University of Chicago (UC) Introduction and Academics

Introduction

As one of the world’s great universities, the University of Chicago has been shaping higher education—and the intellectual lives of undergraduates—for more than a century. A private institution chartered in 1890, Chicago’s 203-acre campus on the shores of Lake Michigan has been home to 78 Nobel Laureates, the largest number affiliated with any American university. Chicago scholars were the first to split the atom, to measure the speed of light, and to develop the field of sociology.

I was going to begin: ‘When I look back on my four years at the University of Chicago, they seem to me like a blissful dream.’ But that is precisely wrong. I should say: ‘When I look back on my four years at the University of Chicago, they seem to me years of waking up and of being intensely awake.’ I say ‘awake’ because the University of Chicago, especially its college, is a community committed to the life of the mind, so that inquiry, whether in laboratories or libraries, tends to be intertwined with life.

Carrying on this tradition of innovative and provocative thought, Chicago’s 4,515 undergraduates form a community of learners who have discovered the pleasure of exploring, taking risks, immersing themselves intellectually, and determining the direction of their own education. They choose Chicago because they want an undergraduate liberal arts curriculum taught by a faculty of renowned scholars and teachers; they seek small classes and spirited discussions (eighty-three percent of classes have fewer than twenty-five students, and the studentfaculty ratio is 4:1); they participate in opportunities on and off campus that take their professional and recreational interests to a higher level; they want preparation for the most challenging careers and best graduate schools; and they look to learn outside of the classroom from some of the brightest minds around—other Chicago students.

Even the very brightest students do not run out of challenges. The university really has a liberal arts college housed within a world-class research university. The great resources of the research university are in most departments at the students’ disposal, and students often have close contact with the world of graduate students. The intellectual diversity of the students and faculty sustains endlessly stimulating debates. The wealth of diversity in the university is complemented by the wealth of diversity in the city: music, theater, shopping, dining, museums, movies, parks, ethnic neighborhoods, night life, and Lake Michigan.

These surroundings enrich and enliven the concentrated atmosphere of the university campus, where learning, discovery, hard work, and thoughtful conversation create an atmosphere that, for an intensely curious student, is exhilarating and inspiring.

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Information Summary

Ranks 1st in Illinois and 53rd overall. See the entire top 2,000 colleges and universities list
Overall Score (about)	97.0
Total Cost On-Campus Attendance	$78,555
Admission Success rate	N/A
ACT / SAT 75%ile scores	35 / 1570
Student Ratio Students-to-Faculty	11 : 1
Retention (full-time / part-time)	99% / N/A
Enrollment Total (all students)	17,002

Academics

The University of Chicago is dedicated to the proposition that education consists of serious and communal inquiry into such questions, under the guidance of teachers who have reflected at length upon these questions. As one student described it, “This experience is like waking up; via such questions, one is not transported to a theoretical and remote world, but rather finds oneself in the familiar world, revealed by a new light.”

The atmosphere of shared intellectual excitement is what I have missed most since I left the University of Chicago.

A student’s University of Chicago education is comprised of a common core of courses, free electives, in-depth study within a major or concentration, and opportunities for research, internships, and overseas study. This academic program allows for both freedom and flexibility while developing a set of shared experiences and languages of discovery.

The Common Core

In Chicago’s core, students find new ways of investigating the human and natural worlds through classes in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, natural sciences, physical sciences, and civilizations. The common core is different from a set of distribution requirements. It provides a fertile common ground of conversation among all students in the college. Not all students have read all of the same books, but almost everyone has acquaintance, for instance, with Plato’s Apology of Socrates, the Republic, writings of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Max Weber, some of Shakespeare, and often Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War, and Virginia Woolf.

Majors leading to Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degrees, enable students to specialize in one area in great depth. With more than 2,500 courses available each year, undergraduates choose electives, which allow them to explore their interests more broadly. Students may opt to join faculty in research through the College Research Opportunities Program, or they may design their own research projects.

Study Abroad

To enhance their on-campus experience, whether for the purpose of an academic project or for language acquisition, many Chicago students study abroad. Choosing from more than forty programs in nineteen countries, students pursue a wide range of interests—fine art, anthropology, and rain forest biology among them. The growing number of Foreign Language Acquisition Grants—seventy-five this past summer—provide funding for students to live and study for at least one quarter in a foreign country. One of the most popular ways to do study abroad at Chicago is by satisfying the core civilization requirement through one of the intensive ten-week programs offered in Athens, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, and Pune.

Most Popular Fields of Study

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Admissions

The Committee on Admissions has no rigid formula for the successful applicant and considers a candidate’s entire application—academic and extracurricular records, essays, letters of recommendations, and SAT or ACT scores. A personal interview is encouraged because it provides the candidate with a chance to learn more about the college and lets the college know what may not easily be conveyed in the application.

