players student comedy troupe, which evolved into The Second City in 1959.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts opened in 2012, five years after a $35 million gift from alumnus David Logan and his wife Reva. The center includes spaces for exhibitions, performances, classes, and media production. The Logan Center was designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On April 9, 2025, under the Paul Alivisatos presidency, the University of Chicago merged the Division of the Humanities and University of Chicago Arts to establish the new Division of the Arts & Humanities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Reputation and rankings
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After its foundation in the late 19th century, the University of Chicago quickly became established as one of the wealthiest and, according to former Washington University Vice Chancellor Henry S. Webber, one of the most prestigious universities in America.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to former Columbia Provost Jonathan R. Cole, the University of Chicago has been among the most distinguished research universities in the US for more than a century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The university is described by the Encyclopedia Britannica as "one of the United States' most outstanding universities".<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
ARWU has consistently placed the University of Chicago among the top 10 universities in the world,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the 2021 QS World University Rankings placed the university in 9th place worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> THE World University Rankings has ranked it among the global top 10 for eleven consecutive years (from 2012 to 2022).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university's law and business schools rank among the top three professional schools in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The business school has been ranked first in the US by US News & World Report<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and first in the world by The Economist,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> while the law school has been ranked third by US News & World Report<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and first by Above the Law.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Administration and finance
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The university is governed by a board of trustees. The board of trustees oversees the long-term development and plans of the university and manages fundraising efforts, and is composed of 55 members including the university president.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Directly beneath the president are the provost, fourteen vice presidents (including the chief financial officer, chief investment officer, and vice president for campus life and student services), the directors of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab, the secretary of the university, and the student ombudsperson.<ref name="orgchart">Template:Cite web</ref> The current chairman of the board of trustees is David Rubenstein since May 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The current provost is Katherine Baicker since March 2023.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The current president of the University of Chicago is chemist Paul Alivisatos, who assumed the role on September 1, 2021. Robert Zimmer, the previous president, transitioned into the new role of chancellor of the university.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university's endowment was the 12th largest among American educational institutions and state university systems in 2013<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Template:As of was valued at $10 billion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Since 2016, the university's board of trustees has resisted pressure from students and faculty to divest its investments from fossil fuel companies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Part of former university President Zimmer's financial plan for the university was an increase in accumulation of debt to finance large building projects.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This drew both support and criticism from many in the university community.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Notably in 2022, total university assets decreased by $1.6 billion in value, driven primarily by a $1.4 billion loss in the endowment's "investments" category.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2023 the university agreed to pay $13.5 million to settle a lawsuit that it and other universities conspired to limit financial aid to students.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Clear
Student body and admissions
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In fall 2024, the university enrolled 7,569 undergraduate students, 10,968 graduate students, and 750 non-degree students.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The college class of 2025 is composed of 53% male students and 47% female students. Twenty-seven percent of the class identify as Asian, 19% as Hispanic, and 10% as Black. Eighteen percent of the class is international.<ref name="collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu">Template:Cite web</ref> The university is need-blind for domestic applicants.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Admissions to the University of Chicago has become highly selective over the past two decades, reflecting changes in the application process, school popularity, and marketing strategy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Between 1996 and 2023, the acceptance rate of the college fell from 71% to 4.7%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For the Class of 2027, the acceptance rate was 4.7%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The middle 50% band of SAT scores for the undergraduate class of 2025 was 1510–1570 (98th–99th percentiles),<ref name="collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu" /> the average MCAT score for students entering the Pritzker School of Medicine class of 2024 was 519 (97th percentile),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the median GMAT score for students entering the full-time Booth MBA program class of 2023 was 740 (97th percentile),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the median LSAT score for students entering the Law School class of 2021 was 172 (99th percentile).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2018, the University of Chicago attracted national headlines by becoming the first major research university to no longer require SAT/ACT scores from college applicants.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Athletics
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The University of Chicago hosts 19 varsity sports teams: 10 men's teams and 9 women's teams, all called the Maroons, with 502 students participating in the 2012–2013 school year.<ref name="sportsfacts">Template:Cite web</ref> The Maroons compete in the NCAA's Division III as members of the University Athletic Association (UAA).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university was a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and participated in the NCAA Division I men's basketball and football.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1935, the University of Chicago reached the Sweet Sixteen.<ref name="sportsfacts"/> In 1935, Chicago Maroons football player Jay Berwanger became the first winner of the Heisman Trophy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, the university chose to withdraw from the Big Ten Conference in 1946 after University president Robert Maynard Hutchins de-emphasized varsity athletics in 1939 and dropped football.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1969, Chicago reinstated football as a Division III team, resuming playing its home games at the new Stagg Field.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The University of Chicago is home to the University of Chicago Rugby Football Club (UCRFC).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Since 2022, Men's Rugby competes in the Division II Great Midwest Conference under National Collegiate Rugby, having previously competed under USA Rugby. It was ranked 15th in the country at the end of the 2024 fall 15s season, falling to Montana State 19-48 in the Sweet Sixteen NCR DII playoff round. It competes in a Rugby 7s circuit in the spring. It shares its conference with Loyola University Chicago, the University of Illinois Chicago, Northwestern University (for which it competes in a yearly cup, the Hutchins-Scott Cup), DePaul University, and Benedictine University.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A women's club also exists at the university.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The university is also home to the ultimate frisbee team UChicago Fission.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Student life
