The University of Chicago

On July 18th I visited the University of Chicago. I took the 1:30 pm student-lead tour. The tour left from the College Admission Office in Rosenwald Hall out of the main campus in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. The University of Chicago also has a Graduate Campus in the downtown area. Campus tours depart from the office at 10:30 am and 1:30 pm, Monday through Friday. Tours are followed by an information session presented by a member of the Admission Staff.



The University of Chicago has a beautiful campus. While the university was founded back in 1891, the original campus was purposely built in a neo-gothic style, intended to be reminiscent of the campuses of Oxford and Cambridge, which both date back to the 1200s. The campus, while deliberately built to look old, has not stood pat, and has several wonderful examples of modern architecture as well









This is an example of a typical classroom at the University of Chicago. The tour guide, Amy, used this classroom to explain the common core that all undergraduate students must participate in to meet the university graduation requirements. Unlike most national research institutions, the university itself is only made up of only one Undergraduate College. The College offers 52 majors and 14 minors. At the graduate level, the university offers 11 different divisions: four divisions of graduate research, six professional schools, and the Graham School of General Studies. A midsize institution, the university has approximately 5000 undergrads and approximately 10,000 graduate students. In this way the undergraduate experience maybe more along the lines what one might expect from a small liberal arts school as opposed to one of the finest national research institutions in the country. The average class size is 25, and despite an emphasis on graduate education, the student-to-faculty ratio is 4:1, one of the lowest amongst national universities, and all faculty members are required to teach undergraduate courses

The university is currently ranked as the 9th National University in the country. In the 2007 edition of the Princeton Review the University of Chicago was ranked as the best overall undergraduate academic experience in the country.









Here Amy is showing us the University of Chicago’s Hyde Park Campus relative to the rest of the city of Chicago. For more information about the neighborhood see here.



This is the Regenstien Library, an example of more modern architecture that exists on campus. This library holds over 4.4 million volumes. A new addition will allow for an additional 3.5 million volumes.





While, for athletic purposes, the University of Chicago mascot is the “Maroons,” the unofficial student mascot is the gargoyle. Gargoyles make their presence felt all over the campus.















This room is the Hutchinson Commons in the Reynolds Club. Around the room are portraits of all the previous presidents of the university, as well as current trustees.





This is the university C-shop on campus. This is one of 7 different dining facilities for students on campus.



This is the university seal in the Reynolds Club. Myth has it that stepping on the gold-plated University of Chicago seal on the Reynolds Club floor will adversely affect a student's chances of graduating in four years.







As with almost every university, there is always new construction. The University of Chicago demonstrates an exciting collaboration of the old and the new. It makes for a very compelling learning environment.









We were not able to see housing as part of our tour, but U of C is an entirely residential campus, with every freshman required to live on campus. The residence halls are broken into houses, with each student placed into a house within the larger res hall in their freshman year. The students will continue to be members of this house until they choose to leave the residence hall system, which they may choose to do in their junior year. There is a small Greek system, with available housing for some of the fraternities but not the sororities. Housing information and virtual tours can be found here.

The University of Chicago offers a regular admission process. The application is due January 2. U of C also offers a non-binding Early Action process, which is due November 1. For the first time ever U of C is on the Common Application. Their essay questions for this year can be found here.

The Admission professional responsible for Morgan Park Academy students is
Andre E. Phillips
Associate Director and Director of Transfer Admissions
phi5@uchicago.edu
773-702-8656

See this website my wife created for more U of C information.
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