University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill
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As you drive through Hyde Park you know you are not in downtown Chicago any longer and when you see the Gothic architecture surrounding you, you know you have arrived. Regal, serious, accomplished and intellectual are what come to mind when you think of University of Chicago. The saying “This is where fun dies” doesn’t apply here any longer. Students are offbeat, they are thinkers and they are doers and they do have fun, in the way that they choose to. It may, or may not be, your definition of fun, but it is theirs.
• Private
• Undergraduate enrollment – 6,310
• Admit rate – 6%
• Financial Aid forms required – FAFSA, CSS Profile
• Retention rate – 99%
vMid 50% SAT/ACT range – 730-800/32-35
• Student to faculty ratio – 5:1
• Founded by John D. Rockefeller
• Home to 10% of people who have won the Nobel Prize
• Trusts and wants their students to explore what they want to explore
• Students can do research on any subject that they would like
• Faculty are researchers and teachers as well
• Liberal Arts University, operates on the quarter vs. semester system
• All students take the same set of courses from 8 subject areas
• Require all students to take a foreign language, teach 40 different languages
• Core curriculum is about 1/3 of the students time
• Core classes capped at 20 students
• Do not admit students to any specific major
• Don’t need to declare your major until end of their sophomore year
• 60 majors offered
• Only 1 undergraduate college
• Economics is their most popular major
• Wonderful cinema and media studies program – Analysis, not production
• Several different layers of advising – Academic advisor – Generalist, Once a student declares their major, a faculty member is assigned to them, then a Career and Professional advisor
• Robust internship program (Paid) – Work with companies across the world, ensuring the student is going to get substantive work
• Selecting a major is open to all
• Guaranty housing for all 4 years and they ave to live on campus for the 1st 2
• No themed housing
• Houses are assigned and that is your “team” – Intramural sports, events…etc. great way to form your social circle
• All houses are coed – 7 dorms, 38 houses
• Students will typically stay in their house for as long as you live on campus
• Have majors in theatre, music and creative writing
• All students are welcomed to audition for plays, write for the publications
• Athletes have a balance between their athletics and academics
• DIII
• Model UN is big! Mick Trial is as well
• World’s Largest scavenger hunt – 4 days long, 300 items on list
• Hyde Park – Largely residential area, operates as a college town, right off campus, one of the safest neighborhoods in Chicago, well connected on public transit – Students have free access to mass transit
• Every application gets a full review
• Received 35,000 applications, highly selective school
• Have Early Action, Early decision, early decision II and regular decision
• Do not track demonstrated interest
• Best to apply for one of the “early” options
– Academically rigorous institution – Looking for students who have taken a very rigorous curriculum, what challenges have they undertaken
• Test Optional now
• 5 new essay questions each year – Wacky questions! Open ended, Select 1
• Not looking to significantly to expand – Did so over the past 10 years
• Over 80% of classes have less than 20 students
• Don’t require or offer interviews any longer but allow students to create an interview video themselves. This is optional
• Don’t have a matrix when they are making admissions decisions