[edit]| Race and ethnicity<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Total | ||
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Student organizations
[edit]Students at the University of Chicago operate more than 400 clubs and organizations known as Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs).<ref name="activities">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="rsodatabase" /> These include cultural and religious groups, academic clubs and teams, and common-interest organizations.<ref name="rsodatabase">Template:Cite web</ref> Among notable student organizations are the nation's longest continuously running student film society Doc Films,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="FilmNews">Template:Cite journal</ref> the organizing committee for the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, and the weekly student newspaper The Chicago Maroon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Student government
[edit]All recognized student organizations are funded by The University of Chicago Student Government. Student Government consists of graduate and undergraduate students elected to represent members from their respective academic units.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is led by an executive committee, chaired by a president with the assistance of two vice presidents (one for administration and the other for student life) who are elected together as a slate by the student body each spring. Template:As of, the Undergraduate Student Government annual budget was greater than $2.5 million.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Fraternities and sororities
[edit]Template:As of, there were more than 20 Greek organizations operating on campus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2017, approximately 20 to 25 percent of students were members of fraternities or sororities.<ref name="frats">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Numbers published in 2007 by the student activities office stated that one in ten undergraduates participated in Greek life.<ref name="Greek">Template:Cite web</ref>
Student housing
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On-campus undergraduate students at the University of Chicago participate in a house system in which each student is assigned to one of the university's seven residence hall buildings and to a smaller community within their residence hall called a "house". There are 39 houses, with an average of 70 students in each house.<ref name="collegehousing">Template:Cite web</ref> The houses are named after former professors and other historical figures in the university community, such as Eugene Fama.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the past, only first years were required to live in on-campus housing, but starting with the Class of 2023, students are required to live in housing for the first two years of enrollment.<ref name="housing2">Template:Cite web</ref> About 60% of undergraduate students live on campus.<ref name="housing2" />
For graduate students, the university owns and operates 28 apartment buildings near campus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Traditions
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Every May since 1987, the University of Chicago has held the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, in which teams of students compete to obtain notoriously esoteric items from a list.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> Every January, the university holds a week-long winter festival, Kuviasungnerk/Kangeiko (Kuvia), which includes early morning exercise routines and fitness workshops.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The university also annually holds a carnival and concert called Summer Breeze<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> that hosts outside musicians and is home to Doc Films, a student film society founded in 1932 that screens films nightly at the university.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Since 1946, the university has organized the Latke-Hamantash Debate, which involves humorous discussions about the relative merits and meanings of latkes and hamantashen.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
People
[edit]Template:Main listSince the university's establishment in 1890, there have been 101 Nobel laureates across all six categories affiliated with the University of Chicago,<ref name="uchicago1">Template:Cite web</ref> twenty-one of whom were pursuing research or on faculty at the university at the time of the award announcement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Of these 101 Nobel Prizes, thirty were in Physics, nineteen in Chemistry, thirteen in Physiology/Medicine, three in Literature, one in Peace, and thirty-three in Economics. Chicago faculty and alumni also include ten Fields Medalists,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> seventeen National Medal of Science recipients,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> four Turing Award winners, fifty-eight MacArthur Fellows,<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> four John Bates Clark Medalists,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> thirty Marshall Scholars,<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> fifty-five Rhodes Scholars,<ref name="Rhodes">Template:Cite web</ref> twenty-seven Pulitzer Prize winners,<ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref> twenty National Humanities Medalists,<ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref> and eight Olympic medalists.Template:Multiple image Chicago alumni have gone on to become notable in several fields. In particular, the university has produced CEOs of firms such as Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse; six heads of state across five continents; five U.S. Cabinet Secretaries; seven U.S. Senators; four central bank Presidents or Directors, including the World Bank; one Supreme Court justice; and Presidents of Princeton, Northwestern, and MIT.
Notable faculty include three Supreme Court Justices, one central bank governor, and numerous Nobel Prize laureates. Former U.S. president Barack Obama,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> poet T.S. Eliot,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and writer Ralph Ellison<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> have all served on the faculty.
In pop culture
[edit]The University of Chicago is the alma mater of fictional characters Harry Burns and Sally Albright (from When Harry Met Sally), Indiana Jones, and Mark Watney (from The Martian). It has served as filming locations for scenes in Divergent, The Fugitive, and Sense8.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Notes
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[edit]Further reading
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External links
[edit]Template:Commons category Template:Wikisource
- Template:Official website
- Illinois Great Places – University of Chicago Quadrangles
- Society of Architectural Historians SAH ARCHIPEDIA entry on the University of Chicago Quadrangles
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Template:Authority control Template:History of economic thought
- Pages with broken file links
- University of Chicago
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- Universities and colleges in Chicago
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