CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO

Concordia serves over one thousand undergraduates and three thousand graduate students through its four colleges: The College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, and College of Business, and College of Graduate and Innovative Programs. Many of these attend classes at sites around the Chicago metropolitan area, rather than on its River Forest campus. Concordia is a member of the Concordia University System, a network of Ten American Colleges and universities affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

In 1855, Lutheran ministers Friedrich Johann Carl Lochner and Philipp Fleischmann established a private “teachers’ seminary” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to train teachers for Lutheran day schools. In 1857, responsibility for the operation of the school was taken over by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The Synod moved the school to Fort Wayne, Indiana, uniting it with a theological seminary that had been founded there by followers of Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe. In 1861 the theological seminary was moved to St. Louis, and later to Springfield, Illinois, then back to Fort Wayne. In 1864 the teachers’ seminary was moved to Addison, Illinois.

Concordia University marks its foundation with the 1864 move to Addison. Originally called Concordia Teachers’ Seminary, and then Concordia Teachers College, the institution is the oldest in the Concordia University System. The original building is gone, but a monument still stands on the site of the seminary in Addison. In 1913 the college moved to its present campus in River Forest. In 1979, the institution expanded its education-centered program to become a full liberal arts institution and changed its name to Concordia College. In 1990, having experienced tremendous growth in its graduate offerings, the school reorganized and changed its name to Concordia University. The university was unofficially known as Concordia University River Forest (CURF) until 2006, when the current name was adopted.

CU Chicago is ranked 75th on the Midwest Colleges by US News And World Report in the Regional Midwest Colleges List. CU Chicago has never achieved a ranking in the U.S. News & World Report’s National Best ranked US University List.