Ohio State University

The Ohio State University (Ohio State, tOSU, or OSU) is a public research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1870, it is the flagship institution of the University System of Ohio. It is designated a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant university by the government of Ohio.

Ohio State is one of the largest universities by enrollment in the United States, with over 50,000 undergraduate students and 15,000 graduate students. Ohio State is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity spending and doctorate production". In 2026 the university had research and development (R&D) expenditures of $1.58 billion, the 12th largest in the United States.

The university consists of sixteen colleges, including of Arts and Sciences, Business, Dentistry, Engineering, Public Affairs, and Law, and offers study in a wide range of degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It has five satellite campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster. Its athletic teams compete in NCAA Division I within the Big Ten Conference for the large majority of sports.

Alumni and faculty include 6 Nobel Prize laureates, 9 Rhodes Scholars, 7 Churchill Scholars, 1 Fields Medalist, 8 Pulitzer Prize winners, 77 Goldwater scholars, 1 U.S. vice president, 7 U.S. senators, 15 U.S. representatives, and 118 Olympic medalists.

History

19th century

The university was established in 1870 as a land-grant university named Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The proposal of a manufacturing and agriculture university in central Ohio was initially met in the 1870s with hostility from the state's agricultural interests, and with competition for resources from Ohio University and Miami University. The university opened its doors to 24 students on September 17, 1873. In 1878, the first class of six men graduated. The first woman graduated the following year. Also in 1878, the Ohio legislature recognized an expanded scope for the university by changing its name to "the Ohio State University".

20th century

In 1906, Ohio State president and segregationist William Oxley Thompson, along with the university's supporters in the state legislature, put forth the Lybarger Bill with the aim of shifting virtually all higher education support to the continued development of Ohio State while funding only the "normal school" functions of the state's other public universities. Although the Lybarger Bill failed narrowly to gain passage, in its place the Eagleson Bill was passed as a compromise, which determined that all doctoral education and research functions would be the role of Ohio State, and that Miami University and Ohio University would not offer instruction beyond the master's degree level – an agreement that would remain in place until the 1950s. In 1916, Ohio State was elected into membership in the Association of American Universities.With the onset of the Great Depression, Ohio State would face many of the challenges affecting universities throughout America as budget support was slashed, and students without the means of paying tuition returned home to support families. By the mid-1930s, however, enrollment had stabilized due in large part to the role of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and later the National Youth Administration. By the end of the decade, enrollment had still managed to grow to over 17,500. In 1934, the Ohio State Research Foundation was founded to bring in outside funding for faculty research projects. In 1938, a development office was opened to begin raising funds privately to offset reductions in state support. In 1952, Ohio State founded the interdisciplinary Mershon Center for International Security Studies, which it still houses. In 1986, Ohio State ended its historic open enrollment policy and moved towards selective admissions.

The university jointed several other grants in the late 1980s. It was designated a space-grant institution in 1988. It was designated a sea-grant institution one year later, in 1989.

Campuses

Main (Columbus)

Ohio State's 1,764-acre (7.14 km2) main campus is about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north of Columbus' downtown. The historical center of campus is the Oval, a quad of about 11 acres (4.5 ha). The original campus was laid out in the English country style with University Hall overlooking what would become the Oval. From 1905 to 1913, the Olmsted brothers, who had designed New York City's Central Park, were contracted as architectural consultants. Under their leadership, a more formal landscape plan was created with its center axis through the Oval. This axis shifted the university's street grid 12.25 degrees from the City of Columbus' street grid. Construction of the main library in 1915 reinforced this grid shift.

Ohio State's research library system has a combined collection of over 5.8 million volumes. Along with 21 libraries on its Columbus campus, the university has eight branches at off-campus research facilities and regional campuses, and a book storage depository near campus. In all, the Ohio State library system encompasses 55 branches and specialty collections. Some more significant collections include the Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, which has the archives of Admiral Richard E. Byrd and other polar research materials; the Hilandar Research Library, which has the world's largest collection of medieval Slavic manuscripts on microform; the Ohio State Cartoon Library & Museum, the world's largest repository of original cartoons; the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute.

