College Spotlight is a very short introduction to a college/university, with some fun and interesting highlights I've gathered during tours, meetings with admission staff, webinars, and research.
Hopefully these College Spotlight posts will help you determine whether a school could be a good fit and warrants additional research.
The University of Chicago is a private, highly selective university in bustling city.
Here are some quick highlights:
While not in the Ivy League, the University of Chicago is often compared to those schools, especially Harvard, Yale, UPenn and Columbia because of its urban setting.
Despite its city location, the campus itself is beautifully landscaped with a lot of green space and trees.
The school is very well-resourced and is in great proximity to many experiential learning opportunities and internships in the Chicago area.
UChicago is on the quarter system. It's wise to research the differences between the quarter and semester models.
A very rigorous education is the foundation of every major. Though it has a reputation as "The place where fun goes to die", students do have social opportunities through their residence halls, campus events (many steeped in tradition), student organizations, and city life. Plus, UChicago boasts very high retention and graduation rates.
Speaking of residence halls, UChicago has a well-organized campus life consisting of "Houses" within the seven residence halls that foster a sense of community. There is a to year on-campus residency requirement for incoming freshmen.
UChicago seeks creative, independent thinkers as evidenced by their unique supplemental application essays. Previous prompts include: What can actually be divided by zero? So where is Waldo, really? A hot dog might be a sandwich and cereal might be a soup, but is a _____ a ______? and You're on a voyage in the thirteenth century, sailing across the tempestuous seas. What if, suddenly, you fell off the edge of the Earth? Many of their supplemental essay questions are inspired by current student and alumni submissions.
The University of Chicago is test optional. It can be difficult to determine whether to send scores to highly selective schools. Fortunately, UChicago has a "no harm" policy whereby scores will only be included in the application review if they will positively impact the application.
Want to learn more about the University of Chicago or other colleges? At Growing2College, all families who select our College Search and Selection package receive full access to CustomCollegePlan, an interactive portal with extensive college information and research resources, task management, and application tracking features.
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Kate Pedigo, M.Ed. NCC is an Independent Educational Consultant and founder of Growing2College.
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