Though no specific secondary school courses are prescribed, a standard college preparatory program is ideal: four years of English, three to four years of math and laboratory sciences, three or more years of social sciences, and a foreign language. The essays that you are asked to write as part of the application are an opportunity to show your individuality in addition to your ability to write clearly and effectively.

The University of Chicago does not employ numerical cut-offs when evaluating applications for admission. Of the 1,220 students in the Class of 2008, seventy-eight percent graduated in the top ten percent of their high school classes. The middle fifty percent of admitted students had either a combined score between 1360 and 1490 on the SAT or a cumulative score of between 28 and 32 on the ACT. SAT Subject Tests are not required.

Evaluating Applications

The first page of the Chicago application states, “A college application is an imperfect way of communicating your qualifications, talents, and special interests. Still, you should find plenty of room for creativity here as you describe yourself and your accomplishments.” The goal in the Admissions Office is to extend its knowledge of a student well beyond a test score or GPA and understand, as much as possible, that student’s personal and academic qualities. To that end, each application is read first by a regional counselor, someone who should understand more about the student’s high school and its environment. Then, each application is read at least once more (and perhaps three or four times in all), with a final decision rendered by an admissions committee, an associate, or the dean.

For first-year applicants, the following information for admission consideration is required:

Personal information including extracurricular activities
Essays—two short-answer responses and one extended essay
High School Report Form including the transcript and the counselor recommendation
Teacher Recommendations—one from a math or science teacher and one from an English or social studies teacher (substitutions are not allowed, but you may submit additional recommendations)
SAT or ACT score (test must be taken by the application deadline)
Midyear Report Form, due by February 15 online, if at all possible
Students applying for need-based financial aid need to submit the FAFSA, CSS PROFILE and Financial Aid Application Form 4, which is part of the application.

Examples of Common Core Courses

Humanities—Human Being and Citizen; Form/Problem/Event; Readings in Literature; Philosophical Perspectives
Social Science—Classics of Social and Political Thought; Self, Culture, and Society; Wealth, Power, and Virtue
Civilization Studies—History of Western Civilization; Introduction to East Asian Civilization; Science, Culture, and Society in Western Civilization; Introduction to African Civilization.

Students are encouraged to interview if possible. Interviews are conducted on campus, but the school is able to accommodate many requests for alumni interviews in the student’s home territory. Although it is not required, an interview is an excellent way for students to share information about themselves that is not easily communicated through the application and to gain a greater understanding of the University of Chicago.

Financial Aid

Chicago is committed to helping students from all economic backgrounds attend the university and makes admissions decisions on a need-blind basis. Furthermore, the University meets one hundred percent of students’ demonstrated financial need. More than half of Chicago students receive some form of financial assistance. Students wishing to apply for financial aid should submit the University of Chicago financial aid application along with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and the Financial Aid PROFILE of the College Scholarship Service (CSS). The University of Chicago also offers purely merit-based College Honors Scholarships and University Scholarships. These range in value from $9,000 to full tuition for four years, and they succeed in attracting some extraordinary students.

Student Financial Aid Details

Ranks 2037th for the average student loan amount.
Secrets to getting the best scholarships and financial aid in Illinois.

Students

Campus Activities

Even with the delights and demands of academic life, Chicago undergraduates find time to participate in more than 300 student organizations. The Chicago Maroon, one of three student newspapers, got its start in 1892, the year classes began. The Model United Nations Team, Debate Society, and College Bowl Team have all won awards, some at the international level. Improvisational social satire—the brand of wit made famous on Saturday Night Live—got its start here and lives on in the Off-Off Campus improv group.

Four hundred student actors, playwrights, designers, producers, directors, and technicians stage thirty-five plays annually through University Theater. The music scene is just as broad, with symphony and chamber orchestras, jazz and wind ensembles, a cappella groups, and classical and gospel choirs. Other clubs range in variety from “anime” to community service.

Chicago’s extensive intramural and club sports program involves more than seventy percent of students, and the varsity sports program offers nineteen men’s and women’s teams participating at the NCAA Division III level.

Another focal point of campus life is the residential house system. Each student is guaranteed housing for four years at Chicago, and students choose from among eleven residence halls.

