The requirements needed to graduate with a bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago can be summed up in one word: stressful. The Core Curriculum, the fast-paced nature of the quarter system, and a short reading period before each finals week are what define “where fun comes to die.” On top of that, many years ago, there was another graduation requirement: a swim test. Yes, a swim test.

The swim test was first introduced in the 1954–55 academic year. While the test was certainly not a Michael Phelps–level test of endurance, it may have been daunting for students who lacked competency in the water. The test required swimming 100 yards without stopping, by any technique necessary and with no time limit. The test was administered during Orientation Week and, prior to Ratner Athletics Center being completed in 2003, took place at Bartlett’s rather old gym, which opened in 1904.

Nothing says “first-day jitters” quite like lining up in swimsuits with hundreds of other gangly teenagers in a stuffy indoor pool to await either the humiliation of failing or the relief of passing. If a student did not pass the initial test, they were required to take a swimming course before they graduated. Students could also opt out of the O-Week test and join the students who failed the test in one of those swimming classes.

Since the swim test ended in 2012, there are no current undergraduate students on campus who had to take the test during their first year, and there hasn’t been for quite a while; but most alumni had to take the test. This means, for any curious UChicago student, that some very famous alums,including American political consultant David Axelrod, have taken this awkward test of aquatic ability. Before advising Barack Obama during his presidential campaigns or publishing his book, Axelrod underwent the monumental challenge of swimming 100 yards. Though, unlike many of his peers, he did not do so during Orientation Week.

In his address to the Class of 2025, Axelrod explained that, before final grades were due for his final year in the College, he was notified by the registrar that he had not completed the swimming requirement. If he had not passed by 3 p.m. that day, he would not have been able to graduate with his class. Desperate to tick this off his list, Axelrod recalled racing over to Bartlett to find a coach to administer the test. After locating a coach, Axelrod passed the test. “I still remember staggering back to this very quadrangle on which you sit today and collapsing under a tree, depleted but triumphant,” he said.

For the current undergraduate student population, this removal of the swim test requirement may feel like a source of collective relief. Beginning with the Class of 2016, undergraduate students have not been required to take the test in order to graduate. Many students on campus now may not be able to envision themselves in this situation.

However, the removal of the swim test was not welcomed by all. Former Maroon Sports Editor Joe Katz wrote in 2006 about its possible removal as something negative, pointing out the health benefits that the test provides. Further, Katz credited the swim test for remaining “one of the last quirky traditions” separating UChicago from other academic institutions.” For Katz and possibly many others, the swim test was not simply an assessment of endurance and aquatic ability but one more quirk of the UChicago experience. A large number of alumni had to pass this test, and it seems the knowledge and experience of this test is fading as each new class enters through Hull Gate.

At the time of its removal in 2012, the swim test might have been a reason for upperclassmen to bemoan the fact their awkward experience was not going to be passed down to future classes. While reporting on the swim test’s removal, former Maroon reporter Harunobu Coryne remarked, “Under this new policy, they have been freed from that obligation entirely. Meanwhile, none of the 1,500 first-years in the class of 2016 have had to take a fitness or swim test.”

The reason for the test’s removal came from a growing number of similar institutions no longer requiring their fitness or swim tests for graduation. Former Vice President of Campus and Student Life Karen Warren Coleman noted in an emailed statement following the test’s removal in 2012 that, “[more] than half of the University’s peer institutions do not have a physical education requirement for graduation.”

In 2026, besides U.S. military academies, Cornell University, Columbia University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there aren’t many collegiate institutions which require any form of physical test to graduate.

While the test may have had some benefits, such as the promotion of water safety and general physical fitness, it has become a relic of the past. That is, until alumni weekend, when one wouldn’t be hard-pressed to find someone on campus who has completed the test.

Instead of worrying about swimming 100 yards, newer classes of UChicago students get to keep their doggy paddles to themselves.