University of Chicago Totally Explained

Everything about University Of Chicago totally explained

The College of the University of Chicago grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 52 majors and 14 minors in the biological, physical, and social sciences, as well as in the humanities and interdisciplinary areas. A major may provide a comprehensive understanding of a well-defined field, such as anthropology or mathematics, or it may be an interdisciplinary program such as African and African-American studies, environmental studies, biological chemistry, or cinema and media studies. A full list of offered majors and minors is available within the college's main article.
   Undergraduate students must undergo a rigorous core curriculum, the goal of which is to impart an education that's both timeless and a vehicle for interdisciplinary debate. Students must take courses designed to foster critical skills in a broad range of academic disciplines, including history, literature, science, mathematics, writing, and critical reasoning. Core curriculum classes at Chicago contain no more than 25 students and are generally led by a full-time professor (as opposed to a teaching assistant). Currently, 15 courses are required in addition to tested foreign language proficiency if no Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate examinations are used for exemption (a reduction of six quarter credits may be achieved via this method).
   While the science curriculum has largely followed the intellectual evolution of its respective fields, the requisite humanities and social science sequences now have several variants that encompass non-Western, non-canonical, and critical theory texts. The majority of undergraduate courses are small, discussion-based seminars, and undergraduate students routinely take their upper-level courses alongside graduate students.
   First-year students are assigned to one of 38 houses through the university's house system. House sizes range from 25 to 100 members but typically consist of no more than 70 students. The house system serves as the focal point of university life, and each house offers amenities such as kitchens, common areas, and study rooms. A significant portion of the undergraduate student body, however, lives off-campus, and relocation amongst the houses isn't uncommon.

Rankings and reputation

Comprehensively, the University of Chicago is ranked: 9th among world universities and 8th among universities in North America by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 7th among world universities and 4th in North America by the Times Higher Education Supplement on the basis of peer review, and the 20th most "global" university by Newsweek on the basis of scholarly achievements and "international diversity".
The 2008 edition of U.S. News and World Report ranks the undergraduate program 9th among national universities (tied with Columbia University). Meanwhile, in its 2007 publication, "The Best 361 Colleges", the Princeton Review ranked the University of Chicago 1st in the country in the category of "best overall academic experience for undergraduates," the ranking being retired in 2008. Such performance, measured over time, has led Newsweek to note that the College is viewed as a "powerhouse" amongst the old guard of elite schools (External Link

).
In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked the University of Chicago's undergraduate program the 4th best in the country under Harvard, Yale, and Princeton based on post-graduation achievements and student evaluations. In 2008, Forbes also named the University of Chicago a "billionaire university," ranking the university as the 7th most successful university in the country for producing billionaire alumni.
As for professional schools, in 2007 rankings the Graduate School of Business ranges from 5th in the country to 1st in the country (External Link

). US News ranks the School of Law 6th (tied with University of Pennsylvania), the Harris School of Public Policy 7th in policy analysis as well as 7th in social policy, the School of Medicine 15th in the country, and the School of Social Service Administration 3rd. The University of Chicago Divinity School, which offers both academic and ministerial training, is ranked #1 in faculty quality out of all U.S. doctoral programs in religious studies by the National Research Council (External Link

).
Nevertheless, the University's strong emphasis on research is reflected in the doctoral level performance of its four non-professional graduate divisions. According to the National Research Council the school was ranked within the United States at: 8th in “arts & humanities,” 11th in “biological sciences,” 7th in “physical sciences and mathematics,” and 5th in “social and behavioral sciences.(External Link

)” In aggregate, 18 programs ranked in the top ten in the nation, the 7th strongest showing(External Link

).
   The university operates the University of Chicago Hospitals, which was ranked the 14th best hospital in the country by U.S. News and World Report. It is the only hospital in Illinois ever to be included in the magazine's "Honor Roll" of the best hospitals in the United States.
   Further, the university has also been an incubator for several prominent business ventures, with the world’s first management consultancy, McKinsey & Company, software giant Oracle, and the United States first international corporate law firm, Baker and McKenzie, all having been founded by University of Chicago alumni. The University is also ranked first among colleges with fewer than 5,000 students for sending students to the Peace Corps. .
   According to David Rothkopf, the University of Chicago is one of the top three elite universities in the world (along with Harvard and Stanford) to produce members of the new global "Superclass."

