The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, UChi, or U of C) is a privateresearch university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
The university is composed of an undergraduate college and four graduate divisions: Arts & Humanities, Biological Science, 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, Luxor, and downtown Chicago.
Albert A. Michelson, professor of Physics and first American Nobel laureate, delivers the second convocation address in front of Goodspeed and Gates-Blake Halls, with President William Rainey Harper, professors, and trustees in attendance, July 1, 1894.
The first University of Chicago was founded by a small group of Baptist educators and incorporated in 1857 after a land endowment from Senator Stephen A. Douglas and a fundraising campaign directed by the first president of the institution, John C. Burroughs.[3]:8–10 It closed in 1886 after decades of financial struggle, exacerbated by the Great Chicago Fire and the Panic of 1873,[3]:18 when the university's property was foreclosed on by its creditors.[3]:8–10 In 1890, its trustees elected to change the university's name to the "Old University of Chicago" so that the new university could go by the name of the city; a year later, the new university voted to recognize the alumni of the old as alumni of the new.[3]:59
William Rainey Harper became the university's president on July 1, 1891, and first classes began on October 1, 1892.[8] Harper offered large salaries to attract senior faculty[3]:78 and in two years had a faculty of 120, including eight former university or college presidents.[9] The undergraduate program was divided into two parts, with the first two years making up the Academic College, focusing on preparation for higher learning, and the last two years comprising the University College, with more advanced courses. The university operated on a quarter system, with 36 courses required to graduate.[3]:82–84 Harper brought the Baptist seminary, which had historical ties to the Old University of Chicago, to the university. This became the Divinity School in 1891, the first graduate professional school at the University of Chicago.[10]:20–22 Harper was a supporter of intercollegiate athletics, recruiting Amos Alonzo Stagg in 1892 to coach the football team and defending athletics from faculty opposition.[3]:89 In 1894, the university adopted maroon as its official color after initially selecting goldenrod. The Maroons became the university's nickname during the same year.[11] During this period, the university founded the university extension, which offered evening courses for adults and correspondence courses, and the University of Chicago Press.[3]:74
Rockefeller continued to provide significant contributions to the university after its founding. Harper's efforts to finance faculty research projects, expand the campus, and support university initiatives caused significant deficits covered by Rockefeller donations, with annual deficits between 1894 and 1903 averaging $215,000. In 1898, the board of trustees made a commitment to use new gifts to eliminate the deficit rather than to further expand programs, but structural deficits remained until after Harper's presidency.[3]:110–112
1906–1929
After Harper's death in 1906, the board of trustees named head of the Department of Political Science Harry Pratt Judson acting president, and in 1907 made the appointment permanent.[3]:149–150 Judson initiated a policy of financial austerity, which renewed Rockefeller's confidence in the university and resulted in a series of large gifts to the endowment between 1906 and 1910, including a final gift of $10 million in 1910, that balanced the university's budget.[3]:113 In 1911, the university adopted a Latin motto of Crescat scientia; vita excolatur, which translates to "Let knowledge grow from more and more; and so be human life enriched."[12][13] In 1912, Judson successfully encouraged the board to create a faculty pension fund.[3]:150
During World War One, Judson, as well as faculty members such as Albion Small and Paul Shorey, published works supporting the war. On the other hand, student reaction was mixed, with most not participating in newly formed voluntary military training programs such as the ROTC. In 1918, the Student Army Training Corps program was announced by the War Department, which requisitioned the campus to be run by army officers for military training, but the November armistice soon ended the program.[3]:154–162 After the war, the Oriental Institute, now the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, was founded by Egyptologist James Henry Breasted to support and interpret archeological work in what was then called the Near East.[14]
In 1923, senior scholar Ernest D. Burton succeeded Judson as president.[3]:163–164 Burton launched the first major fundraising campaign of the university to improve the research environment of the faculty as well as invest in residential halls for undergraduates, finding initial success despite faculty opposition to the perceived prioritization of undergraduate over graduate interests. Burton's sudden death in 1925 led to his replacement by physicist Max Mason, who ended the citywide fundraising drive early in favor of a quieter outreach among local businessmen.[3]:167–182 During Burton's term, and later Mason's, the Chicago Schools of thought began to emerge in the social sciences, with new organizations being established such as the Social Science Research Council in 1923.[3]:190–191
