COLUMBUS, Ohio – With fall semester classes at OSU beginning Wednesday, the university has welcomed the Class of 201 to campus and the city has made a pitch it hopes will succeed in convincing a lot of them to stay in town after they graduate.
The 7,000 new freshmen were taken to Nationwide Arena for a pep-rally style program introducing them to places to go, things to do in Columbus. The Columbus Welcome Event was organized by Ohio State, the city, businesses and institutions to begin showing students why they should stay in Columbus after getting their diplomas.
Nearly one student in five already calls central Ohio home. The new students come from all 88 Ohio counties, 49 states and 33 countries.
Academically, the incoming class is one of the best was gleaned from the largest number of freshman applications the university has ever received, according to vice president for strategic enrollment planning Dolan Evanovich.
Evanovich says the new class has higher average ACT and SAT scores, and higher percentages of students ranked in the top 10 and 25 percent of their high school classes.
The university received 42,790 applications, nearly double the 2009 application total.