<p>I will be attending Ohio State in the fall to study political science and based off what I have seen on this website, the college is becoming more and more selective. Granted this does not necessarily correlate with better education, but I am curious to know whether or not OSU is truly on the rise. I know the the college is not on par with UofM or Cal Berkley, etc, but I wonder how it compares to other public universities and private universities too for that matter. I would appreciate any responses, as long as they’re not just a link to Forbes or U.S. New and World Report’s rankings of the United States best colleges. </p>
<p>I am also going to attend Ohio State this fall. I think it is generally regarded as one of the top, if not elite public universities in the country. Schools like Virginia, Berkley, UNC, William and Mary are clearly the tops, but there is no reason to suspect that Ohio State is not on the same level as Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Penn State, and maybe Michigan. I know many academics and people involved in the college process, and a popular feeling is that Ohio State is too large for it’s own good. Almost all public universities are large, but Ohio State is considerably larger than even some mentioned here, and the feeling among some is that if the school decided to move some of the programs like aviation to the auxiliary campuses, it would shrink the size of the student body and extend current resources further.</p>
<p>We just attended OSU orientation, and they said that they had 43,000 applications but only accepted 7000 incoming freshman. We were also told that this freshman class is the brightest freshman class ever, in terms of test scores. I believe there is a plan to continue to raise the average freshman qualifications each year.</p>
<p>In terms of size, we repeatedly heard that OSU is trying to chunk it down for freshmen with a variety of techniques.</p>
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<p>7,000 enrolled. They accepted over 17,000 out of 31,000 applications, according to their common data set.</p>
<p>The other thing that was amazing, is that once accepted to OSU as a freshman, the communication is amazing. No other college my daughter applied to was even close in terms of letters, emails, all kinds of material sent to the home on a weekly basis. Orientation was very well run, every thing very organized, lots of helpers, information, parent manuals. Even the parent lunch was hassle free and upscale food. Speakers both days were informative and high caliber. The faculty and students exhibit a high degree of love and pride for their campus.</p>
<p>We’re in a top high school in NY that routinely sends many to Ivies and other top schools. Our guidance counselor has wondered why more don’t apply to OSU, “which is basically a clone of Michigan and Wisconsin” in her words.</p>
<p>I think they actually received 45,000, not 35,000</p>
<p>At the recent orientation, staff kept repeating the 43,000-45,000 figure for applications received this year.</p>
<p>It is absolutely not true that OSU is as good as the University of Michigan. Even within the BIG-10, both Wisconsin and Illinois are considered better. However, yes, OSU is on the rise at least as far as applications are concerned. Much of this is from in-state, though. Only 16% of OSU students are out of state. </p>
<p>Here in Ohio, we see that the three best state schools (OSU, Miami, and Ohio University-Athens) are getting more applications while the others state schools (U.Cincinnati, Kent State, Bowling Green) are seeing fewer applicants. OSU is also now offering very nice scholarships to out of state applicants. Many students find these scholarships hard to pass up. By the way, Miami University of Ohio has double the percentage of out of state students and offers much better scholarships to in state students than does Ohio State.</p>
<p>In short, OSU is definitely an above average state university with excellent engineering and business schools. Yet, it is by no means elite and won’t be anytime soon.</p>
<p>To NROTCgrad: I think the OP was asking if OSU is becoming a more prestigious university, not how it compares to Michigan. From what I can tell, out of state applications are on the rise, it’s not just an increase in in-state applicants. Admissions website says that the 2013 incoming class was 21% OOS; moreover, the admission rate continues to drop which is directly related to the number of applicants–the larger the pool, the more selective they can be. Also, test scores/class rank of incoming freshman has greatly improved in the past 10-15 years. </p>
<p>So, I guess my point is that I would say that according to the numbers OSU is becoming a more selective university. As far as reputation out-of-state, I’m not originally from Ohio, and I have a feeling that there is a sentiment that OSU is at least on par with all but the best-of-the-best state universities (think USNWR top 5-10 schools). </p>
<p>And again, why choose a school just in terms of its “prestige” or how “elite” it’s considered? What about the strength of the program you’re interested in? Or the resources available to students–in this sense I would say OSU is on par with other top publics. Just my take on things… </p>
<p>@gosusesu1 You are correct. I was addressing the Michigan comparison because at least a couple of people indicated that OSU was just as good. Luckily OP already knew better, but I just wanted to make sure that idea did not get serious traction.</p>
<p>So, thanks for the correction, and here is my take.</p>
<p>The following state universities are almost certainly better than OSU:
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of California-Berkeley
UCLA
University of Virginia
College of William and Mary
Georgia Tech (but only for science and technology, where GT is actually an elite university, worldwide)</p>
<p>The following state universities might, or might not, be better than OSU:
Penn State
University of Wisconsin
University of Illinois
University of Texas
University of Washington
University of Florida
University of Maryland
Rutgers
Texas A&M
most of the U.California system, especially Davis, San Diego, and Irvine</p>
<p>Almost all the remaining state universities are not as good as OSU, including:
MIchigan State
Indiana University
Purdue (except for engineering, where it is roughly equivalent)
University of Alabama
Auburn
Clemson
Florida State
Nebraska
Arizona State
Oregon
etc…</p>
