Making the most of the city
UChicago students engage with Chicago through service, summer work, meaningful internships, and full-time, post-graduate work opportunities—ranging from financial work at Morningstar (founded by a Chicago Booth graduate), to curatorial projects at Washington Park’s DuSable Museum of African American History, to service in coordination with Chicago Public Schools and local community organizations.
Through their Arts Pass, UChicago students take advantage of free access to over 70 arts and cultural institutions. Chicago benefits from a wealth of museums, including the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, and the famed Art Institute, which boasts collections that span from Classical sculpture to archaic Chinese jades, Chicago architectural fragments, and works by Jackson Pollock, Henri Matisse, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Within walking distance of the Art Institute, students take photos with friends at Cloud Gate (a.k.a. “The Bean”), stroll along the River Walk, catch free concerts in Millennium Park, and explore the rest of the city via the many intersecting lines of the “L.”
For students further interested in the arts, 2nd Fridays in Pilsen offer access to many local galleries and artists. The stand-up comedy and theater scenes in Lake View and Lincoln Park draw House excursions for a plethora of shows at venues that include the famous Second City and the Neo-Futurist Theater. Many concerts, shows, and theater productions across the city, including the Joffrey Ballet and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, are available to students at discount rates via their Arts Pass.
On the South Side, near UChicago, students attend White Sox baseball games and savor Chicago dogs in Bridgeport, enjoy boba and dim sum in Chinatown, peruse the uniquely Chicagoan Día de Los Muertos altars on display at Pullman’s annual Altar Walk, take in the tranquil beauty of Garden of the Phoenix in Jackson Park, and cruise the public Lakefront trail that runs from south of Hyde Park up into the Loop and beyond to Chicago’s North Side.
Accessing opportunities that only a major cosmopolitan city can offer, UChicago students find that there’s always a big selection of things to do in the City of Big Shoulders.