Faculty and alumni

Presidents

For each president, the University of Chicago commissions a large portrait that's hung in Hutchinson Commons, located in the Reynolds Club, one of the university's central buildings. The presidents of the University of Chicago have been:

William Rainey Harper, 1891-1906

Harry Pratt Judson, 1906-1923

Ernest DeWitt Burton, 1923-1925

Max Mason, 1925-1928

Robert Maynard Hutchins, 1929-1951

Lawrence A. Kimpton, 1951-1960

George W. Beadle, 1961-1968

Edward H. Levi, 1968-1975

John T. Wilson, 1975-1978

Hanna Holborn Gray, 1978-1993

Hugo F. Sonnenschein, 1993-2000

Don Michael Randel, 2000-2006

Robert J. Zimmer, 2006-present

Notable faculty and alumni

According to the official website of the Nobel Foundation, there have been 16 Nobel Prizes awarded to persons of research or on faculty at the university at the time of the award announcement, placing the university behind only Harvard(31), Stanford(18) and MIT(17) (External Link

). A total of 65 other Nobel Laureates have once been affiliated with the university as students, faculty, visiting professors, or researchers (or some combination of these). Together, the total of 81 laureates is the fourth highest claimed amongst all universities worldwide. For details, see Nobel Prize laureates by university affiliation.
In addition, many Chicago alumni and scholars have won the Fulbright awards (External Link

), see the University’s news service report

and, since its inception in 1904, 44 have matriculated as Rhodes Scholars. (External Link

) Notable faculty and alumni of the University of Chicago include: political theorist Hannah Arendt; former U.S. Attorneys General John Ashcroft, Ramsey Clark, and Edward H. Levi; current U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL); former Vice President of Taiwan and the Kuomintang Lien Chan; current Governor of New Jersey and former U.S. Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ); current judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals Richard Posner, Frank Easterbrook, and Douglas Ginsberg; current U.S. Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and John Paul Stevens; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and former head of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz; Nobel Prize-winning economists Gary Becker, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and Robert Lucas; current Governor of the Bank of Japan Masaaki Shirakawa; acclaimed Nobel Prize-winning writers Saul Bellow and J.M. Coetzee; novelists Kurt Vonnegut, Ralph Ellison, Philip Roth, and Thornton Wilder; Nobel Prize-winning modernist poet and dramatist T. S. Eliot; essayist, award-winning novelist, film maker, poet, and activist Susan Sontag; Nobel Prize-winning physicists Albert Michelson, Robert Millikan, Arthur Compton, and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar; Nobel Prize-winning physicist and developer of the first nuclear reactor Enrico Fermi; astronomer and pioneer of physical cosmology Edwin Hubble; astronomer and highly successful science popularizer Carl Sagan; prominent philosophers Allan Bloom, Martha Nussbaum, Robert Pippin, Rudolph Carnap, Leszek Kolakowski, Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Luc Marion, and Leo Strauss; internet celebrity Tucker Max; influential philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer John Dewey; philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel Prize-winning writer Bertrand Russell; mathematician André Weil; Nobel-prize winning molecular biologist and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA James Watson; dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham; composer Philip Glass; historian Francois Furet; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh; New York Times columnist David Brooks; Public Finance Managing Director of Fitch Ratings Michael D. Belsky; Academy Award-winning film director Mike Nichols; Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert; balloonist and priest Jeannette Piccard; banker and internationalist David Rockefeller; influential anthropologist Marshall Sahlins. Notable fictional faculty and alumni of the University of Chicago include: Harry Burns and Sally Albright (played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan) of the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally...(which begins at the University of Chicago); Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford) of the Indiana Jones series as well as his professor Abner Ravenwood; Robert and Hal (played by Anthony Hopkins and Jake Gyllenhaal) of the 2005 film Proof, which takes place at the University of Chicago; Jack McCoy (played by Sam Waterston), one of the two main characters in the long-running television series Law & Order; Nathan Zuckerman, Pulitzer-prize winner Philip Roth's literary alter ego; Dr. Josh Keyes (played by Aaron Eckhart) of the 2003 film The Core; Eddie Kasalivich (played by Keanu Reeves) of the 1996 film Chain Reaction; and Brandon Shaw and Philip Morgan (played by John Dall and Farley Granger) of Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film Rope, based on the infamous University of Chicago duo Leopold and Loeb; Michael Armstrong, played by Paul Newman in the 1966 Hitchcock film "Torn Curtain." Dr. Lawrence Green (played by Jeremy Piven) of the 2003 film "Runaway Jury"; Bryan Woodman (played by Matt Damon) of the 2005 film Syriana; Kate Forster (played by Sandra Bullock) of the 2006 film "The Lake House;" and Gil Grissom (played by William Peterson), the lead forensic scientist in the CBS television series CSI. In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a book by Robert Pirsig, Phaedrus pursues a graduate degree in philosophy, as Pirsig did in actuality; Chicago student Ann Varrick played by Lara Harris in No Man's Land; Chicago student Dan Lynch played by George Newbern who states that Elizabeth Shue is the best looking girl on campus in Adventures in Babysitting. Image:Enrico_Fermi_1943-49.jpg|Enrico Fermi Image:MiltonFriedman2.JPG|Milton Friedman Image:Barack_Obama.jpg|Barack Obama Image:John Paul Stevens, SCOTUS photo portrait.jpg| John Paul Stevens

