Our College
LAS is the largest college at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), made up of a diverse community of academics and students who are actively involved in learning and sharing knowledge across a wide range of fields.
We provide top-notch, research-rich undergraduate and graduate education that equips students to participate as active citizens in a global community of many cultures, languages, and opportunities. Students can choose to study in departments that span the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and interdisciplinary programs. A liberal arts education serves as a foundation for life-long learning and provides a gateway to the pursuit of flexible career opportunities.
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25 Departments
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40 Degrees/Majors
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41 Minors
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9,019 Undergraduate Students
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1,181 Graduate Students
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1,200 + Courses
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43 Graduate Programs
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350 + Tenure Track Faculty
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1 /3 First-Generation College Students
Points of Pride
Improving Access to Higher Education...
- UIC is ranked 9th on the list of the nation’s universities, according to the 2022 edition of the Wall Street Journaland Times Higher Education rankings. The “Best Values” list, which assesses overall ranking, tuition, fees, housing, and federal and institutional aid among the top 250 overall schools, placed UIC in the top 10, alongside the University of California, Los Angeles, and Stanford University. UIC also ranked 25th among 341 U.S. public universities — and was placed ahead of six Big Ten universities.
- U.S. News & World Report ranks UIC among the top 30 ethnically diverse national universities in their 2022 “Best Colleges” rankings, as well as No. 42 among U.S. public colleges and universities (up six spots from last year) and No. 97 among all U.S. universities (up 10 spots from last year). UIC also ranks No. 11 in social mobility, a newer category, which assesses the graduation rates of Pell Grant recipients.
- UIC is ranked 5th in the “Best Bang for the Buck” rankings in the Midwest region by Washington Monthlymagazine’s 2019 College Guide, which ranks 372 schools according to how well they “help non-wealthy students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices.” Washington Monthly ranks four-year schools based on their contribution to the public good in social mobility (recruiting, enrolling and graduating low-income and first-generation students); research (research expenditures, number of bachelor’s recipients who go on to receive a Ph.D., faculty awards); and providing opportunities for public service (encouraging students to give back).
- Money magazine ranks UIC within the top 100 colleges that are a great investment for your money (rankings considered educational quality, affordability, and alumni success).
A Vibrant Community Committed to Diversity...
- UIC is a six-time recipient of the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award, a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. The award is granted by INSIGHT Into Diversity Magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.
- UIC’s commitment to excellence, achievement, and diversity is ranked 11th among the nation’s top American universities by the QS Quacquarelli Symonds 2022 World University Rankings. UIC’s overall rank in 2022 climbed to 36th out of 352 public and private universities awarding doctoral degrees. The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) group is a global higher education research company that has been publishing international university rankings since 2004. Their rankings are one of the three most widely read university rankings in the world.
- UIC is one of only 14 institutions to earn the Excelencia in Education’s “SEAL OF EXCELENCIA,” a national certification that recognizes colleges and universities for their “unwavering commitment to intentionally serve Latino students, while serving all.”
- UIC has been an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) since 2010, successfully receiving four grants that have provided $7.1 million to enhance programs supporting Asian American and Pacific Islander undergraduate students at UIC who make up roughly 21% of the undergraduate student body. UIC was the first funded AANAPISI in the Midwest in 2010 and is one of less than 30 institutions that have received funding through this Minority Serving Institutions program.
- UIC is named among the nation’s top 40 “Best of the Best LGBTQ-Friendly Colleges and Universities” by Campus Pride, the preeminent resource for LGBTQ+ leadership development, diversity inclusion, and advocacy in higher education. UIC is among just three universities in Illinois to receive the honor. Universities included in the ranking have received an overall score of 93% or higher on the Campus Pride Index, a tool that measures LGBTQ-friendly policies, programs, and practices.
- UIC received the 2021 Institutional Excellence Award by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, or NADOHE, for its efforts as a four-year public institution. Through the award, the organization seeks to recognize institutions that have “demonstrated measurable progress in promoting and sustaining innovative diversity, equity and inclusion efforts within their campus community.”
World-Class Faculty at the Helm...
- LAS is home to a MacArthur Genius Award winner; Guggenheim, Humboldt, ACSL, Simons, Wenner-Gren, Fulbright Scholars, a MacArthur Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts awardees, and Fulbright Fellows.
- LAS faculty member Russ Hemley is UIC’s only member of the National Academy of Sciences. He focuses on the behavior of matter and materials in extreme environments, notably high pressures, and temperatures. He is part of a Material Sciences group (LAS/ Engineering) that has been working on creating a Material Sciences Institute at UIC.
