-2013, the Core classes at Chicago were limited to 17 students, and are generally led by a full-time professor (as opposed to a teaching assistant).[79] As of the 2009–2010 school year, 15 courses, tested

Times[71]    10
The academic bodies of the University of Chicago consist of the College, four divisions of graduate research, six professional schools, and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies (a continuing education school). The university also contains a library system, the University of Chicago Press, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, and the University of Chicago Medical Center, and holds ties with a number of independent academic institutions, including Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory. The university is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.[72]
The university runs on a quarter system in which the academic year is divided into four terms: Summer (June–August), Autumn (September–December), Winter (January–March), and Spring (April–June).[73] Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every quarter[74] for approximately eleven weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in mid-June.[73]
Undergraduate college[edit]
Main article: College of the University of Chicago
The College of the University of Chicago grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 50 academic majors[75] and 28 minors.[76] The college's academics are divided into five 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.[77] The first four are sections within their corresponding graduate divisions, while the New Collegiate Division administers interdisciplinary majors and studies which do not fit in one of the other four divisions.[78]
Undergraduate students are required to take a distribution of courses to satisfy the university's core curriculum known as the Common Core. In 2012-2013, the Core classes at Chicago were limited to 17 students, and are generally led by a full-time professor (as opposed to a teaching assistant).[79] As of the 2009–2010 school year, 15 courses, tested proficiency in a foreign language, passage of a swim test, and up to three physical education courses (depending on results of an entrance examination) are required under the Core.[28] Undergraduate courses at the University of Chicago are known for their demanding standards, heavy workload and academic difficulty; according to Uni in the USA, "Among the academic cream of American universities – Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and the University of Chicago – it is UChicago that can most convincingly claim to provide the most rigorous, intense learning experience."[80]


Eckhart Hall houses the university's math and statistics departments.
Graduate schools and committees[edit]
The university graduate schools and committees are divided into four divisions: Biological Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. In the spring quarter of 2009, the university enrolled 3,633 graduate students: 485 in the Biological Sciences Division, 1,076 in the Humanities Division, 732 in the Physical Sciences Division, and 1,340 in the Social Sciences Division.[81]
The university is home to several committees for interdisciplinary scholarship, including the Committee on Social Thought.
Professional schools[edit]
The university contains six professional schools: the Pritzker School of Medicine (which is a part of the Biological Sciences Division), the Booth School of Business, the Law School, the Divinity School, the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, and the School of Social Service Administration (SSA). The total enrollment for these six professional schools was 5,086 students in the 2009 spring quarter: 2,878 students in the business school, 344 in the Divinity School, 452 in the medical school, 269 in the Harris School, 494 in SSA, and 649 in the Law School.[81]
The Law School is accredited by the America

e, London, and the downtown Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago. The Center in Paris, a campus located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, hosts various undergraduate and graduate study programs.[60] The University of Chicago also opened a center in Beijing in fall 2010. Administration and finances[edit]

igned by Cobb, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, Holabird & Roche, and other architectural firms in a mixture of the Victorian Gothic and Collegiate Gothic styles, patterned on the colleges of the University of Oxford.[46] (Mitchell Tower, for example, is modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower,[48]
A large stone building with a carillon tower. The building has many turrets, arches, and columns.
Rockefeller Chapel, constructed in 1928, was designed by Bertram Goodhue in the neo-Gothic style
A tall, jagged gray building with protruding windows
The Henry Hinds Laboratory for Geophysical Sciences was built in 1969.[58]
A large red building facing a concrete plaza. Part of the roof is overhanging and supported by cables attached above and below to white poles.
The Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, opened in 2003 and designed by Cesar Pelli, houses the volleyball, wrestling, swimming, and basketball teams.[59]
Satellite campuses[edit]
The University of Chicago also maintains facilities apart from its main campus. The university's Booth School of Business maintains campuses in Singapore, London, and the downtown Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago. The Center in Paris, a campus located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, hosts various undergraduate and graduate study programs.[60] The University of Chicago also opened a center in Beijing in fall 2010.
Administration and finances[edit]

The University of Chicago is governed by a board of trustees. The Board of Trustees oversees the long-term development and plans of the university and manages fundraising efforts, and is composed of 50 members including the university President.[61] Directly beneath the President are the Provost, fourteen Vice Presidents (including the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Investment Officer, and Dean of Students of the university), the Directors of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab, the Secretary of the university, and the Student Ombudsperson.[62] As of August 2009, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Andrew Alper,[63] and the President of the university is Robert Zimmer.
The university's endowment was the 13th largest among American educational institutions and state university systems in 2012[64] and as of 2012 was valued at $6.571 billion.[2]
Academics[edit]

University rankings
National
ARWU[65]    8
Forbes[66]    14
U.S. News & World Report[67]    5
Washington Monthly[68]    29
Global
ARWU[69]    9
QS[70]    8

ajor news outlets picked up this story, the university became the focal point of a national debate on education. The changes were ultimately implemented, but the controversy played a role in Sonnenschein's d

ntment, 42 students were expelled and 81 were suspended,[34] the most severe response to student occupations of any American university during the student movement.[35]
In 1978, Hanna Holborn Gray, then the provost and acting president of Yale University, became President of the University of Chicago, a position she held for 15 years.[36]


View from the Midway Plaisance
1990s–2010s[edit]
In 1999, then-President Hugo Sonnenschein announced plans to relax the university's famed core curriculum, reducing the number of required courses from 21 to 15. When The New York Times, The Economist, and other major news outlets picked up this story, the university became the focal point of a national debate on education. The changes were ultimately implemented, but the controversy played a role in Sonnenschein's decision to resign in 2000.[37]
In the past decade, the university began a number of multi-million dollar expansion projects. In 2008, the University of Chicago announced plans to establish the Milton Friedman Institute which attracted both support and controversy from faculty members and students.[38][39][40][41][42] The institute will cost around $200 million and occupy the buildings of the Chicago Theological Seminary. During the same year, investor David G. Booth donated $300 million to the university's Booth School of Business, which is the largest gift in the university's history and the largest gift ever to any business school.[43] In 2009, planning or construction on several new buildings, half of which cost $100 million or more, was underway.[44]
Since 2009, a two-billion dollar campaign has brought substantial expansion to the campus, including the unveiling of the Max Palevsky Residential Commons, the South Campus Residence Hall, the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, a new hospital, and a new science building. Since 2011, major construction projects have included the Jules and Gwen Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, a ten-story medical research center, and further additions to the medical campus of the University of Chicago Medical Center.[45]
Campus[edit]



Many older buildings of the University of Chicago employ Collegiate Gothic architecture like that of the University of Oxford. For example, Chicago's Mitchell Tower (left) was modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower (right).
The campus of the University of Chicago.