Athletics

Chicago's sports teams are called the Maroons, and their colors are maroon and white. They participate in the NCAA's Division III as members of the University Athletic Association (UAA). At one point, the University of Chicago's football teams (nicknamed the Monsters of the Midway at the time) were among the best in the country, winning seven Big Ten Conference titles from 1899 to 1924, including a national championship in 1905 while playing at the old Stagg Field. The University is also one of only a few schools to be undefeated in football against Notre Dame. In 1935, Chicago's Jay Berwanger was the winner of the first-ever Heisman Trophy, now on display in Ratner Athletic Facility. Reportedly the trophy had been used as a door stop until installation at Ratner. The following year, Berwanger also became the first player to be drafted by the National Football League, although he decided not to play professional football.
However, the university, a founding member of the Big Ten Conference, de-emphasized varsity athletics in 1939 when it dropped football and withdrew from the league in 1946. The University maintains an academic affiliation with the Big Ten schools through the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a consortium of one Northeastern and eleven Midwestern research universities. In 1969 it reinstated football as a Division III team, continuing to play its home games at the new Stagg Field. The Maroon football team has won the University Athletic Association (UAA) championship in 1998, 2000, and 2005. Having founded the UAA with Washington University in St. Louis, the Chicago football team has an intense rivalry with the Wash U football team for the traveling trophy known as the "Founder's Cup". There are several other prominent athletic teams at the University, among them swimming and track have preformed excellently, with the Swim Team finishing 5th in the 2008 UAA championships.
The school's mascot is the Phoenix, chosen in honor of the city of Chicago's rebirth after the Great Chicago Fire, and also in honor of the Old University of Chicago, which dissolved due to financial reasons (making the current University of Chicago the second university to carry the name). The gargoyle has become an unofficial mascot of the university, owing to the ubiquitous statues of gargoyles that adorn many of the buildings on campus. Chicago's fight song is Wave the Flag, which was written in 1929.

