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The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, UChi, or U of C) is a private research university in the Hyde Park community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States.

The university is composed of an undergraduate college and four graduate research divisions: the Arts & Humanities Division, the Biological Sciences Division, the Physical Sciences Division, and the Social Sciences Division, all of which include various organized departments and institutes. In addition, the university operates seven professional schools in the fields of business, social work, theology, public policy, law, medicine, and molecular engineering, along with a school of continuing studies. The university maintains an overseas campus in Hong Kong, as well as academic centers in London, Paris, Beijing, Delhi, Luxor, and 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. The university'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 operates and administers research institutions including Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in North America.

As of 2025, the university's students, faculty, and staff have included 101 Nobel laureates. The university's faculty members and alumni also include 11 Fields Medalists, 4 Turing Award winners, 2 Dan David Prize winners, 58 MacArthur Fellows, 30 Marshall Scholars, 56 Rhodes Scholars, 29 Pulitzer Prize winners, 20 National Humanities Medalists, and 6 Olympic medalists.

History

Old University of Chicago

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. It closed in 1886 after decades of financial struggle, exacerbated by the Great Chicago Fire and the Panic of 1873, when the university's property was foreclosed on by its creditors. 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.

Early years

In 1890, the American Baptist Education Society (ABES) incorporated a new University of Chicago as a coeducational institution, using $400,000 donated to the ABES to supplement a $600,000 donation from Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller and land donated by Marshall Field. The Hyde Park campus’ construction was financed by donations from wealthy Chicagoans such as Silas B. Cobb, donor of the campus's first building, Cobb Lecture Hall; Charles L. Hutchinson, trustee, treasurer and donor of Hutchinson Commons; and Martin A. Ryerson, president of the board of trustees and donor of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory.

William Rainey Harper became the university's president on July 1, 1891, and classes first began on October 1, 1892. Harper offered large salaries to attract senior faculty, and in two years had a faculty of 120, including eight former university or college presidents. 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. 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. Harper was a supporter of intercollegiate athletics, recruiting Amos Alonzo Stagg in 1892 to coach the football team and defending athletics from faculty opposition. 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. During this period, the university founded the university extension, which offered evening courses for adults and correspondence courses, and the University of Chicago Press.

Campus

Main campus

The main campus of the University of Chicago consists of 217 acres (87.8 ha) in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn, approximately eight miles (13 km) 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.

The first buildings of the campus, which make up what are 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. The Main Quadrangles consist of six quadrangles, each surrounded by buildings, bordering one larger quadrangle. 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. Mitchell Tower, for example, is modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower, and the university Commons, Hutchinson Hall, replicates Christ Church Hall. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the University of Chicago Quadrangles were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component.

After the 1940s, the campus's Gothic style began to give way to modern styles. 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); a series of arts buildings; Edith Abbott Hall, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; the Keller Center, which is home of the Harris School of Public Policy and was designed by Edward Durrell Stone; and the Regenstein Library, the largest building on campus, a brutalist structure designed by Walter Netsch. Another master plan, designed in 1999 and updated in 2004, produced the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center (2003), the Max Palevsky Residential Commons (2001), South Campus Residence Hall and dining commons (2009), a new children's hospital, and other construction, expansions, and restorations. 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.

Academics

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. The university also contains a library system, the University of Chicago Press, and the University of Chicago Medical Center, and oversees several laboratories, including the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the Argonne National Laboratory, and the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It is a member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Universities Research Association.

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). Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every quarter for approximately ten weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in early June.

Undergraduate college

The College of the University of Chicago grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 51 undergraduate majors and 33 minors. 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. Each division, except for the interdisciplinary New Collegiate Division, is affiliated with the corresponding graduate division of the university.

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. Since the 1999–2000 school year, 15 courses across seven subjects and demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language are required under the core curriculum.

Graduate research divisions

The university's academic departments, committees, and institutes are organized into four graduate research divisions: the Arts & Humanities Division, the Biological Sciences Division, the Physical Sciences Division, and the Social Sciences Division.

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). The university is home to several committees for interdisciplinary scholarship, including the Committee on Social Thought.

Administration and finance

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. Directly beneath the president are the provost, fourteen vice presidents, including the chief financial officer and chief investment officer, and twelve deans. The current chair of the board of trustees is David Rubenstein, who has occupied the position since May 2022. The current provost is Katherine Baicker, who was appointed in March 2023. The current president of the University of Chicago is chemist Paul Alivisatos, who assumed the role on September 1, 2021.

The university's endowment was the 21st largest among American educational institutions and state university systems in 2024, valued at roughly $10.1 billion. Since 2016, the university's board of trustees has resisted pressure from students and faculty to divest its investments from fossil fuel companies. As of 2024, such investments remain a part of the university's endowment.

In fall 2023, the university employed 3,418 academic staff and 23,217 administrative staff, including those from the medical center. 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. In the same year, the university's total assets were valued at $20.3 billion.

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. This drew both support and criticism from many in the university community. 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. 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.

In the summer of 2025, the university announced more than $100 million in budget cuts across capital projects, hiring, and graduate admissions in a response to the growing university deficit, less federal funding, and uncertainty about international student admissions.

Student body and admissions

In fall 2025, the university enrolled 7,496 undergraduate students, 11,195 graduate students, and 408 non-degree students. The college class of 2025 is composed of 53% male 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. The university is need-blind for domestic applicants.

Admission 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. Between 1996 and 2023, the acceptance rate of the college fell from 71% to 4.7%.

The middle 50% band of SAT scores for the undergraduate class of 2025 was 1510–1570 (98th–99th percentiles), the average MCAT score for students entering the Pritzker School of Medicine class of 2024 was 519 (97th percentile), the median GMAT score for students entering the full-time Booth MBA program class of 2023 was 740 (97th percentile), and the median LSAT score for students entering the Law School class of 2021 was 172 (99th percentile).

In 2018, the University of Chicago attracted national headlines by becoming the first major research university to no longer require SAT or ACT scores from college applicants.

Athletics

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. The Maroons compete in the NCAA Division III as members of the University Athletic Association (UAA). Their mascot is Phil the Phoenix.

The university was a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and participated in the NCAA Division I men's basketball and football. In 1935, the University of Chicago reached the Sweet Sixteen. In 1935, Chicago Maroons football player Jay Berwanger became the first winner of the Heisman Trophy. 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. In 1969, Chicago reinstated football as a Division III team, resuming play at the new Stagg Field.

The University of Chicago is home to the University of Chicago Rugby Football Club (UCRFC). 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. A women's club also exists at the university.

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