1929–1950
Some of the University of Chicago team who worked on the production of the world's first human-caused self-sustaining nuclear reaction, including Enrico Fermi in the front row and Leó Szilárd in the second
In 1929, the 30-year-old dean of Yale Law School, Robert Maynard Hutchins, became president.[3]:167–182 In 1930, Hutchins organized the graduate departments under four independent divisions and united the undergraduate colleges into one college.[3]:222 In 1931, alongside dean of the college Chauncey Boucher, Hutchins implemented a new two-year general education curriculum called the "New Plan", which would form the basis for the university's core curriculum.[3]:231–233 Later in the 1930s, Hutchins became unsatisfied with departmental influence on the undergraduate curriculum and pushed for further expansion to the general education curriculum.[3]:242–252 In 1942, Hutchins transferred jurisdiction of the BA degree from the graduate divisions to the college, thus removing divisional leverage to shape the curriculum. The same year, the college reformed the BA degree with four years of prescribed general education.[3]:253–255
Budget shortfalls created during the Great Depression led to significant austerity measures and staffing cuts, though Hutchins protected the salaries of those who remained. In 1933, Hutchins proposed a plan to alleviate the financial situation by merging the university with Northwestern University, though it was ultimately abandoned.[3]:287–289 Financial woes contributed to the decision to end the university's football program in 1939.[3]:214 With substantial budget gaps remaining and support from the Rockefeller Foundation having dried up, a second major fundraising campaign was launched between 1939 and 1941 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the university's founding with mixed results.[3]:290–299 Large deficits persisted after World War Two, leaving future presidents to balance the budget.[3]:316
During the war, the university recruited a number of refugee scientists from Europe, including Enrico Fermi, Rudolf Carnap, and James Franck. The university's Metallurgical Laboratory contributed to the Manhattan Project, with Enrico Fermi engineering the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at Stagg Field in 1942.[3]:301–305 In 1945, Hutchins announced the formation of the Institute for Nuclear Studies and the Institute for the Study of Metals in order to continue work done during the war. These were later renamed to the Enrico Fermi Institute and the James Franck Institute, respectively.[3]:286 The university came under scrutiny before and after the war for alleged communist influence, with university leadership called to testify on the loyalty of its student body and faculty in 1935 and 1949.[3]:269–280
1951–1977
In 1951, vice president of development Lawrence Kimpton succeeded Hutchins as chancellor[3]:323–324 (a position created in 1945 replacing the presidency as head of the university).[3]:310 The deficits left from Hutchins necessitated severe annual cuts in the operating budget, which was brought into balance by 1954. A fundraising campaign was launched the same year, which allowed for modest recovery,[3]:338–343 but the financial situation worsened after a decline in undergraduate enrollments.[3]:325–327 In 1957, to attract more students, Kimpton reduced the general education curriculum from four years to two years. Furthermore, the graduate divisional faculty with slowly merged with the previously independent college faculty via joint appointments.[3]:328–330 To address safety concerns driven by increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood, the university became a major sponsor of a controversial urban renewal project for Hyde Park. Between 1954 and 1960, the university worked with the South East Chicago Commission and Mayor Richard J. Daley to clear approximately 925 acres of land, disproportionately affecting Black, low-income residents.[3]:343–350
Front page of Chicago Maroon breaking the news of the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies
In 1961, Caltech professor George Beadle was elected chancellor, resuming the title of president later that year.[15][3]:355–356 Beadle's tenure saw large investments in faculty and campus expansion to rebuild the university after Kimpton's austerity, funded in large part by a $25 million grant provided by the Ford Foundation and an accompanying fundraising campaign.[3]:359–365 In 1964, the undergraduate college was reorganized into five collegiate divisions, four paralleling the four graduate divisions and one interdisciplinary New Collegiate Division.[3]:366
