University of Chicago

For being just 20 minutes south of downtown Chicago in the Hyde Park neighborhood, I was surprised at how insulated it felt. Students experience the best of both worlds - a neighborhood with a college town feel and access to a world-class city just minutes away. The main quad is registered as a botanical garden. You’ll notice the ivy-covered Gothic style buildings complete with gargoyles that are all over campus. The insides of the buildings are beautiful with white stone walls, pointed archways, and stained glass.
UChicago has a liberal arts core curriculum. This accounts for the first third of every student's academic life and introduces them to the tools of inquiry and critical thinking used in every discipline: humanities, social studies, natural sciences, and math. These core classes are small, discussion-based, and capped at only 19 students. Students have a choice of what classes they take, but everyone studies similar disciplines and intellectual challenges.