<p>So, all in all, The Ohio State University stacks up well nationally. Not elite, but excellent. The city of Columbus is probably above average, but not special. The OSU campus is definitely ordinary, perhaps not even that. These last two I know, because I live in Columbus.</p>
<p>Private universities which are roughly equivalent to The Ohio State University include:
Boston University
Syracuse University
Southern Methodist
Marquette University
University of Denver</p>
<p>Private universities which are either better or worse than OSU are too numerous to even begin a list.</p>
<p>Both this list and the one above is very general. OSU has both strengths which are truly outstanding (for example, engineering and business) and weaknesses where it is merely ordinary. Prospective students definitely need to have some idea of what they are interested in.</p>
<p>@Chardo is correct about admissions data - but for last year (2013). Yes, about 31,000 applied and about 17,000 were admitted, with about 7,000 finally enrolling in 2013.</p>
<p>However, the folks must be telling the truth who say that OSU has told them that it received 43,000 to 45,000. The question is whether that 43,000 to 45,000 number is correct. If it is correct, why such a big jump (from 31,000 to at least 43,000) in a single year? Perhaps better marketing and, well… there really is no other explanation. In any event, this is an open question until the 2014 common data set is published. My guess is that it will not say 43,000. Might be more like 35,000. The common data set is the only number that counts. Everything else is open to question.</p>
<p>For what it is worth, ACT and SAT scores for OSU students are nearly identical now as they were in 2009, but slightly higher.</p>
<p>They mentioned multiple times at orientation that they received 40k+ applications and that this incoming class is the “best and brightest” they’ve ever had. I took that second part as a bit of feather stroking for the incoming freshmen more than anything. My guess is the midlines will be pretty similar to what they’ve been in the past, with maybe a slight uptick reflecting the larger application pool (though something tells me the 40k+ may be a bit of an exaggeration). </p>
<p>From the OOS perspective, I can say that OSU offered a much better financial package to OOS students than most of the other state schools in the Northeast and Midwest. I have to believe that is driving the number of applicants up. Since the better financial aid packages are offered to the higher scoring OOS students that could be helping to drive average test scores up in the freshman class. </p>
<p>According to the common data set for the past four years (2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013) it does appear that OSU is seeing a significant increase in applications.</p>
<p>The years 2010, 2011, and 2012 all showed between 24,000 to 26,000 applicants. Then a big jump to over 31,000 for 2013. So, maybe a jump to 43,000 is not completely out of the question.</p>
<p>As “albanydad” says, this might be due to offering better OOS financial packages.</p>
<p>This time next year, you probably won’t care about the prestige of OSU… because you’ll be having the time of your life.</p>
<p>That’s how it was for me at UW and, as OSU is also a fun school with plenty to do (big games, parties, etc.), it’s probably how it will be for you.</p>
<p>Just… don’t sign up for any early classes on Friday or Saturday…</p>
<p>Yes, at orientation, almost every speaker mentioned the 40K+ applications number and stated that this was the “best and brightest” of any OSU incoming freshman class. Even the director of the cafeteria at lunch time stated this. The parents were told this in their sessions, and my daughter said she kept being told the same thing in the student only sessions. So whether it is true or not, it certainly was an agreed upon talking point by the staff.</p>
<p>I do think that there was a lot of out of state recruitment this year, perhaps that accounts for the large number of applications. I heard other parents say that no one seemed to get into University of Michigan this year, especially out of state applications. Maybe that means more OSU apps. And some of the OOS parents remarked that OSU must have a lot of money, the financial incentives to OOS students were quite good.</p>
<p>@NROTCgrad By what measures do you decide that OSU is better than say Michigan State but not as good as say UCLA? We are talking undergraduate in this thread. It seems pretty subjective. Is it some measure of graduate employability? Number of graduates that go to grad school? Test scores of the student body? How nice the dorms are? Student teacher ratio? US News? NRC? What metric do you use to decide one university is better or worse than a similar university?</p>
<p>@WAPacker
Thanks for your questions. Very valid and worthy concerns. So…</p>
<p>If by subjective we mean my personal preferences (the normal meaning of subjective) then I plead not guilty. I don’t like UCLA more than OSU, nor OSU better than Michigan State. What I wrote has nothing to do with my preferences.</p>
<p>However, if by subjective we mean that I have no real metrics, then maybe I stand guilty. Yet, to my knowledge there are no rankings for prestige. In other words, I have no metrics and never have heard of any. This does not make prestige subjective, in my opinion, just vague. It is like determining the speed of your car without using the speedometer. You know when you are going fast or slow, or when doing so compared to other vehicles. You do not know this with precision, but you do know it or at least have a pretty good idea.</p>
<p>So, most of us (myself especially) are left with impressions, or even knowledge, gathered from the four winds. Prestige is quite elusive, and varies from industry to industry as well as geographically across the country. Some people are actually not impressed by Harvard grads but are impressed by graduates from Auburn (which is my school). Yet, prestige is a factor for a ton of people and something worth trying to gauge. And, of course, that is what the OP asked for. I gave it my best shot, and would welcome any specific challenges.</p>
<p>Ultimately, I recommend students pay less attention to prestige (including athletic prestige) and make their decision as much as possible on academic fit. Namely, choose based on majors they are interested in, and learning opportunities. Of course, cost is a major factor too. If they want and can afford a prestigious college or university, then they can include that too.</p>