University of Chicago

Private
Cost: $49,976/year
Class Size: 1,300
Student to Faculty Ratio: 6 to 1

SAT Range: 1330-1530
ACT Range: 28-33
% of applicants admitted: 35%
Application deadline: Jan. 1
Early admission:

The University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890. William Rainey Harper became the university's first president, in 1891, and the first classes were held in 1892. It has a reputation of devotion to academic scholarship and intellectualism, and as of the 2009 awards announcement is affiliated with 46 Rhodes Scholars and 85 Nobel Prize laureates.

The University consists of the College of the University of Chicago, various graduate programs and interdisciplinary committees organized into four divisions, six professional schools, and a school of continuing education. The University enrolls approximately 5,000 students in the College and about 14,000 students overall.

In 2007, the University spent $322,488,000 on scientific research. University of Chicago scholars have played a role in the development of the Chicago School of Economics, the Chicago School of Sociology, the Law and Economics movement in legal analysis, and the physics leading to the world's first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction. The University is also home to the largest university press in the United States.