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The University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt (or Scav Hunt, colloquially Scav) is an annual four day team based scavenger hunt held at the University of Chicago from Thursday to Sunday of a week in May, typically ending on Mother's Day. The list of items, usually over 300 items long, encompasses cryptograms, competitions, build challenges, a 3 course meal, and a road trip. "Scav Hunt" is well known for its quirky, strange, and impossible items.

The Scavenger Hunt is held annually over four days in May, such that the final day's judgement of items is on Mother's Day.

"The Hunt" begins ceremoniously at midnight of the Wednesday preceding Mother's Day weekend, with an event known as "List Release." The ceremony surrounding the unveiling of the list usually begins a few hours before midnight, as teams slowly assemble on the ground floor of Ida Noyes Hall. These teams (ranging in size from 1 to over 250) then participate in what has been described as collective effervescence, as they chant various team based and humorous slogans, eventually coalescing into a repeated "we want the list". Then, at midnight, the judges (members of the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt Organizing Committee) run into the center of this gathering, and announce that year's list release challenge. Each challenge is designed to delay teams in acquiring a paper copy of that year's list of approximately 300 items. Previous examples have included the pages of the list buried under sand at a nearby beach, team captains kidnapped and forced to transcribe items onto their bodies with Sharpies, and copies of the list suspended from a wall six feet high ten feet away from a team representative, because "the floor is lava." Once a team has obtained the list, they travel back to their headquarters (usually a dorm lounge or apartment living room) to begin working on the list of items. Several hours after the release of the list the judges publish it online (usually around 3:00 A. M. CDT on the Thursday of the Hunt), thus making it available for teams unable to attend "List Release."

On the Friday Night of the Scavenger Hunt, there is usually a large themed event held in one of the gathering spaces on campus. In recent years, this event has been a wedding, and a prom dance. Previously, this event took the form of a large party held on the main quads attended by scavenger hunt participants and nonparticipants alike. Usually, this party involved a theme. Each team would design their own section of the party with drinks and attire adhering to this theme. This long string of parties ended when, in 2006, during a particularly bad storm, the party was moved inside Cobb Hall. The theme that year was "visions of the future." ORCSA, the university administration body responsible for overseeing the Hunt, shut down the party due to intoxicated participants and alleged property damage.

Items on the list include codes and cypher, large scale construction and engineering projects, performances, unusual sports, and difficult to acquire objects. Some items require connections to accomplish such as: get your Scav team a shout out on the news, get a flag on the North Pole, or reach the lowest elevation possible (the winning elevation was reached in a submarine).

Each year there are a handful of particularly large point items. There have typically been three showcase items per list in the recent past. These items are typically over 100 points each, but in the past it was not unusual for an individual item to be 500+ points. These items are judged in competition between the teams and points are awarded according to the ranking.

"A periodic coffee table. (25 points plus 1 point per element included)"
"A real live, breathing elephant. (500 points)"
"A breeder reactor built in a shed, and the boy scout badge to prove credit was given where boy scout credit was due. (500 points)"
This was on the 1999 Scav list, and the item was successfully completed by Justin Kasper and Fred Niell, students on the Burton Judson team. The team only came in second place that year. "A zeusaphone. (300 points)"
"A Stradivarius violin, viola or cello. (90 points for a violin, 125 points for a cello, 150 points for a viola)"

Scav Hunt was founded in 1987 by Chris Straus, who organized the list and judged items collected by other residents of Hitchcock house, with Cassie Scharff, Diane Kelly, Rick Jeffries, and Nolan McCarty. Perhaps the most notable item that has yet been completed was from the 1999 list; a breeder reactor in a shed was successfully built in front of Ida Noyes Hall. The item itself was a joke referring to the "Radioactive Boy Scout" David Hahn. The students irradiated thorium with thermal neutrons and observed traces of uranium and plutonium. In 2002, Scav Hunt was the subject of a documentary titled The Hunt. The 2007 Scav Hunt was also the subject of a documentary, Scavengers. The Scav Hunt formerly held the Guinness World Record for largest scavenger hunt. The smaller event was required to meet the Guinness World Record definition of a scavenger hunt. The Scav Hunt has since been officially surpassed for the title of the world's largest scavenger hunt by "Passport to Provo," an event organized by Provo and Google.

The Scavenger Hunt committee is a registered student organization at the University of Chicago. The committee is made up of judges, those who make the list and determine item completion, and non judges, who help with other administrative tasks. Judges are known as "Hot Side Hot" while non judge members are known as "Cold Side Cold". The list is compiled solely by the panel of judges, though the panel also organizes other aspects of the Scav Hunt. Judges begin compiling the list after the end of each Scav Hunt weekend, and continue to add items throughout the year. Members of the panel are sworn to secrecy on the contents of next year's list. Any University of Chicago student with a GPA above 0.5 may apply to be a judge. The head judge, known as the Scavenczar, is appointed at the end of the Scavenger Hunt each year. They oversee the planning and execution of the next Scav Hunt, until their successor is named.