Student organizations

Notable extracurricular groups include the University's Model United Nations Team, one of the top two teams on the college circuit and the most successful of the University's academic teams. In addition to competing, the team also hosts its own college-level conference, ChoMUN, and a high school level conference, MUNUC. University of Chicago College Bowl Team, which has won 118 tournaments and 15 national championships, leading both categories internationally. The Chicago Debate Society

has had a top four team at the American Parliamentary Debate Association's National Championship tournament for four out of the past five years. In addition, the college Mock Trial Team

has placed in the top ten nationally five out of the past six years and is currently ranked 7th among all programs nationally by the American Mock Trial Association

.
   The Chicago Society, an undergraduate student organization that brings world leaders to speak on campus, is the University's spearhead organization in bringing major speakers to campus. Chicago Society's most famous event titled "China and the Future of the World" held in the spring of 2006 consisted of a two-day symposium on China's rapid political, economic, and social development and its impact on the world. For the symposium, Chicago Society brought in numerous high-ranking American and Chinese government officials including Wang Guangya, the Chinese ambassador to the UN; Christopher Hill, head of the American delegation in the North Korea six-way talks; and Peter Rodman, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.
   The university's independent student newspaper is the Chicago Maroon. Founded in 1892, the same year the university was founded, the newspaper is published every Tuesday and Friday. An independent arts-and-features alt-weekly, the Chicago Weekly, is published every Thursday and profiles events in Hyde Park and surrounding South Side communities. Chicago Business, published by students in the Graduate School of Business, was founded in 1978.
   The University of Chicago's University Theater

is one of the oldest student-run theatre organizations in the country, involving as many as 500 members of the university community, producing 30 to 35 shows a year, and selling on the order of 10,000 tickets. It also operates Off-Off Campus, one of the University's improv comedy troupes, started in 1986 by Bernard Sahlins, one of the founders of Second City.
About 8-10% of the undergraduate student body participates in Greek life.(External Link

) There are many fraternities and sororities that have established histories with Chicago, including Alpha Delta Phi, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Delta Upsilon, Lambda Phi Epsilon, Lambda Upsilon Lambda, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Psi Upsilon, and Sigma Phi Epsilon (fraternities), as well as Alpha Omicron Pi, Delta Gamma, and Kappa Alpha Theta (sororities). In addition, Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed national community service fraternity, exists on campus.
During the school year, Greek organizations usually throw house parties every weekend, and Alpha Delta Phi hosts "Bar Night" every Wednesday. Along with large parties held off-campus by such groups as the ultimate frisbee team, the Greek organizations are an important part of the school's party scene. WHPK, a student-run and University-owned radio station, broadcasts out of the Reynolds Club on the university campus. DJ "JP Chill" has had a rap and hip hop show on WHPK since 1986. It was one of the earliest rap shows in the country and the first in Chicago.
The Law School is home to one of the three founding chapters of the conservative Federalist Society, and to the 'Antient and Honourable Edmund Burke Society', a conservative debating organization. It is also home to the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic and a large chapter of the progressive American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

Traditions

Summer Breeze - The university's annual summer carnival and concert. Past musicians who have performed at Summer Breeze include The Roots, Spoon, Wilco, Eminem, Kanye West, Run DMC, They Might Be Giants, Method Man, Moby, Fuel, Nas, Jurassic 5, U2, Sonic Youth, Talib Kweli, The Violent Femmes, OK Go, Mos Def, and George Clinton.

Shake Day - Milkshakes sell for only one dollar every Wednesday at the Reynolds Club. The Einstein Bros. Bagels franchise was allowed to open on campus only after agreeing to adhere to this tradition.

Midnight Breakfast - A midnight breakfast is held during every "finals week" of the academic year, attracting students and faculty members alike.

Track Team Streak - One night before "finals week," the University of Chicago track team streaks through the Regenstein Library.

O-Week - Every year since 1934, the University of Chicago has set time aside before classes begin to provide an introduction to the University for all new students.

