<p>In addtion to the foregoing, strong life sciences, physics, top departments in many, perhaps most social science fields, strong English, very strong Classics/Ancient History and related stuff (dead languages rule). Indiana Jones taught there. So did Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom.</p>
<p>No university is unique in any field. Chicago has a great economics department, but so do many other brand-name universities, and the same is true in dozens of other areas. What makes a university great is being in the top group in a wide variety of fields, and creating some sort of cohesive identity (and communication/synergy) across departments and schools. The University of Chicago has that in spades.</p>