University of Chicago Acceptance Rate
Everything you need to know about the University of Chicago Admissions.
Get Into the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is an urban research university located in Hyde Park. It is currently ranked #6 in the U.S. News and World Report ranking of National Universities Founded in 1890, UChicago is a private institution within a city setting and has 7,653 undergraduate students and 10,870 graduate and professional students enrolled. UChicago is known for its rigorous academic programs and has produced over 90 Nobel Prize winners. Students can choose between 52 majors and 45 minors, which are offered across the five collegiate divisions: Biological Science Collegiate Division, Humanities Collegiate Division, New Collegiate Division, Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, and Social Sciences Collegiate Division. The University of Chicago College curriculum includes general education requirements within these divisions that are meant to teach students critical inquiry, argumentation, and analytical thinking.
UChicago’s emphasis on undergraduate research is evidenced by the many research and fellowship opportunities available within each division. The College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF) helps students identify scholarly research and nationally competitive fellowships and facilitates connections between faculty and students. Through opportunities like the College Research Fellows Program, students may apply for academic-year research positions with UChicago faculty members. More specialized research opportunities include the Smart Scholars Program, which supports undergraduate research at the Smart Museum of Art, in collaboration with curatorial and research staff. During the course of this program, students work on an exhibition, essay, program, or creative work. The College Global Health Research Scholars program, for more STEM-focused students, awards grants to University of Chicago College students who want to study global health issues under the guidance of a faculty member.
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UChicago Campus Life
UChicago fosters a campus community by housing incoming students in one of seven residence halls. Within these halls are 39 “Houses.” Students live and eat with the members of their house, forge relationships with affiliated faculty, and have the opportunity to compete against each other in large events and intramural sports.
Students enjoy taking part in traditions unique to UChicago and its particular campus culture. “Scav” is the College’s annual scavenger hunt, which lasts for 72-hours and includes hundreds of encrypted clues, and riddles. This also serves as a competition between residence houses. Another tradition, the weeklong festival, “Kuvia” (named after the Inuit word for “pursuit of happiness” and the Japanese tradition of winter training) offers students the chance to embrace winter quarter with yoga, s’mores, sun salutations by the lake, and other energizing activities.
UChicago offers undergraduates a number of study abroad opportunities in 20 countries around the world. These programs are taught by UChicago faculty members to ensure a high quality of rigorous instruction. The Civilization Abroad Programs fulfill a general education requirement in a single quarter and carry no language prerequisite, though students will study a local language. Other programs are more thematic and fulfill major and minor requirements. For instance, the “Athens: Greek Antiquity and Its Legacy” program is perfect for classics majors while the “London: British Literature and Culture” program is better suited for English majors. Other programs focus on topics such as economics, global health, and art history.
Applying to the University of Chicago
To apply to the University of Chicago, you should first create your own UChicago Account. You can then start the Common or Coalition Application (UChicago accepts either).
UChicago officially has a test optional policy. However, they encourage students to still take the SAT or ACT and share their scores. As they note on their website, “Given that many of our peers do require testing, we anticipate that the vast majority of students will continue to take tests and may still submit their test scores to UChicago.”
The University of Chicago offers four applications plans: non-Binding Early Action, two rounds of binding Early Decision, and Regular Decision.
Early Action: This early deadline (November 1) is non-binding plan. Decisions are mailed in mid-December, but admitted students do not have to decide whether or not they will attend until May 1. Applicants will be admitted, denied, or deferred and considered among the regular decision applicants.
Early Decision I: UChicago offers two Early Decision application plans. These allow students to apply in advance of the regular deadline as part of a binding agreement that they will attend if accepted. Students who apply in the first ED round must submit their applications by November 1. Applicants are then notified in mid-December and must withdraw all other applications, if accepted, by January 15. By admitting a higher ratio of ED applicants, colleges can increase their yield. Applying ED or EDII, therefore, increases your odds of acceptance at UChicago.
Early Decision II: EDII offers a binding application plan with a later deadline of January 1 (the same as regular decision). Applicants are notified in mid-February and, if accepted must withdraw all other applications by March 15.
Regular Decision: The regular decision plan offers the standard non-binding application plan. Students are either admitted, denied, or waitlisted. This plan allows students to compare admissions offers and financial aid packages from multiple colleges.
University of Chicago Essay Questions:
The University of Chicago famously asks unique, provocative essay questions.
Transfer applicants must submit an additional essay on why they plan to transfer.
For the 2025-26 Application cycle:
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)
Essay Option 1
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
Essay Option 2
“If you could uninvent one thing, what would it be — and what would unravel as a result?
Inspired by Eitan Fischer, Class of 2027
Essay Option 3
“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
Essay Option 4
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
Essay Option 5
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
Essay Option 6
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
Essay Option 7
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!
UChicago Admissions Wrap Up
Class of 2028
UChicago received 43,612 applications for the Class of 2028, accepting 1,955 for a rate of 4.48 percent. That is less than the historic 4.78 percent for the Class of 2027.
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