The University of Chicago is widely considered to have the most rigorous liberal arts curriculum in the nation. Nestled into the Hyde Park Neighborhood of its namesake midwestern metropolis in Illinois, UChicago has forged an impeccable reputation for its commitment to academic excellence, its history of establishing entire schools of thought (ever heard of the Chicago school?), as well as its extensive itinerary of successful alumni, which includes several heads of state, world-renowned writers and thinkers, and a significant number of CEOs and billionaires. Faculty at UChicago have included free-market economist Milton Friedman, President Barack Obama, Freakonomics author Steven Levitt, and writer T. S. Eliot. 

The University is split into its undergraduate college (which enrolls around 7,500 students), and a number of graduate and professional schools (which enroll around 11,000 students in total). The College offers 51 majors and 33 minors, drawn from five academic divisions: the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division, the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, the Social Sciences Collegiate Division, the Humanities Collegiate Division, and the New Collegiate Division (which administers interdisciplinary coursework). The core curriculum distribution requirements account for some of the most demanding standards and highest workloads among undergraduate curriculums at elite universities. However, students are mercifully aided by the ninth largest library system in the U.S. and 140 research centers and institutes while pursuing their studies.

While student life historically lacks a strong party culture, extracurricular opportunities abound with nationally-ranked debate and Model UN groups, the nation’s oldest student-run film society, literature and comedy magazines, and Greek life. Participation in fraternities and sororities has increased to about 20% of the student body in recent years as students and the administration alike have sought to do away with the university’s reputation as a school where fun goes to die. Perhaps the most notable student tradition is the UChicago Scavenger Hunt, known affectionately as “Scav,” a four-day hunt for 300 esoteric items led by groups of committed students, which holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s largest scavenger hunt.

The University of Chicago was established in 1890 on the site of a previous University of Chicago dating to the mid-nineteenth century that had been plagued by fires and poor philanthropic endeavors. The American Baptist Education Society took a donation from John D. Rockefeller and land donated by Chicago businessman Marshall Field to establish the new coeducational institution. The university’s early history was marked by efforts to expand its Baptist religious affiliation with a Divinity School in 1891, while in subsequent years the Business School (1898) and Law School (1902) joined its ranks. During the 20th century, UChicago became a hotbed of student activism, punctuated in 1962 by a 15-day sit-in by freshman Bernie Sanders (now Senator from Vermont) to protest segregation in student housing.

Today, UChicago is ranked among the most prestigious universities in the world for its immense $10 billion endowment, its legacy of steering American intellectual thought, and its record of producing high-achieving and financially successful alumni. Predictably, admission for undergraduates is incredibly competitive: of the 43,612 applicants to the Class of 2028, only 1,955 were accepted, for a minuscule acceptance rate of 4.48%.

The Office of Admissions emphasizes its endorsement of all of the standard components of a strong college application, including extracurricular involvement, volunteering, and a challenging high school curriculum, but there’s something else that might catch some by surprise. The essay supplement traditionally consists of unorthodox questions and prompts, such as “What can actually be divided by zero?,” and “How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.)” UChicago has pushed their prospective applicants to take risks on the supplemental application for years, and New Ivies is here to help you make sense of whatever oddball question they will throw at you this admissions cycle!

What are University of Chicago looking for?

We look for bright students with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and an interest in encountering new ideas. Tell us who you are in your own voice, not what you think we want to hear. Show us how you made the most of your high school experience and pursued opportunities to do things that are meaningful to you.

UChicago welcomes students from all backgrounds, and each application at UChicago goes through the same holistic review process. There’s no one piece of information—academic and extracurricular records, essays, letters of recommendation, or SAT/ACT scores—that alone determines whether or not you would be a good fit for the College. Instead, we want you to, through your application, show us who you are in your own voice. What is your story? Why did you choose to pursue certain opportunities? What activities are most meaningful to you? The very best way to approach your UChicago application is to simply be yourself and write in your own voice. We care about you and who you really are, not what you think we want to see in an application.

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Additional essay questions of the application.

Question 1 (Required)

How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

Question 2: Extended Essay (Required; Choose one)

In an ideal world where inter-species telepathic communication exists, which species would you choose to have a conversation with, and what would you want to learn from them? Would you ask beavers for architectural advice? Octopuses about cognition? Pigeons about navigation? Ants about governance? Make your case—both for the species and the question.
Inspired by Yvan Sugira, Class of 2029

If you could uninvent one thing, what would it be — and what would unravel as a result?
Inspired by Eitan Fischer, Class of 2027

"Left" can mean remaining or departed. "Dust" can mean to add fine particles or to remove them. "Fast" can mean moving quickly or fixed firmly in place. These contronyms—words that are their own antonyms—somehow hold opposing meanings in perfect tension. Explore a contronym: a role, identity, or experience in your life that has contained its own opposite.
Inspired by Kristin Yi, Class of 2029

The penny is on its way out—too small to matter, too costly to keep. But not everything small should disappear. What’s one object the world is phasing out that you think we can’t afford to lose, and why?
Ella Somaiya, Class of 2028

From Michelin Tires creating the Michelin Guide, to the audio equipment company Audio-Technica becoming one of the world’s largest manufacturers of sushi robots, brand identity can turn out to be a lot more flexible than we think. Choose an existing brand, company, or institution and propose an unexpected but strangely logical new product or service for them to launch. Why is this unlikely extension exactly what the world (or the brand) needs right now?
Inspired by Julia Nieberg, Class of 2029

Statistically speaking, ice cream doesn’t cause shark attacks, pet spending doesn’t drive the number of lawyers in California, and margarine consumption isn’t responsible for Maine’s divorce rate—at least, not according to conventional wisdom. But what if the statisticians got it wrong? Choose your favorite spurious correlation and make the case for why it might actually reveal a deeper, causative truth.
Inspired by Adam DiMascio, Class of 2025

And, as always… the classic choose your own adventure option! In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun!