University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, about seven miles south of the Loop. The American Baptist Education Society and John D. Rockefeller founded it in 1890, and classes began in 1892 under its first president, William Rainey Harper. Harper organized it around graduate research from the outset. The Gothic main quadrangles sit on a campus of about 217 acres along the Midway Plaisance.

Graduate education is organized into four divisions: Biological Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. It is also housed in professional schools, including Booth School of Business, the Law School, the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Harris School of Public Policy, the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, the Divinity School and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. The university manages Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab. Its centers include the Becker Friedman Institute, the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures and UChicago Medicine.

The university enrolls about 18,000 students, and more than half are in graduate and professional programs. International students make up roughly a quarter of the total. Nearly 100 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university, and the Chicago schools of economics and sociology carry its name. Alumni include economist Milton Friedman, astronomer Carl Sagan and writer Susan Sontag.

The academic year runs on a quarter system. PhD students typically receive multiyear funding packages covering tuition, a stipend and health insurance. The one-year Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) and Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) are well-known routes into doctoral work. Graduate students live mostly in Hyde Park and nearby neighborhoods, with Metra and CTA buses providing access to downtown.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Chicago lists 152 graduate programs across 42 subjects: 55 master's programs and 79 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in biology, public policy & administration and area studies. University of Chicago holds rank 11 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.