In 1967, provost Edward Levi became president. His tenure saw a number of sit-ins at the administrative building: in 1962, over the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies;[16] 1966 and 1967, over the university providing the class rank of students who sought deferments to draft boards; and 1969, over the sociology's department decision not to rehire the openly Marxist assistant professor Marlene Dixon.[17][3]:371–375 In 1967, a university committee issued the Kalven Report, maintaining the university's duty to uphold academic freedom and remain non-partisan.[3]:497–499 The report has since been cited in university debates over divesting from South Africa and Sudan.[18] By the 1970s, facing the end of Ford Foundation support, a reduction in enrollment due to insufficient student housing, flagging federal funding, and broader economic stagflation, the university faced more fiscal austerity.[3]:379–387 In 1975, provost John Wilson was appointed president, balancing the budget once more through cuts.[3]:391–393
1978–present
In 1978, history scholar and provost of Yale, Hanna Holborn Gray, became president of the university. She was the first woman in the United States to be appointed to a full-term presidency of a major research university.[3]:393 Still facing budgetary issues, Gray modernized the university's financial systems, increased the size and tuition of the undergraduate college, and paired campus expansion and renovation with administrative austerity. While budgetary equilibrium was reached through the mid-1980s, acute deficits soon re-emerged, exacerbated by the 1990-1992 recession.[3]:393–398 Gray also oversaw the implementation of a unified 21 course core curriculum across all collegiate divisions in 1985, and invested in student life through new food services, school festivals, and the reintroduction of varsity athletics.[3]:403–405
In 1992, economist Hugo F. Sonnenschein became president, facing projected deficits of $23 million for the 1995-96 budget and poor endowment growth.[3]:407 The raising of $676 million in a fundraising campaign for the university's centennial throughout the early 1990s helped alleviate these problems.[3]:418 In 1996, Sonnenschein proposed the expansion of the undergraduate college by 1,000 students to raise tuition revenue, and in 1997 backed a plan to reduce the number of required course in the core curriculum from 21 to 15–18 (depending on how a student met the language requirement). After intense debate, with the university becoming the focal point of a national debate on education, both reforms were approved.[3]:409–417 In 2000, Cornell University provost Don Michael Randel became the twelfth president of the university. His tenure was marked by increased supports for the arts on campus, stronger outreach to local civic and business leaders, investments in major campus facilities, and the launch of a new $2 billion capital campaign.[3]:421
In 2006, mathematician Robert J. Zimmer was appointed president, receiving board approval to take on large amounts of debt at low interest rates after the 2008 recession in order to finance a number of major projects.[3]:465–468 These included new buildings and pavilions, such as Mansueto Library in 2011, a reading room and book storage facility;[19] the Logan Center for the Arts in 2012;[3]:471 the Keller Center in 2019, home of the Harris School of Public Policy;[3]:471 and Woodlawn Residential Commons in 2020, housing 1,298 students.[20] Between 2008 and 2022, the university partnered with the city and outside businesses to launch three interventions along 53rd Street in an attempt to improve the neighborhood's economic condition.[3]:473–477 As part of an effort to invest in its professional schools, the university formed the Becker Friedman Institute in 2011,[21] acquired the Marine Biological Laboratory in 2013,[3]:491 repurposed the Crerar Library as the headquarters of the Department of Computer Science in 2018,[3]:472 and established the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering in 2019.[22] The university also expanded its presence abroad, opening campuses in Hong Kong in 2018,[23] in London in 2022,[3]:507 and in Paris in 2024,[24] alongside centers in Beijing in 2010[25] and in Delhi in 2014.[26] Despite a $5.4 billion fundraising campaign started in 2014,[3]:468 university debt has exceeded initial planning expectations, reaching $6.3 billion in 2025.[27] In 2015, a university committee published its ideas on free speech in the Chicago Principles,[3]:500 which a number of other universities have since adopted.[28]
The main campus of the University of Chicago consists of 217 acres (87.8ha) in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn, approximately eight miles (13km) south of downtown Chicago.[31] 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.[32]
Aerial shots from the University of Chicago campusView of university building from the Harper Quadrangle
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.[33] The Main Quadrangles consist of six quadrangles, each surrounded by buildings, bordering one larger quadrangle.[10]:221 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.[33] (Mitchell Tower, for example, is modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower,[34] and the university Commons, Hutchinson Hall, replicates Christ Church Hall.[35]) In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the University of Chicago Quadrangles[36] were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component.[37]
Many older buildings of the University of Chicago employ Collegiate Gothic architecture like that of the University of Oxford. For example, Chicago's Mitchell Tower (left) was modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower (right).
