The University, Hyde Park, Chicago

Chicago is the third largest city in the United States with an area population of over nine million. Nearly three million live within the city limits. Situated near the southern tip of Lake Michigan, Chicago is justly famous for its modern architecture and open greenwards, remarkable for a city of such scale. Long a crossroads for trade, the city is home to an ethnically diverse population with strong allegiances to neighborhoods, a thriving commercial center, and a flourishing arts community, renowned for theater and music. Chicagoans are difficult to characterize. They can combine a cosmopolitan flair with a disarming honesty and midwestern pragmatism that visitors will find charming or surprising depending on taste. They also bear an irrational love for impossible causes, such as the Chicago Cubs. Many of these habits have crept into the bones of the university that carries the city's name. Hyde Park and the University are located along the lake, seven miles from downtown. Once an independent town, the neighborhood has a history of social activism, political leadership, and community life; it is also the site of renowned museums and architectural landmarks.

To learn more about the city, the Encyclopedia of Chicago is a fascinating resource, as are the many fictional works set in Chicago. Nelson Algren's tender, tough prose poem, Chicago: City on the Make (1951), is a good place to begin. Aleksandar Hemon's Question of Bruno (2000), Achy Obejas's Memory Mamba (1996), and Stuart Dybek's I Sailed with Magellan (2004) describe the absurdities and enchantments of lives lived between the grid of city streets. In genre, Sara Paretsky has a loyal following of readers who find her detective V. I. Warshawski as intriguing as her depiction of the city. The South Side in particular has its chroniclers, including Bayo Ojikutu in his debut novel, 47th Street Black (2003); Gwendolyn Brooks's A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949), for which she received the Pulitzer Prize; and Richard Wright's powerful Native Son (1940). For historical views of Chicago, James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan trilogy (1932-5) and Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie (1900) can be read together with Erik Larson's Devil in the White City (2004). The latter nonfictional book depicts the city at the time of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, which was held in the parks and Midway surrounding the new University. Finally, Nobel-laureate and University professor Saul Bellow often depicted the city in his works, including Humboldt's Gift (1975) and the Dean's December (1982).

A number of online publications will help you learn more about the University of Chicago, the neighborhood of Hyde Park, and the city of Chicago. Chicago Life: A User's Guide for Students is a good place to help explore all three. The academic and student life sections give you a sense of life on campus. The everyday and city life sections expand that view with information about dining, shopping, attractions, art, theater, movies, dance, sports, and more. These sections also contain links to some of the most popular online guides used regularly by Chicagoans. And do please visit the calendar to survey the most current happenings in the Division. Students in the undergraduate College at the University have put together a virtual tour that you might want to look at to get a sense of the layout, architecture, landscaping, and atmosphere on campus.

The University of Chicago Fact Sheet is a useful and quick overview of everything from a translation of the University's motto, Crescat scientia; vita excolatur, to a list of the University's many Nobel Laureates. News Office Resources has links to lists of winners of specific awards, including Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowships, and the Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prize for Excellence in Teaching. A Brief History of the University, Notable University Alumni, and Notable African American Alumni will also give you a sense of the breadth and depth of the University of Chicago's tradition of intellectual excellence. Finally, the time line of the Division of the Humanities lists laudable firsts.