At Chicago, there's a culture of free and fearless intellectual inquiry that seeps into everything from the biggest University—wide event to the smallest conversation. The Chicago habit of relentless intellectualism has also provoked a fair bit of satire over the years—a lot of it produced by Chicago students and alumni. By the time you graduate, you may have started to think the rest of the world lives like this. Then the day will come when it dawns on you: you miss what it's like to be a student here.

The good news is that there are more than 140,000 other Chicago alumni who know exactly how it feels to go from academic vitality to a more mundane existence. Alumni live all over the country and the world, and they get together in organized groups for happy hours, networking nights, and various outings—but mostly for good conversation.

About a third of the university's alumni settle in and around the Chicago area. There are alumni groups in all the big cities—New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, D.C., and Boston—plus 35 clubs in smaller cities around the country, along with alumni contacts in 20 foreign countries.

So no matter where you end up, chances are you'll be able to get together with a fellow alum and reminisce—and enjoy the company of people who know that if you disagree with what they say it means you're having a good conversation.

Alumni who stay involved

Perhaps the quest for intellectual excitement has something to do with the fact that a good number of Chicago alumni stay involved with the University—and not just for reunions. Stephanie Rada Zocco, AB'88, founder and director of the Geneva (Switzerland) Business Roundtable and former president of the Alumni Association board of governors, has helped connect College students with internships at the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and Index Ventures in Geneva. Dan Hertzberg, AB'68, has hosted two second-year student externs in a program that he launched at the Wall Street Journal.

Other alumni may have interviewed you before you were admitted to Chicago. They contribute to student scholarships. They sponsor internships. They serve on career panels.

If you're looking for a great way to get advice about career choices, you can get access to more than 15,000 alumni, representing 76 different professions and 40 countries, through the online Alumni Careers Network at alumniservices.uchicago.edu/careers/.

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