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[51][52] 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.[53]
Campus of the University of Chicago
Snell-Hitchcock, an undergraduate dormitory constructed in the early 20th century, is part of the Main Quadrangles.
The university shuttle program includes day-time and night-time routes, most of which operate within Hyde Park.[61] In 2022, the university added a Downtown Campus Connector to its shuttle program, which connects the main Hyde Park campus to the Gleacher Center and downtown UChicago Medicine clinics.[62]
In 2024, the university introduced a Via ride-sharing program ahead of the 2024–2025 school year, which provides unlimited free rides on campus in shared vans.[63]
Safety
In November 2021, a university graduate was robbed and fatally shot on a sidewalk in a residential area in Hyde Park near campus; a total of three University of Chicago students were killed by gunfire incidents in 2021.[64][65] These incidents prompted student protests and an open letter to university leadership signed by more than 300 faculty members.[66][67]
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.[68] The university continues to maintain one of the largest private police forces in the country.[69]
Satellite campuses
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.[70] The Center in Paris, a campus located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, hosts various undergraduate and graduate study programs.[71] The university also maintains the Chicago House, based in Luxor, which serves as the Egyptian headquarters for the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures.[72] 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,[73] and a center in Hong Kong which opened in 2018.[74] 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.[75]
Academics
The University of Chicago Main Quadrangles, looking north
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 (March–June).[81] Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every quarter[82] for approximately ten weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in early June.[81]
Harper Memorial Library was dedicated in 1912, and its architecture takes inspiration from various colleges in England.
The College of the University of Chicago grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 51 undergraduate courses of study[83] (since 2005 known as majors) and 33 secondary courses of study, now known as minors.[84] The college's academics are divided into four divisions: the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division, the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, the Social Sciences Collegiate Division, and the Humanities Collegiate Division. Each division is affiliated with the corresponding graduate division of the university.[85]
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.[86][87][88] Since the 1999–2000 school year, 15 courses across seven subjects and demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language are required under the core curriculum.[89]
Eckhart Hall houses the university's math department.
Graduate schools and committees
The university graduate schools and committees are divided into four divisions (biological sciences, humanities, physical sciences, and social sciences), and eight professional schools.[90] 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).[91]
Aerial view of Fermilab, a science research laboratory co-managed by the University of Chicago
According to the National Science Foundation, University of Chicago spent $423.9million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 60th in the nation.[93] It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".[94] 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.[95][96]
The Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies, originally known as the university-Extension program, was established in 1892.[113] The school offers various non-degree courses and certificates as well as degree programs.[114] In 1997, it was renamed to the William B. and Catherine V. Graham School of General Studies in honor of a $10 million donation from William and Catherine Graham made in the same year.[115]
The Booth School of Business was founded in 1898 as the College of Commerce and Politics and received business school accreditation in 1916.[116][117] In 2008, the then-called Graduate School of Business was renamed following a $300 million donation from alumnus David Booth.[118] It was ranked fourth out of 133 American business schools by U.S. News in 2025.[119]
The Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice was first established in 1908 as the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and received its first dean, Edith Abbott (who became the first female dean of any graduate school in the United States), in 1924. It was renamed in 2021 in recognition of a $75 million donation from James and Paula Crown and the Crown family.[122][123]
The Pritzker School of Medicine matriculated its first class of medical students in 1927 and was renamed to the Pritzker School of Medicine in 1968 in recognition of support from the Pritzker family.[124] It has been accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education since 1942.[112] In 2023, the school declined to continue submitting data to U.S. News to help the publication rank the institution, joining medical schools including those at Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia in doing so.[125]
The Harris School of Public Policy was established in 1988 as the Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. In 1990, it was renamed in recognition of Irving Harris' financial support of the program during its inception.[126] The school offers six graduate degree programs as well as joint degree and non-degree programs.[127]
