Private · Chicago, IL

Apply to University of Chicago

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University of Chicago campus

Your application

Application
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Recommendations
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Personal essay
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Regular decision
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Early Action
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Early Decision
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Your profile

Keep your school details, courses and scores ready for your application.

Activities

Show what you did, how much time you spent and what changed.

Honors

Bring together your awards and the work behind them.

Personal statement

Choose what you want a college to learn about you.

Additional info

Add context that helps a reader understand the rest of your application.

Supplemental essays

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.

Required

Food for thought: How do thoughts eat?

Required

The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, utilized origami-inspired techniques to compactly store and deploy its sunshield in space. Choose an artistic practice and use its principles to propose an elegant solution to a problem.

Required

Sometimes metaphors get mixed up. For one reason or another, one could say, 'we'll burn that bridge when we get there' or 'the world is your china shop'. Make up your own mixed metaphor. Explain how it could make sense, be understood, or even applied.

Required

The Olympics have long celebrated the pinnacle of human athletic achievement. But what if they expanded to honor the mundane? Imagine a new Olympic event built around an everyday activity like speed dishwashing or competitive grocery bagging. How is it scored, officiated, and judged? Why is it a worthy addition?

Required

AI: Allen Iverson. NASA, or the North American Saxophone Alliance. Share a potentially confounding, comedic, or captivating example of MIA (Mistaken Identity of Acronym) and tell us its backstory.

Required

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!

Required

Sometimes metaphors get mixed up. For one reason or another, one could say, “we'll burn that bridge when we get there” or “the world is your china shop”. Make up your own mixed metaphor. Explain how it could make sense, be understood, or even applied.

Required

Sources: U.S. Department of Education · 2025 metrics · 2025 costs.

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