<p>Fair enough, Erin’s Dad. The central issue, to me, is whether OSU is worth paying OOS tuition given that non-loan and merit aid is rather meager. All the private schools offer significant aid, and even Miami is far more generous than OSU. (By the way, Woody Hayes also served as head coach at Miami before moving on to OSU.)</p>
<p>Simply because it is so large, OSU can offer a lot more options than smaller schools; especially liberal arts colleges. This is its main advantage over those other colleges. One obvious example is engineering. Of the schools mentioned, only Case Western can claim to be the equal of OSU for engineering and even there it would depend on which field is being considered. The smaller schools don’t even offer engineering.</p>
<p>If a student lives in Ohio and wants to major in engineering, then OSU is almost certainly their best bet and definitely best bang for their buck. The problem is for out of state students. Since only about 15% of OSU students are OOS, then it appears they have voted. I would go to the following tech oriented schools before paying out of state tuition at OSU for engineering: Georgia Tech, Purdue, Rose-Hulman, and Carnegie-Mellon (if I had an SAT of 2340). Of course, I have no idea if OP wants to major in engineering or not. This is just an example.</p>
<p>Personally, if I was a serious OSU fan, but lived out of state, I would deeply explore Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, Case Western, and Miami (even if I had high SAT/ACT scores). In all likelihood those schools would be far cheaper than OSU. One of them probably will offer the major the student is interested in. All would have plenty of Buckeye fans.</p>