Opinions on Ohio Schools from Ohio residents

Not to put too fine a point on it, but here are the Class of 2020 middle 50% ACT scores (based on 2016-17 Common Data Sets except Denison which doesn’t appear to publish one, but does post current entering class stats on its website):



CWRU 30-34

Oberlin 29-33

Kenyon 29-33

Denison 28-32

OSU 27-31



And SAT CR+M:



CWRU 1280-1490

Oberlin 1250-1450

Kenyon 1230-1430

Denison 1190-1380

OSU 1160-1410



These are close, but Case Western edges out Oberlin and Kenyon for best entering class stats, with Denison just a notch lower (more evident in SAT scores than in ACT). The top-end ACT score differences aren’t especially noteworthy: 33 and 34 are both in the 99th percentile of test-takers nationally, while 32 is 98th percentile and 31 is 97th percentile. The differences may be more significant at the lower end of the class. CWRU’s 30 is 95th percentile nationally, while OSU’s 27 is at the 87th percentile. All good students at that level, to be sure, but CWRU would have a definite edge over OSU in the standardized test stats of the lower end of the class, with the three LACs somewhere in between (ACT 29 = 93rd percentile, ACT 28 = 90th percentile).