Coffee Shops

Aconversational social life is fostered by many coffee shops on campus. The Reg, Harper Library, the Classics Building, Cobb Hall, the Divinity School, the Business School, and the Reynolds Club all have coffee shops and each offers an ambience and cuisine of its own. The coffee shop in the Divinity School is run by graduate students who use the proceeds to underwrite their expenses and provide scholarships to needy students. It has food from many of the ethnic restaurants in Hyde Park, including Thai, Mexican, and Middle Eastern dishes. Being in the basement, the student coffee shop has a close and shadowy feel conducive to heartfelt talk. It also sells mugs and T-shirts that boast: “The Divinity School Coffee Shop— Where God Drinks Coffee.” The Classics coffee shop offers its food and drinks with a space that has a very high ceiling and a row of high windows at one end that welcomes an abundance of light, which in turn brings out the wood paneling along the walls. The Reynolds Club renovation has turned it into the de facto student center, with lounges, a marketplace, the offices of dozens of student organizations, and football and pool tables installed in the coffee shop upstairs. The coffee shop, along with Einstein’s Bagels on the first floor, are open until 2:00 A.M.

Movies

You can also see a movie on the Chicago campus just about any night of the week. The university is home to DOC (short for Documentary Film Group)—the oldest film society in the country, which shows at least one movie every night and more on the weekends when recently released films are featured. On weeknights, they run various series, such as a Kurosawa film or a Western every Tuesday for the whole term. Fire Escape Productions is the filmmaking arm of DOC. The productions are mostly shorts, but in 2002, Fire Escape completed the first feature-length film shot by the group.

Festivals

There are a number of major festivals during the year including Ribs n’ Bibs, The Humanities Open House, Kuviasungnerk, Summer Breeze, and the Folk Festival. Kuviasungnerk, which runs for a week during January, is an attempt to beat the cold by getting out into it at six o’clock in the morning. Hundreds and hundreds of students attend various activities, including aikido classes led by sociology professor David Levine. On the final

day, this class takes place outside on the lakefront. Until 8:30 or 9:00 A.M., one can get free hot cocoa, coffee, and doughnuts from a stand in the center of the quads. Those hardy souls who come every morning have a T-shirt that proclaims, “I survived Kuviasungnerk!” Summer Breeze is a week of games, dances, and blues and rock performances by the best local bands, and free drinks of all kinds. The Folk Festival draws together folk music performers from around the country and students from throughout the university for a weekend of performances, master classes, and jam sessions. The annual Scavenger Hunt is a huge campus event that has teams circling the Henry Crown Field House with paper clips, shaving their heads, and driving to other states to retrieve items ranging from circus elephants to Canadian traffic signs.

Other Popular Activities

Model United Nations—University of Chicago (or MUNUC), started in the late 1980s by a few independent and very capable students, has blossomed into the largest student organization on campus, hosting an award-winning model-U.N. conference for high school students from around the United States. More than a thousand visitors annually descend on the Palmer House Hilton for a weekend of intensive meetings simulating the activities of the U.N.

The student-run radio station, WHPK 88.5 FM, offers a dizzyingly eclectic variety of programs, from avant-garde rock to political commentary. The theater groups are particularly strong, staging about thirty-five full-scale productions per year. Off-Off Campus is a student improvisation group that continues the tradition begun by the students who went on to found the Second City comedy club. Students can act, direct, produce, and even write their own shows. Because there is no theater major at the university, any student can audition for any role in any play; a science major can direct a show. Yet classes on acting and directing are taught by professionals active in the Chicago scene. The student-run University Theater has internship programs with two professional theaters: the university’s professional and critically acclaimed Court Theater and the Steppenwolf Theater. Many students join the University Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra, the University Chorus, or the Motet Choir, which makes an annual tour during spring break. There are several student-led a capella singing groups, including The Unaccompanied Women, The Acafellas, and Rhythm ’n Jews.

Recent years have seen the flourishing of several organizations that help students use their abilities to help Chicago. The university is in the heart of the south side of Chicago, an economically, ethnically diverse region of the city. The Community Service Center was started by students in the early 1990s. The center links hundreds of students with volunteer opportunities around the city. A tutoring program run by the Blue Gargoyle facilitates weekly one-onone meetings between university students and children who need help in school. Actors from University Theater perform and lead workshops in local schools. Student Teachers run an after-school program with three local elementary schools, where students teach reading and creative writing in discussion courses that they themselves design. Habitat for Humanity regularly brings together large groups of students to build or repair homes, and a program called “Turn A Lot Around” puts students to work alongside residents in cleaning up vacant lots and transforming them into gardens.

Housing

The university guarantees housing for four years for every student. In 2002, a new residence hall, Max Palevsky Residential Commons, opened in the center of campus. Particularly nice about the Chicago housing system is the easy availability of single rooms, even for first-year students, but double rooms are plentiful as well. The Shoreland, with several hundred students, is a renovated luxury hotel with views of Lake Michigan and large apartment-style rooms. Built in the neo-Gothic style, Burton-Judson is the other large dorm, and is particularly sociable, while still having lots of single rooms. The dorms are subdivided into Houses, some named after famous professors or Chicago luminaries. Each large dorm has a master, usually a senior faculty member, and each house has a resident head, usually a senior graduate student. The masters and resident heads host discussions, trips downtown, and study breaks for the dorm. The resident heads, many of whom are married, provide a steadying influence, and if there are children, their goodwill can be great company after a long day.