Kuviasungnerk/Kangeiko - A festival celebrating Chicago in the winter. Often referred to as Kuvia, it entails a variety of events, including ice sculpting, hot chocolate get-togethers, musical performances, faculty fireside discussions, and a rigorous program of early morning exercise (kangeiko, a Japanese tradition of winter training) that culminates in a yoga-influenced "salute to the sun", performed outdoors in freezing temperatures just before the sun rises.

The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate - Annually since 1946, a debate is held, mainly between faculty members, not (but nearly) all of whom are Jewish, about the relative merits of latkes and homentashn, the Jewish delicacies associated with Hanukkah and Purim, respectively. The lectures are a great opportunity for ordinarily serious scholars to crack jokes in a mock-serious tone. The best were collected in a book edited by Ruth Fredman Cernea.

Virginio Ferrari's Dialogo and May Day. On May Day, students and residents of Hyde Park assemble near Pick Hall to watch the shadow cast by Virginio Ferrari's sculpture. Student legend holds that a hammer and sickle, like that of the flag of the former Soviet Union will be cast on the sidewalk at noon on this date. In fact, the shadow produces a sickle very much like that of the flag and also an object in the position of the hammer but whose shape isn't quite so loyal a copy of the flag. (External Link

)

Polar Bear Run - Every year a group of students select the coldest day of the winter quarter and volunteers run, preferably naked, from one end of the college campus (Harper building) to the gates in front of the Regenstein Library.

Campus folklore - According to a common superstition among university students, stepping on University Seal (located in the main lobby of the Reynolds Club) as an undergraduate will prevent the student from graduating in four years. Another common myth about the university is that nearly 50% of its students marry each other. Finally, if two students kiss on the bridge over the pond inside the main gates of the campus, it's said that'll be destined to be wed to each other.

Doc Films

Doc Films, founded in 1932 (originally the Documentary Film Group), is the oldest student film society in the country. In Vanity Fair's "Film Snob's Dictionary", Doc Films is described as: "Hard-core beyond words and lay comprehension, the society is populated by 19-year olds who have already seen every film ever made, and boasts its own Dolby Digital-equipped cinema and an impressive roster of alumni that includes snob-revered critic Dave Kehr."
During the school year, Doc Films screens a different film on every night of the week. Foreign films and documentaries are typically screened on weekdays, while recent, mainstream selections are shown on weekends. Occasionally, Doc Films screens works that have not yet been released to the general public, such as American Gangster, Corpse Bride and Brokeback Mountain.
Doc Films has hosted many Hollywood luminaries as guests, including Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds), Fritz Lang (Metropolis), and Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Manhattan). In November 2005, director Ang Lee and producer James Schamus visited the University of Chicago to screen the film Brokeback Mountain a month before its American debut, and to participate in a question-and-answer session with students. In January 2007, film director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Pi) presented a screening of his film The Fountain to students and afterwards, likewise, participated in a question-and-answer session. Most recently, Robert Redford screened Lions for Lambs and held a question and answer session after the screening.

Scavenger Hunt

The annual University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt is a multi-day event in which large teams compete to obtain all of the notoriously esoteric items on a list. Held every May since 1987, it's considered to be the largest scavenger hunt in the world. Established by student Chris Straus, the "Scav Hunt", as it's known among University students, has become one of the university's most popular traditions and has typically pushed the boundaries of absurdity.
Each year, the scavenger hunt list includes roughly 300 items, each with an assigned point value. The items vary widely and may involve performances, large-scale constructions, and long-distance travel. Teams are generally expected to fall well short of completing half of the list and instead compete for total points earned. The more difficult and time-consuming items earn more points. Notable past items include: a passport stamped by all members of the axis of evil, a nuclear reactor, a Calvinball tournament, a ninja muffin and a cell phone marching band. For more information regarding the Scavenger Hunt, see its official website

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