The University currently maintains twelve units, grouped into divisions for graduate research, professional schools, the undergraduate College, the Library, the Press, the Lab Schools (an elite K-12 system), and the Hospitals.

The Divisions: Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Humanities,

The Professional Schools: the Divinity School, the Law School, the Graduate School of Business, the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Harris School of Public Policy and the School of Social Service Administration.

The Graham School of General Studies is administrative rather than a formal school within the University, administers a variety of degree and non-degree extension work for high school students through postgraduates.

The University furthermore features the Laboratory Schools (grades K-12, founded by John Dewey and considered one of the leading University affiliated preparatory schools in the United States), the Hyde Park Day Schools (ages 6-15, for the learning disabled of otherwise exceptional ability) and the Orthogenic School (a residential treatment program for ages 5-20 with behavioral and emotional problems). The University also administers two public charter schools on the South Side of Chicago, although these schools are not considered a true part of the University community.

U.S. News & World Report currently ranks the College at the University of Chicago 14th in the nation, tied with Cornell University and Johns Hopkins University (US News) 

The college’s applicants, according to The Princeton Review "often prefer" Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia, and apply to the full spectrum of top 15 schools, both Ivies and their associates. However, The Princeton Review has also rated the University as having the "Best Overall Educational Experience" for undergraduates among all American universities and colleges (the student-to-faculty ratio of 4:1, ranked the second lowest amongst top 50 American Universities, allows for small class sizes and exceptional faculty interaction). The difference between these rankings reflects the longstanding dichotomy between the College’s academic quality (which is consistently grouped alongside Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Caltech and Stanford) and its far lagging admissions selectivity, which is on par with schools such as Emory and Carnegie Mellon Universities. Ironically, the two factors which precipitate the latter admissions problem are the same factors which earned the school the highest accolades from The Princeton Review - academic zeal and rigor. First, The University of Chicago is often called the place "where fun comes to die" by current students, which probably deters some potential matriculants (for some time in the 1990's the college finished a few spots short of last amongst rankings of party schools, alongside the service academies, e.g. West Point, and religious institutions such as Brigham Young and Wheaton). The rigor of the school academically has led to notoriously low graduation rates (one in seven students do not finish, compared to one in fifty at Harvard College) and also GPAs ("In 1998, the National average GPA of those matriculating to allopathic medical schools [was a] 3.58; from the College [a] 3.48. This was the lowest for any college in North America" - The Univesity of Chicago Health Professions Handbook). Nevertheless, it has been reported that more students go on to graduate school from Chicago than at any other college in the country.

The University's professional schools also rank highly: the Graduate School of Business has been ranked 1st (Economist)[1] ]], 6th by (US News) , 2nd by (BusinessWeek) and 4th by the (Financial Times), the Law School ranks 6th (US News)  and 2nd (Leiter) , the School of Social Service Administration School ranks 3rd (US News) and 1st (Gourman Report) , the Divinity School ranks 2nd (National Research Council) , the Pritzker School of Medicine ranks 22nd (US News) , while The Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies ranks 17th (US News) .

The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the country and publishes The Chicago Manual of Style, the definitive guide to American English usage. The University also operates a number of off-campus scientific research institutions, the best known of which is probably Fermilab, or the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, managed by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy. The University also operates the Argonne National Laboratory, owns and operates Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, the Oriental Institute, and has a stake in Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico. The University is also a founding member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.