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering was founded in 2019 following an expansion of the Institute of Molecular Engineering, which was established in 2011. The Pritzker Foundation provided a $75 million donation to help establish the school, which occupies the William Eckhardt Research Center.[128]
The University of Chicago Graduate Library School was the graduate-level librarianship school from 1928 to 1989 at the University of Chicago. It was established in 1928 to develop a program for the graduate education of librarians with a focus on research.[129] Housed for a time in the Joseph Regenstein Library, the Graduate Library School closed in 1989 when the University of Chicago decided to promote information studies instead of professional education.[130][131]
Associated academic institutions
The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private day school run by the university
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),[132] and a public charter school with three campuses on the South Side of Chicago administered by the university's Urban Education Institute.[133] In addition, the Hyde Park Day School, a school for students with learning disabilities,[134] and the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, a residential treatment program for those with behavioral and emotional problems,[135] 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.[136] The university runs a program called the Council on Advanced Studies, which administers interdisciplinary workshops to provide a forum for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present scholarly work in progress.[137] The university also operates the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in North America.[138]
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.[139] 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.[140][141] The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, built in 2011, houses a large study space and an automated book storage and retrieval system.[142] 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.[143] 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.[144][145] The Harper Memorial Library, the first library of the university, is now a reading and study room.[146]
The University of Chicago Arts program joins academic departments in the Division of the Arts & Humanities and the undergraduate 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.[147] The university offers graduate degrees in music, cinema and media studies, visual arts, and the humanities, among other subjects.[148][149] It also offers bachelor's degree programs in visual arts, music, art history, cinema and media studies, and theater and performance studies.[150] Several thousand major and non-major undergraduates enroll annually in creative and performing arts classes.[151]
The university was home to the improvisational Compass Players student comedy troupe, which evolved into The Second City in 1959.[152][153] The university has an artist-in-residence program, which has supported over 32 individual artists as of May 2025.[154] The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts opened in 2012. It was financed by a $35 million gift from alumnus David Logan and his wife Reva, the single largest cash gift to the arts in the city of Chicago as of 2025. The center includes spaces for exhibitions, performances, classes, and media production.[155]
The University of Chicago is considered one of the most prestigious research universities in the United States.[164]ARWU has consistently placed the University of Chicago among the top 10 universities in the world.[165] In 2026, the university was ranked 6th by US News & World Report[166] and 13th by Forbes.[167] In 2025, QS World University Rankings placed the university in 13th place worldwide, while THE World University Rankings ranked the university in a tie for 14th.[168][169]
The university's law and business schools consistently rank among the top three professional schools in the United States. In 2025, the business school was placed in second out of 77 American schools by Bloomberg,[170] fourth in the US by US News & World Report,[171] and second by Fortune.[172] In the same year, it was placed fifteenth in the world by QS World University Rankings[173] and seventeenth by the Financial Times.[174] In 2025, the law school was ranked third in the United States by US News & World Report[175] and second by Above the Law.[176] In the same year, it was ranked 11th globally by QS World University Rankings.[177]
The university is governed by a board of trustees. The board oversees the long-term development and plans of the university and manages fundraising efforts, and is composed of 55 members including the university president.[178] Directly beneath the president are the provost, fourteen vice presidents (including the chief financial officer and chief investment officer), and twelve deans.[179] The current chair of the board of trustees is David Rubenstein, who has occupied the position since May 2022.[180] The current provost is Katherine Baicker, who was appointed in March 2023.[181][182] The current president of the University of Chicago is chemist Paul Alivisatos, who assumed the role on September 1, 2021.[183]
The university's endowment was the 21st largest among American educational institutions and state university systems in 2024, valued at roughly $10.1 billion.[184] Since 2016, the university's board of trustees has resisted pressure from students and faculty to divest its investments from fossil fuel companies.[185]As of 2024[update], such investments remain a part of the university's endowment.[186]