And the archives of Senator John Glenn Anchoring the traditional campus gateway at the eastern end of the Oval is the 1989 Wexner Center for the Arts. Designed by architects Peter Eisenman of New York and Richard Trott of Columbus, the center was funded in large part by Ohio State alumnus Les Wexner's gift of $25 million in the 1980s. The center was founded to encompass all aspects of visual and performing arts with a focus on new commissions and artist residencies. Part of its design was to pay tribute to the armory that formerly had the same location. Its groundbreaking deconstructivist architecture has resulted in it being lauded as one of the most important buildings of its generation. Its design has also been criticized as proving less than ideal for many of the art installations it has attempted to display. The centerpiece of the Wexner Center's permanent collection is Picasso's Nude on a Black Armchair, which was purchased by Wexner at auction for $45 million.

To the south of the Oval is another, somewhat smaller expanse of green space commonly referred to as the South Oval. At its eastern end, it is anchored by the Ohio Union. To the west are Hale Hall, the Kuhn Honors House, Browning Amphitheatre (a traditional stone Greek theatre) and Mirror Lake. Knowlton Hall, dedicated in October 2004, is at the corner of West Woodruff Avenue and Tuttle Park Place, next to Ohio Stadium.

Organization and administration

Governance

Ohio State is overseen by a 15-member board of trustees appointed by the governor of Ohio. The university's governance system has been criticized for centralizing power in unaccountable institutions and limiting freedom of expression.

The free speech organization Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression released a ranking in September 2025, giving OSU a 57.7 out of 100 (an 'F' grade) in free speech.

Endowment

Ohio State was among the first group of four public universities to raise a $1 billion endowment when it passed $1 billion in 1999. At the end of 2005, Ohio State's endowment stood at $1.73 billion, ranking it seventh among public universities and 27th among all American universities. In June 2006, the endowment passed the $2 billion mark.

In recent decades, and in response to continually shrinking state funding, Ohio State has conducted two significant multi-year fundraising campaigns. The first concluded in 1987 and raised $460 million, a record at the time for a public university. The "Affirm Thy Friendship Campaign" took place between 1995 and 2000. With an initial goal of raising $850 million, the campaign's final tally was $1.23 billion, placing Ohio State among the small group of public universities to have successfully conducted a $1 billion campaign. At his welcoming ceremony, returning President E. Gordon Gee announced in the fall of 2007 that Ohio State would launch a $2.5 billion fundraising campaign. In 2019, celebrating the university's 150th year, president Michael V. Drake announced the "Time and Change Campaign" with a goal of raising $4.5 billion from 1 million individual donors.

Academics

Ohio State is the flagship university of the University System of Ohio. Its political science department is a major department in the field. It also has notable applied science programs.

According to the National Science Foundation, in 2026 the university had research and development (R&D) expenditures of $1.58 billion, ranking it 12th in the nation.

Undergraduate admissions

Admissions to Ohio State are considered highly selective.

In the Autumn 2025 admissions period, the middle 50 percent of composite scores for the SAT was 1360 to 1500. The composite scores for the ACT were 29 to 34.

For the enrolled Spring 2025 class, Ohio State accepted 38,532 students out of 88,508 total for an approximate admission rate of 43.5%. OSU's freshman retention rate was 93.9% between 2021 and 2022, with 88% going on to graduate within six years.

Rankings and recognition

Ohio State is consistently ranked among the best public universities in the United States by major college and university rankings.

In 2026, the university was ranked by Time the 5th best public university in the United States and 33rd globally. Similarly in its 2026 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked Ohio State as 15th overall among public and 41st among all national universities. In 2026, the Center for World University Rankings ranked Ohio State 29th nationally and 55th out of 21,462 universities globally. The Academic Ranking of World Universities placed Ohio State 39–51 nationally and 82nd globally for 2023. Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranks it 108th in the world. In 2024, QS World University Rankings ranked the university 151st in the world.

