Public colleges and universities account for almost 75 percent of all undergraduate students in the U.S. The best public colleges in Ohio provide broad access to reputable degree programs, affordable tuition, and sprawling educational communities.
Ohio offers over 120 colleges and universities for students to earn their associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree. The largest school in the state, Ohio State University, a public institution, serves almost 55,000 students. This university has five regional campuses, which have graduated alumni like writer Harlan Ellison and Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger. The majority of Ohio’s schools, however, are private.
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Tuition at these schools varies greatly, with costs as low as $7,000 at God’s Bible School and College, and as high as $56,000 at Kenyon University. The state is also home to nearly 40 higher education institutes with religious affiliations, offering plenty of options for students aiming to blend their faith with higher education. Although tuition costs in Ohio are higher than the national average, Ohio provides several loan forgiveness programs to those pursuing careers as public defenders and prosecutors, dentists, nurses, primary care physicians, and mental health providers. Many of these programs require individuals to work in shortage areas around the state for a certain time period in order to qualify.
If you’re someone with a wide variety of interests, Ohio might just be the place for you. In The Buckeye State, individuals can visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, take a trip through Amish Country, attend a professional sporting event, and hike waterfalls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It seems this state has something for everyone, including those pursuing a higher education degree.
Learn more about the numerous excellent degree paths and career prospects available in Ohio.
Public and private colleges and universities operate under different business models — one is a private company with private funding; the other is owned by the state and receives both state and federal funding to operate. If you’re weighing the pros and cons of private vs. public college, consider that many public colleges provide diverse course offerings, influential professors, and an excellent return on your investment.
Public colleges are schools that receive most of their funding from tax revenues. As a result, the cost of a four-year degree at a public university is often lower than the equivalent cost at a private college — especially for students attending a public school in their home state. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the average annual cost (tuition, fees, room and board for full-time students) at a four-year public university was slightly over $20,000. In contrast, private universities cost, on average, nearly $43,000 annually.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
This list is composed entirely of public colleges and universities that offer four-year undergraduate degrees. We’ve identified 23 public universities in Ohio, 10 of which satisfy our criteria. The list below of the best public universities in the state satisfies the following four conditions:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
73%
Student body
33K
Median SAT/ACT
1235/26
University of Cincinnati’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
87%
Student body
56K
Median SAT/ACT
1355/30
Ohio State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
66%
Student body
25K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/23
Ohio University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
75%
Graduation
62%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
990/21
Bowling Green State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
82%
Student body
20K
Median SAT/ACT
1290/27
Miami University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
48%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1095/22
Cleveland State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
65%
Student body
24K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/23
Kent State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
95%
Graduation
53%
Student body
17K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/23
University of Toledo’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
48%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1110/22
University of Akron’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Graduation
20%
Student body
<1K
Ohio State University at Mansfield’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Photo By: Bearcat2011 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
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