In fall 2023, the university employed 3,418 academic staff and 23,217 administrative staff (including those from the medical center).[187] In 2024, the university's combined annual budget (including the university proper, the medical center, and the marine biological laboratory) stood at $5.2 billion, with the university's operations making up an additional $2.6 billion.[188] In the same year, the university's total assets were valued at $20.3 billion.[189]
Part of the financial plan for the university by former university president Robert Zimmer was an increase in accumulation of debt to finance large building projects.[190] This drew both support and criticism from many in the university community.[191] In 2024, the university budget deficit stood at $288 million despite liquidating assets to cover the gap; the administration announced plans in November of that year to close the deficit over the next four years.[192][193] The financial strain has caused the university to increase its student-faculty ratio, reduce the proportion of classes taught by research faculty, and spend an unusually high percentage of undergraduate tuition on servicing debt.[193][194]
In fall 2024, the university enrolled 7,569 undergraduate students, 10,968 graduate students, and 750 non-degree students.[197] 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.[198] The university is need-blind for domestic applicants.[199]
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.[200][201][202] Between 1996 and 2023, the acceptance rate of the college fell from 71% to 4.7%.[203]
The middle 50% band of SAT scores for the undergraduate class of 2025 was 1510–1570 (98th–99th percentiles),[198] the average MCAT score for students entering the Pritzker School of Medicine class of 2024 was 519 (97th percentile),[204] the median GMAT score for students entering the full-time Booth MBA program class of 2023 was 740 (97th percentile),[205] and the median LSAT score for students entering the Law School class of 2021 was 172 (99th percentile).[206]
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.[207]
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.[208] The Maroons compete in the NCAA Division III as members of the University Athletic Association (UAA).[209] Their mascot is Phil the Phoenix.[11]
The university was a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and participated in the NCAA Division I men's basketball and football.[210] In 1935, the University of Chicago reached the Sweet Sixteen.[208] In 1935, Chicago Maroons football player Jay Berwanger became the first winner of the Heisman Trophy.[211] 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.[212] In 1969, Chicago reinstated football as a Division III team, resuming playing its home games at the new Stagg Field.[213]
The University of Chicago is home to the University of Chicago Rugby Football Club (UCRFC).[214] Since 2022, Men's Rugby competes in the Division II Great Midwest Conference (MWC) 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.[215] A women's club also exists at the university.[216]
Students at the University of Chicago operate more than 400 clubs and organizations known as Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs).[219] These include cultural and religious groups, academic clubs and teams, and common-interest organizations.[220] Among notable student organizations are the nation's longest continuously running student film society Doc Films,[221][222] the organizing committee for the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, and the weekly student newspaper The Chicago Maroon.[223]
The university's Reynolds Club, the student center
Student government
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.[224] 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. As of 2025[update], the Undergraduate Student Government annual budget was greater than $2.5million.[225]
Fraternities and sororities
As of 2019[update], there were more than 20 Greek organizations operating on campus.[226] According to a 2016 Maroon article, 19.6% of undergraduates were members of fraternities or sororities.[227]
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 48 houses, with an average of 80 students in each house.[228] The houses are named after former professors and other historical figures in the university community, such as Eugene Fama.[229]
Students are required to live in on-campus housing for the first six quarters of enrollment.[230] As of the 2024–2025 school year, 58% of undergraduate students live on campus.[231]
The university owns and operates 28 apartment buildings near campus for graduate students.[232]
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.[233] Every January, the university holds a week-long winter festival, Kuviasungnerk/Kangeiko (Kuvia), which includes early morning exercise routines and fitness workshops.[234] The university also annually holds a carnival and concert called Summer Breeze[235] that hosts outside musicians and is home to Doc Films, a student film society founded in 1932 that screens films nightly at the university.[236] Since 1946, the university has organized the Latke-Hamantash Debate, which involves humorous discussions about the relative merits and meanings of latkes and hamantashen.[237] Since 2002, the Ida Noyes Pub has hosted Trivia Nights for university affiliates each Tuesday.[238]
↑ "Cobb Hall". ZS Architectural Engineering. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
↑ Hilliard, Celia (2010). "The Prime Mover: Charles L. Hutchinson and the Making of The Art Institute of Chicago". Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies. 31 (1). Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago: 51. ISSN0069-3235. JSTORi40072154.
