What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$4,885 to $27,359 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $30,305 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $20,866.Aid and debt
34.4%
receive need-based grants
$26,869
average debt at graduation
10,299
students got merit aid
about 22% of undergraduates
$7,636
average merit award
Getting In
A note for out-of-state applicants
The Ohio State University operates under an Ohio law directing the school to favor in-state applicants over out-of-state applicants with similar qualifications when deciding between them — not a cap, floor, or quota, and with no set percentage attached. It's a real, current law, but a soft one: how often it actually changes an outcome isn't publicly reported.
Per ORC §3345.064.
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1300–1440 · 25% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 27–32 · 42% of the class submitted
73% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Class rank
- GPA
- SAT/ACT scores
- Important
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- First-gen status
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Considered
- Character
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
- Not considered
- Legacy status
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Ohio State rates course rigor as Very Important, and your essay, your recommendations, and your activities as Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. A strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. Recommendations matter here too — a recommender who knows you well helps. And depth and leadership in a few activities matter more than a long list.
Ohio State doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Ohio State just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Ohio State essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
39.4% of Ohio State classes have fewer than 20 students.
39.4%
under 20 students
41%
20 to 49
19.6%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Ohio State CDS 2025–26, I-3.
13:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
25.5%
first-years from out of state
33%
live on campus
9%
of men in fraternities
13%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White58%
- Asian11.6%
- Black8.5%
- Hispanic6.3%
- Multiracial5.1%
- Unknown / other3.3%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Ohio State CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
71.2% of Ohio State students graduate in 4 years.
71.2%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
86.6%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
93.5%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
79% finish in 6 years, against 86.6% of all students.
A 7.6-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Columbus.
Columbus is a fast-growing state capital, and Ohio State sits right in it — the Short North arts district, downtown, and the Scioto riverfront are all a short bus ride from campus.
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High Street runs along the edge of campus with student-priced food and venues the whole length of it. It suits students who want a large campus with a real city wrapped around it; the scale takes a few weeks to learn, but the trade is an enormous range of majors, clubs, and employers within reach.
The City
Major city
Columbus, OH
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Jesse Owens
Won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and once broke three world records and tied a fourth in 45 minutes as an Ohio State athlete.
Charles Kettering
Invented the electric automobile starter and led research at General Motors for 27 years, holding 186 patents.
Paul Flory
Won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for foundational work on polymers, the science underlying modern plastics.
R. L. Stine
Author of the Goosebumps series, which has sold hundreds of millions of copies, and a former editor of Ohio State's humor magazine.
Katie Smith
Three-time Olympic gold medalist and Basketball Hall of Famer who later coached in the WNBA.
Clark Kellogg
Lead college basketball analyst for CBS Sports and a former Big Ten player of the year at Ohio State.
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Script Ohio
The Ohio State Marching Band spells out 'Ohio' in cursive across the field in a single flowing formation. A sousaphone player is chosen to run out and dot the 'i,' widely considered one of the greatest honors in college band.
Skull Session
Before every home game, the marching band puts on a full concert in St. John Arena, and the football team walks through on its way to the stadium. It's free, it fills a 13,000-seat arena, and it starts two hours before kickoff.
The Game
The season-ending rivalry with Michigan, played every year since 1918 and often deciding the Big Ten title. Rivalry week includes a campus tradition of crossing out the letter M in writing all over campus.
Weekend escapes from Columbus
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Columbus
Hocking Hills State Park
1 hourGorges, caves, and waterfalls that make for the closest genuinely scenic hiking to campus.
Cleveland
2 hoursThe Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Lake Erie waterfront, and three professional sports teams.
Cedar Point
2.5 hoursOne of the most roller-coaster-dense amusement parks in the world, on a peninsula in Lake Erie.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
John Glenn Columbus International (CMH)
15 minutes from campus
For international flights: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) — about 3.5 hours by car, or a short connecting flight.
Pro sports nearby
- Columbus Blue Jackets NHL
- Columbus Crew MLS
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Columbus is a headquarters city for insurance, retail, and banking, and Intel's semiconductor investment nearby is drawing more technology employers to the region.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- JPMorgan Chase
- Nationwide
- Cardinal Health
- OhioHealth
- Abercrombie & Fitch
Downtown Columbus — about 10 minutes from campus
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Ohio State is a nearly 47,000-undergraduate campus with real strength in business, engineering and health professions, and a 49% admit rate that keeps it reachable, though the pool has gotten more competitive fast. Football weekends organize the fall — the pre-game band concert alone fills a 13,000-seat arena — but scale cuts both ways: only 39% of classes have fewer than 20 students, so small classrooms are something you seek out rather than something you're handed.