University of Chicago

The University of Chicago provides a strange combination of intellectual brilliance and intellectual masturbation. The former often resulting inadvertently from the latter.

It has been said by the late, great president of our esteemed alma mater, Hanna Gray that the university becomes dearer to us, the further away we are (presumably intellectually as well as physically). Indeed this is true.

Perhaps while wandering between matriculation and graduation, we fixate on small issues of great (sic) personal import. After the fact, we can objectively observe the institutional reality. Indeed, this could be said to be one of the great strengths of the university, that it prevents its students from altering their behavior based upon a societal view of their relavance. Were this not the case, students would know the absolute impossibility of their chosen tasks. As Douglas Adams so aptly stated, 'Since no one was there to tell them it couldn't be done, they went ahead and did it.'

More fun facts about the University of Chicago!

The neatest thing about the University of Chicago is that it was the host to the Earth's first self-sustaining nuclear chain-reaction. It was done by Enrico Fermi and his colleagues on Dec. 2, 1942.

Ther have also been 73 Nobel laureates who have at one time or another taught, worked or studied at the University of Chicago, six in the last decade alone.

Date of the University’s First Classes: October 1, 1892

Founder: John D. Rockefeller

Enrollment for 1999-2000 Academic Year: 12,327 total; 3,917 undergraduates

Number of Faculty: Approximately 2,030
Total Number of Employees: 11,900 (6,700 in the University; 5,200 in the Medical Center)

1999-2000 Undergraduate Tuition: $23,820

Annual Budget: $827 million (1998-99)

Endowment: $3.7689 billion (June 30, 2000)

Research Funding: $217.8 million (1998-99)