↑ "A Brief History of the Oriental Institute". The Oriental Institute. Archived from the original on March 21, 2009. Retrieved September 8, 2009. Since its establishment in 1919, the Oriental Institute (now known as the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa) has sponsored archaeological and survey expeditions in every country of the Near East.
↑ Puma, Amy Braverman (2007). "There Will Be Books". University of Chicago Magazine. Archived from the original on June 21, 2010. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
1 2 Braverman, Amy M. (February 2005). "2020 Vision". University of Chicago Magazine. Vol.27, no.3. Archived from the original on June 21, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
↑ "Of Milestones and Momentum". The University of Chicago Magazine. Vol.100, no.6. July–August 2008. Archived from the original on January 31, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
↑ Adler, Mortimer Jerome; Van Doren, Geraldine (1990). Reforming education: the opening of the American mind (1st Collier Booksed.). New York: Collier Books. ISBN978-0-02-030175-2.
↑ Kimball, Bruce A., ed. (2010). The liberal arts tradition: a documentary history. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America. ISBN978-0-7618-5132-5.
↑ "About TTI-C". August 2009. Archived from the original on May 25, 2009. Retrieved August 17, 2009. An agreement between the University of Chicago and TTI – C allows cross-listing of computer science course offerings between the two institutions, providing students from each institution the opportunity to register in the other's courses.
↑ Kasper, Sherryl (2002) The Revival of Laissez-Faire in American Macroeconomic Theory: A Case Study of Its Pioneers. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN1-84064-606-3
↑ Cox, John D. (2005). Climate crash: abrupt climate change and what it means for our future. National Academies Press. p.27. ISBN978-0-309-09312-5. Archived from the original on March 8, 2023. Retrieved September 9, 2009. In 1947, at the University of Chicago, chemist Willard F. Libby discovered a powerful new technology known as radiocarbon dating. Libby would win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960 for developing this geological clock.
↑ Association of American Library Schools. New Frontiers in Librarianship; Proceedings of the Special Meeting of the Association of American Library Schools and the Board of Education for Librarianship of the American Library Association in Honor of the University of Chicago and the Graduate Library School, December 30, 1940. [Chicago]: The Graduate library school, the University of Chicago, 1941.
↑ "Chicago GLS to close". Library Journal. 114: 111. February 15, 1989.
↑ Stieg, Margaret F. (1991). "The Closing of Library Schools: Darwinism at the University". The Library Quarterly. 61 (3): 266–272. doi:10.1086/602365. S2CID144038790.
↑ "Chicago School for Children with Learning Disabilities". Hyde Park Day School. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2009. The Hyde Park Day School (HPDS) is a private, not-for-profit day school serving the needs of children with learning disabilities... With two Illinois locations on the University of Chicago campus in Chicago and north suburban Northfield, HPDS is the only school of its kind in the Chicago area.
Cole, Jonathan R. (2009). The Great American University: Its Rise to Preeminence, Its Indispensable National Role, Why It Must Be Protected. PublicAffairs Hachette. pp.32–33. ISBN9781586484088. [in] the ranks of America's leading research universities
"University of Chicago". Britannica. April 15, 2023. one of the United States' most outstanding universities
Bronner, Ethan (December 28, 1998). "Winds of Academic Change Rustle University of Chicago". New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2025. no other academic institution has exemplified intellectual seriousness quite like the University of Chicago
↑ McNeill, William Hardy (1991). Hutchins' University: A Memoir of the University of Chicago, 1929–1950. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN0-226-56170-4.
↑ "Film News". Educational Film Library Association, American Film Center. 11–13. Film News Co.: 628 1950. At the University of Chicago the Documentary Film Group, probably the oldest US film society, has been operating continuously...since 1932.
Boyer, John (2015). The University of Chicago: A History. University of Chicago Press.
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Vermeulen, Cornelius W. (1977). For the Greatest Good to the Largest Number: A History of the Medical Center, the University of Chicago, 1927–1977.
Webber, Henry S. (2005). "The University of Chicago and Its Neighbors: A Case Study in Community Development". In Perry, David C.; Wiewel, Wim (eds.). The University as Urban Developer: Case Studies and Analysis.
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