<p>This is an interesting question, regarding local perception of The Ohio State University admissions. </p>
<p>I will not say that we did not glance at rankings of the public universities when my son was deciding where to apply. But after gaining a general sense of academically strong institutions (and checking that our overall perceptions were sound), we forgot rankings and instead made decisions based on what we could discover about the specific programs in which he was interested. And The OSU had an edge because it is our flagship university and would have the advantage of instate tuition and possibly a good scholarship offer. </p>
<p>The OSU works much like the Texas system in that there is no longer open admission to the Columbus campus. Students who do not qualify academically will be offered admission at outlying campuses with the option to transfer in to the main campus at a later date. But students here are not faced with a Top 10% rule (and, interestingly, diversity does not appear to be an issue.)</p>
<p>When you look at OSU's acceptance rate, it is higher, for sure (numbers I saw were 65% vs 45%). But SAT/ACT middle 50% numbers are very similar. From a "local perception" standpoint, it is considered difficult to get accepted to OSU. I would imagine their OOS acceptance standards are higher (this is all just a sense I have gotten from anecdotal evidence, so I cannot support or refute it. And I could not find any hard numbers on OSU's OOS admissions, not even the total number of students.) Having said that, I know from experience that UT's OOS acceptance rate is 1 in 4 and I imagine Ohio State's is better than that, but I don't know what their raw numbers are, either, for total OOS applicants. I think you can assume that there are more than 300 OOS Freshman on the Columbus campus (UT enrolled only 300 in 2008 Summer and Fall). </p>
<p>My son was accepted to the Honors College at TheOSU, so we made several trips to Columbus. It started as the #8 school on his list of nine applications. When we finished the process, it was his #2 or #3. The more I saw, the more impressed I was, and I think he was surprised by how much he liked it, particularly the Honors College, which is University-wide rather than program-by-program.</p>
<p>But the reason he is going to UT is because of the quality of the program he wants. Plain and simple. And that is how I think students should choose their school, IF they know what they want to study and if they have the academics/stats to get admitted to the school and program of their choice.</p>
<p>I don't know if that's any help at all. I think the point here is that numbers and statistics really only tell part of the story. Perception is fueled so many different ways: rankings (for better or worse: academics or "party-school" standing), information or lack thereof provided by the institution, guidance counselor preferences, school spirit inclination or lack thereof, what your friend thinks, or even if someone you know who attended there is someone you consider brilliant or an idiot, and then there's always what you read on CC. It's a complex cocktail.</p>