In 1916, Ohio State became the first university in Ohio to be extended membership into the Association of American Universities, and remains the only public university in Ohio among the organization's 60 members. Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the undergraduate business program at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business as the 14th best in the nation in its 2016 rankings.

Influential and notable departments

In 2023, U.S. News & World Report ranked the college's political science, audiology, sociology, speech–language pathology, finance, accounting, public affairs, nursing, social work, healthcare administration, and pharmacy programs as among the top 20 programs in the country.

Artificial intelligence, computer science

The university has obtained "national and geopolitical significance" during the 2020s Artificial Intelligence Cold War between the United States and China in generative AI.

The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) is a supercomputer facility located on the western end of the campus. Established in 1987, it partners with universities, labs and industries, providing high performance computing, cyberinfrastructure, research and computational science education services. In 2023, the university announced that it had obtained four H100 NVIDIA GPUs's for AI training at OSC, with a goal of continuous hyperscaling of advanced AI chips for the long term future. By early 2024, Ohio State had added 128 H100 into a new "Cardinal" supercomputing cluster across 32 nodes. The ongoing additions have made the OSC one of the most powerful academic supercomputers.

Student life

The Office of Student Life has partnership affiliations with the Schottenstein Center, the Blackwell Inn and the Drake Events Center. Services supporting student wellness include the Wilce Student Health Center, named for university physician John Wilce, the Mary A. Daniels Student Wellness Center and the Counseling and Consultation Service.

The RPAC is the main recreational facility on campus. The Wellness Center within the RPAC offers services such as nutrition counseling, financial coaching, HIV and STI testing, sexual assault services, and alcohol and other drug education.

Diversity

The Washington Monthly college rankings, which seek to evaluate colleges' contributions to American society based on factors of social mobility, research and service to the country by their graduates, placed Ohio State 61st among national universities in 2023.

Sexual harassment handling

In June 2018, Ohio State dissolved its Sexual Civility and Empowerment unit and eliminated four positions in the unit due to concerns about mismanagement and a lack of support for survivors of sexual assault. This occurred after the unit was suspended in February 2018 and following an external review. The Columbus Dispatch and the school newspaper, The Lantern, reported that "[SCE] failed to properly report students' sexual-assault complaints" and that some victims were told that they were "'lying', 'delusional', 'suffering from mental illness', 'have an active imagination', that they 'didn't understand their own experience', and also 'fabricated their story'". With help from the Philadelphia law firm Cozen O'Connor, the university will be creating a new framework to handle sexual assault cases and reevaluating its Title IX program.

On July 20, 2018, BBC News reported that over 100 male students, including athletes from 14 sports, had reported sexual misconduct by a deceased university team physician, Richard Strauss. The reports dated back to 1978, and included claims that he groped and took nude photographs of his patients. Four former wrestlers filed a lawsuit against Ohio State for ignoring complaints of "rampant sexual misconduct" by Strauss. U.S. representative Jim Jordan was named in the lawsuit and has since denied the former wrestlers' claims that he knew about the abuse while he was an assistant coach for eight years at the university. In May 2020, the university entered into a settlement and agreed to pay $40.9 million to the sexual abuse survivors.

Activities and organizations

The Ohio Union was the first student union built by an American public university. It is dedicated to the enrichment of the student experience, on and off the university campus. The first Ohio Union, on the south edge of the South Oval, was constructed in 1909 and was later renamed Enarson Hall. The second Ohio Union was completed in 1950 and was prominently along High Street, southeast of the Oval. It was a center of student life for more than 50 years, providing facilities for student activities, organizations and events, and serving as an important meeting place for campus and community interaction. The union also housed many student services and programs, along with dining and recreational facilities. The second Ohio Union was demolished in February 2007 to make way for the new Ohio Union, which was finished in 2010. During this time, student activities were relocated to Ohio Stadium and other academic buildings.

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