19
October
2008
|
18:00 PM
America/New_York

Ohio State retains rank as nation's largest campus

For the third consecutive year, the Ohio State University is the nation's largest university. New autumn quarter enrollment figures show the Columbus campus has the nation's highest enrollment with 53,715 undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

Enrollment at all Ohio State campuses (Columbus, Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster) set a new record this year at 61,568, up two percent over autumn 2007. The previous record for enrollment was 60,589 in autumn 1991.

Enrollment at the Columbus campus increased by more than two percent (1,147) students, and surpasses main campus student enrollment at other large universities such as Arizona State University at Tempe (52,734), the University of Florida at Gainesville (51,413), the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities (51,140), and the University of Texas at Austin (50,006).

The increase in enrollment was driven by higher student retention and more students transferring to Ohio State.

"Ohio State grows stronger each year, extending educational opportunities in keeping with our public mission and purpose," said President Gee. "We are enrolling increasingly qualified students, who thrive and graduate in record number."


As Ohio State students have become better prepared academically, more are staying in school and graduating. In 1994, 78 percent of freshman stayed to their sophomore year. The freshmen from 2007 returned to Ohio State this fall at a record retention level of 92.8 percent. Retention of sophomores and juniors has also increased dramatically.

Ohio State's first-year class of 6,041students (Columbus campus), recruited from nearly 22,000 applicants, is the most talented and best-prepared in the university's history in terms of test scores and class rank, continuing a trend that began 14 years ago. The average ACT score for the class was 27.3; the average SAT score was 1225. More than half were in the top 10 percent of their high school class and more than 90 percent were in the top 25 percent of their class. Approximately 19 percent are first generation students.

Diversity across the university remained nearly steady, with students of color accounting for 14.7 percent of the 2008 freshman class, and 13.9 percent of the total university enrollment. For the second consecutive year, there was a record high enrollment of Hispanic students (1,519). There were also record high enrollments of Asian or Pacific Islander students (2,968). Enrollment of African American enrollment remained nearly steady with 3,852 students, and enrollment of American Indian/Alaskan Native students increased by 4.9 percent to 237.

Enrollment figures also show a record high number of undergraduates (47,751), male undergraduates (25,100), and female undergraduates (22,651), with 49.1 percent of the entire student body comprised of women and 50.9 percent comprised of male students.

Approximately 80 percent (49,641) of students are from Ohio. Thirteen percent (7,991) are from other states, territories or are U.S. students living in foreign countries. International students comprise about six percent of the student body.

Enrollment of international students also increased nearly 8 percent to 3,936, with the highest numbers coming from the People's Republic of China (977), Republic of Korea (731), India (717), Taiwan (229), and Canada (113).

Additional facts include:

•Students come from all 88 Ohio counties, and all 50 states/territories, including the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

•The number of students from Ohio increased 1.2 percent to 49,641. The number of students from other states increased 4.6 percent to 7,991.

•On the Columbus campus, minority populations account for 15.2 percent of the first-year class and 14.4 percent of the overall enrollment.

•Regional campus enrollment: Lima increased 5.1 percent to 1,409; Mansfield, down .05 percent to 1,545; Marion increased 2.4 percent to 1,673; Newark decreased 1.3 percent to 2,472; and Wooster increased 0.8 percent to 754.

•There were record highs set in total undergraduate enrollment, up 2.5 percent to 47,751; and professional enrollment, up .07 percent to 3,284. There was also an increase in graduate enrollment, up 1.3 percent to 10,533.

The entire enrollment report can be found at http://www.ureg.ohio-state.edu/ourweb/srs/srscontent/AU08/AU08Report.pdf