About a third of Chicago’s students live off campus, but they remain in the Hyde Park neighborhood. This means that almost everyone lives off campus for the fourth year, some also for the third year and even second year. Despite all the hassles of bill paying and grocery shopping, students who live off campus love the independence and self-sufficiency. Affordable apartments are available near campus and one can buy into a dining hall meal plan. The occasional student even lives on the north side, commuting daily to campus, in order to take better advantage of the city.

Student Enrollment Demographics

Student Graduation Demographics

Local Community

Chicago—the City

The city of Chicago is one of the original jazz and blues centers of the nation. Anyone with the least taste for blues should visit the Checkerboard Lounge. The Chicago Symphony is world class; tickets to concerts at the newly renovated Orchestra Hall are inexpensive and easy to get, whether for full orchestra concerts or intimate chamber music. The major theaters (the Shubert and the grand old Louis Sullivan-designed Auditorium Theater) put on new and classic plays and musicals. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater is widely acclaimed. There is also an array of small, inexpensive, experimental theaters, several founded by the University of Chicago alumni on the north side, where one can see Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind or an avant-garde production of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. Chicago is also a city that loves to eat: Chinese (try dim sum at Hong Minh in Chinatown) or Japanese, Thai (four restaurants in Hyde Park alone!), Korean, Vietnamese, Polish, Italian, Indian, French, Cajun, or down-home American.

Students with a taste for professional sports have options year-round, from the Chicago Bulls to the Bears, Cubs, White Sox, and two hockey teams.

It’s been years since I left the U of C, but the performances of Shakespeare’s Othello and Sophocles’ Elektra that I saw at Court Theater still live in my memory.

Hyde Park

The university’s neighborhood, Hyde Park, is a residential community of 41,000 and is located just seven miles from the city’s center. Hyde Park is home to more than sixtyfive percent of Chicago’s faculty and their families and is often cited as a model of cosmopolitan and multiethnic urban living. The neighborhood offers such cultural attractions as the Museum of Science and Industry, the DuSable Museum of African-American History, and right on Chicago’s campus, the Oriental Institute Museum, the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, the Court Theater, and the Renaissance Society. By bus, train, car, or the university’s own shuttle service, downtown Chicago, with its corporate giants, cultural attractions, and ethnic neighborhoods is just fifteen minutes away. Whether students are visiting the festivals, shops, and theaters around the city, exploring the varied cuisines of distinct ethnic communities, or absorbing the neo-Gothic architecture of campus, they continue to live the “life of the mind” for which the university is deservedly famous.

Alumni

A degree from the University of Chicago can take you anywhere. Graduates work in government, business, law, academia, entertainment, and public service. A surprising number of graduates, about eighty-five percent, will seek to receive a graduate degree within five years of graduating, either in graduate or professional school, and ninety-five percent of graduates say they plan to enter graduate or professional school within five years. As students begin to consider their opportunities and ambitions, the Career and Placement Services (CAPS) office helps students make the transition into the wider world. Their career counselors have information about a whole array of opportunities for further study or employment, in the public or private sector, whether for-profit or nonprofit, and they talk with students to help them figure what their ambitions are, what the next step after graduation should be, and how best to present themselves and their credentials. The CAPS web site (at http://caps.uchicago.edu) provides twenty-four-hour access to a range of information, including an internship database with more than 1,000 listings.

Prominent Grads

Ed Asner, Actor
David Auburn, Tony Award Winner for the play Proof
Jay Berwanger, First Heisman Trophy Winner
David S. Broder, Washington Post Journalist
Henry Steele Commager, Historian, Author
Katherine Dunham, Dancer, Choreographer
Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate in Economics
Katherine Graham, Former Washington Post Chairman and CEO
Seymour Hersh, Journalist, Author
Mike Nichols, Director, Actor, Producer
Carl Sagan, Astronomer, Author
Susan Sontag, Writer, Critic
Studs Terkel, Writer

Faculty

Above all, it was my excellent teachers who brought me to love the University of Chicago, to love learning, reading, and study, to feel so strongly about the university that I would be asked to write a published essay about it. In your decision about where to go to college, I urge you to consider no factor more importantthan the presence of caring, excellent teachers.

Of all the college students I have ever met, those students who found caring teachers loved their colleges and their years in college; those who were not blessed with caring teachers were dissatisfied, often downright unhappy.

University of Chicago