What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$17,974 to $29,616 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: $32,171 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $9,882.Aid and debt
35.98%
receive need-based grants
$27,571
average debt at graduation
6,251
students got merit aid
about 18% of undergraduates
$6,180
average merit award
Getting In
A note for out-of-state applicants
University of Cincinnati 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
Transfer Deadlines
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1160–1340 · 9% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 24–30 · 25% of the class submitted
22.1% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- GPA
- Special talent
- Important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Considered
- Class rank
- SAT/ACT scores
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Character
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Demonstrated interest
- Not considered
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
What this means for you
Cincinnati rates course rigor as Important.
MoreLess
AP, IB, and dual-enrollment classes strengthen an application here — a strong mix of them helps.
Cincinnati rates demonstrated interest 'Considered' — it can tip a close decision, without being decisive.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Cincinnati just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Cincinnati essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
34.4% of Cincinnati classes have fewer than 20 students.
34.4%
under 20 students
45.2%
20 to 49
20.4%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Cincinnati CDS 2025–26, I-3.
19:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
22.5%
first-years from out of state
20.65%
live on campus
7.21%
of men in fraternities
9.07%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White68.1%
- Black9.9%
- Hispanic5.7%
- Asian5.3%
- Multiracial5.1%
- Unknown / other1.1%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Cincinnati CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
43.2% of Cincinnati students graduate in 4 years.
43.2%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
75.04%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
86%
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
62% finish in 6 years, against 75.04% of all students.
A 13-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 Cincinnati.
UC's Uptown campus sits in the Clifton neighborhood, a couple of miles north of downtown Cincinnati, a metro of roughly 2.3 million people and headquarters city for Procter & Gamble, Kroger and Fifth Third Bank.
MoreLess
The campus itself has become a stop on architecture tours — Frank Gehry, Peter Eisenman and Michael Graves buildings sit inside a few blocks of each other — while downtown, the riverfront and Over-the-Rhine's restaurant scene are a short bus or streetcar ride away.
The City
Major city
Cincinnati, OH
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
William Howard Taft
27th president of the United States and 10th chief justice of the Supreme Court — the only person to hold both offices; graduated from Cincinnati Law School (now UC College of Law) in 1880
Class of 1880
Charles G. Dawes
30th vice president of the United States and winner of the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize; law graduate of the University of Cincinnati
Joseph B. Strauss
Chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge; graduated UC in 1892 with a degree in civil engineering
Class of 1892
Kathleen Battle
Grammy Award-winning operatic soprano and longtime Metropolitan Opera star; studied voice on scholarship at UC's College-Conservatory of Music and earned a master's degree in music education there
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Co-op
Herman Schneider, dean of UC's College of Engineering, invented cooperative education here in 1906 — alternating semesters of paid work with semesters of class. It's still required in engineering, architecture, design and several other programs, and asking a classmate what rotation they're on is as ordinary as asking their major.
Nippert Stadium
Bearcat football has played on this site since 1901 and in the current concrete stadium since 1915, making it one of the oldest stadiums still hosting major college football. Students walk past it daily on their way to class, not just on game days.
Oktoberfest Zinzinnati
The city's downtown Oktoberfest, first held in 1976, draws upward of 800,000 people over a long weekend each September and is billed as the largest Oktoberfest in the country. It's close enough to campus that it functions as an unofficial back-to-school tradition for a lot of Bearcats.
Weekend escapes from Cincinnati
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Cincinnati
Hocking Hills, Ohio
1 hour 45 minutesOhio's best-known hiking region — waterfalls, gorges and cabins — and the default fall-weekend trip for a lot of UC students.
Louisville, Kentucky
1 hour 30 minutesBourbon distilleries, the Kentucky Derby Museum and a riverfront downtown, close enough for a day trip.
Nashville, Tennessee
4 hours 30 minutesThe standard bigger-city weekend trip out of Cincinnati, reachable by car without a flight.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG)
20 minutes from campus
For international flights: Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) — about 4 hours 15 minutes by car, or a short connecting flight from cvg.
Pro sports nearby
- Cincinnati Reds MLB
- Cincinnati Bengals NFL
- FC Cincinnati MLS
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Cincinnati is a genuine corporate headquarters city, and UC's co-op program runs students through its employers on a paid, credit-bearing rotation rather than leaving the connection to a summer internship search.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Procter & Gamble
- Kroger
- Fifth Third Bank
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital
- GE Aviation
- Great American Insurance Group
Downtown Cincinnati, about 15 minutes by car or bus
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Cincinnati admits 88% of applicants and enrolls 34,447 undergraduates on an Uptown campus that has become a genuine architecture destination — buildings by Frank Gehry and Peter Eisenman sit a short walk from Nippert Stadium, one of the oldest football stadiums still in use in the country, and from the Engineering Research Center designed by UC architecture alumnus Michael Graves. The University of Cincinnati invented the cooperative-education model, and it still defines the place: engineering, architecture and design students alternate paid work-term semesters with classes, so a four-year degree is the exception rather than the rule here — only 43% of students finish in four years, against 75% within six. Greek life is small (about 7% of men, 9% of women), so the co-op rotation, not a campus row, sets the social rhythm. Aid covers well under half of demonstrated need on average, which means the co-op paychecks are doing real work toward the bill, not just the résumé.