- The Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science has 14 Sloan Foundation Fellows, 18 NSF CAREER grant recipients, 24 Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, 3 SIAM Fellows, 5 Simons Fellows, 6 International Congress of Mathematicians invited speakers and more.
- The Department of Chemistry is home to six active NSF CAREER awardees as of Spring 2022. The Chemistry department is also home to two recipients of a prestigious National Institutes of Health R35 Maximizing Individuals’ Research Award (MIRA) on campus.
- Barbara Ransby, Professor of Black studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History; LAS distinguished professor; director of the Social Justice Initiative; and MacArthur Endowed Chair at UIC, is the recipient of a 2022 Fanon Lifetime Achievement Award by the Caribbean Philosophical Association for contributions to philosophical thought, literature, and mentorship.
Ransby is also a Society of American Historians Fellow and a member of the inaugural cohort for the Freedom Scholars, which includes progressive academics who are at the “forefront of movements for economic and social justice.” - Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Lev Reyzin serves as principal investigator of an effort leading to the awarding of a $10 million, five-year NSF grant to establish a new data science institute, Institute for Data, Econometrics, Algorithms, and Learning (IDEAL). UIC is the lead institution for this grant in partnership with the Illinois Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, and the University of Chicago. Other MSCS faculty involved are co-PIs Will Perkins and Yichao Wu, and senior personnel: Yu Cheng, James Freitag, Marcus Michelen, Gyuri Turan, and Ping-Shou Zhong.
- Pulitzer Prize finalist and LAS English Professor Luis Urrea’s latest book House of Broken Angels has earned him the title of “one of our most important American public intellectuals” as reported by the Chicago Tribune.
- Aixa Alfonso, a professor in Biological Sciences, is the principal investigator of a $5.2M Department of Education grant that is awarded to Hispanic Serving Institutions to increase enrollment and graduation rates of Hispanic and low-income students in STEM degrees.
- LAS Associate Dean and Hispanic and Italian Studies Professor Rosilie Hernández was elected to a second term as President of the Grupo de estudios de la mujer en España y las Américas (GEMELA). GEMELA is an international association dedicated to advancing the study of women’s literary and cultural production in Spain and Latin America during the early modern period
Advancing the Frontier of Knowledge...
- UIC is one of only four Carnegie designated Research I (R1) institutions in Illinois. R1 is the highest rating for a research institution from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the gold standard for assessment.
- At UIC LAS, undergraduate students have the unique opportunity to conduct original research under faculty mentorship through the LAS Undergraduate Research Initiative (LASURI). Projects range from studying the psychology of poverty to examining the thermal evolution of the moon.
- $120M was granted as a Department of Energy investment to support an Argonne National Laboratory JCSER battery hub of collaborating scientists and institutions led by LAS’ Physics Professor George Crabtree.
- $100M+ in external research funding has been generated by LAS’s Learning Science Research Institute (LSRI) faculty members to support research on learning and teaching, particularly in the Chicago Public Schools.
- Royalties from the HIV/AIDS drug (Prezista) have brought in over $24 million to LAS making it (to date) the most successful royalty-producing patent ever developed by University of Illinois faculty. A portion of these funds is endowing four faculty chairs in the sciences. Not only is Prezista an important treatment option for patients with drug-resistant HIV, but it was made available to the world’s least developed nations at a price far lower than the U.S.’s commercial price.
- $2.5M was awarded to the LAS Math, Statistics, and Computer Science department through a prestigious NSF Research and Training Group Grant.
- LAS has received nearly $1.9M in grant funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. $1M will create opportunities for four successive cohorts of 80 first-year students to take part in engaging humanities courses, workshops, and lectures each year, leading to a major research project and career or graduate preparation in their junior and senior years of study.
- LAS is the recipient of a $1M Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence (HHMI) grant to grow a professional learning community of STEM educators.
- Professor of Chemistry Donald Wink serves as co-principal investigator of a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support undergraduate students training in biomedical research during the last two years of their studies. The Bridges to the Baccalaureate grant will provide two-year traineeships annually to underrepresented students who
transfer to UIC from one of the City Colleges of Chicago. - A multidisciplinary research team from the University of Illinois Chicago has been awarded a $3 million, three-year U.S. Department of Defense award to establish an undergraduate research mentoring program in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, areas with a focus on engaging undergraduate student veterans and minority students. UIC’s proposal was one of only 12 selected for funding. Mentors in the program include UIC faculty members and researchers Elizabeth Kocs, Fatemeh Khalili, Michael Stroscio, Jordi Cabana, Ksenija Glusac, George Papadantonakis, Donald Wink, Avia Rosenhouse-Dantsker, Lev Reyzin, and Rigel Gjomemo. The project’s principal investigator is LAS Distinguished Chair in the Natural Sciences Russell Hemley.
