Founded in 1870, The Ohio State University is one of the largest and most respected institutions of higher education in the world. As one of the premier teaching and research institutions in the country, we offer our students nationally ranked academic programs, an eminent faculty, cutting-edge research, a wide range of social and cultural activities, and comprehensive facilities.

More than 50,000 students are enrolled in the university's 19 colleges, seven schools, and graduate school. We offer over 170 major areas of study and approximately 10,500 courses covering a full range of programs in the fine arts, sciences, humanities, and all major professional fields including law, business, medicine, and veterinary medicine. The central campus in Columbus covers more than 1,700 acres and encompasses nearly 300 buildings. Ohio State offers tremendous opportunities and a vast array of facilities and resources that only a large comprehensive university can support and maintain.

Our research facilities are among the finest in the world and include electron microscopes, NMR spectrometers, mass spectrometers, a nuclear reactor, basic science laboratories, language laboratories, and a campus-wide computer network. The university is also home to the Ohio Supercomputer Center and its Cray SV1, SGI Cray Origin, 182-processor pentium cluster, and 146-processor Itanium cluster. The latter is the first such cluster built and is ranked on the World Supercomputer List.

The main campus is located in the heart of the state's largest city and features lush landscaping, a wealth of trees, a small lake, and many open areas for outdoor festivals and concerts. Four buildings are the National Register of Historic Places and there are numerous new buildings including the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute, and the Vernal G. Riffe Jr. Building for biological and pharmaceutical research.

Competitive admissions and a rigorous undergraduate curriculum have made Ohio State the first choice for many of the nation's finest students. Our students come from every state in the nation and over 100 foreign countries. Our honors programs is one of the country's best and enrolls more National Merit and National Achievement Scholars than any other university, public or private, in the state of Ohio.

You will find a wealth of recreational and cultural pursuits to complement your life at Ohio State. There are multimillion dollar sports and recreation complexes, varied campus activities, and a dynamic and growing community.

As a student at OSU, you can share in the excitement of Big Ten athletics. There are 34 athletic teams including football, basketball, golf, tennis, lacrosse, and many more.

The university's sports complexes feature dozens of outdoor tennis and basketball courts, jogging trails, and par courses. Inside our recreation center are 25 racquetball and handball courts, three squash courts, 12 basketball courts, multipurpose rooms for karate, judo, archery, and table tennis. It also features an indoor jogging track, three completely equipped conditioning rooms, four pools, a diving well, two saunas, and areas for gymnastics, fencing, and wrestling. A new recreation center is currently being built as an "adventure" recreation center. Pictures of design plans for these two facilities are located below.

For more info on these exciting new projects, please visit Ohio State Rec Sports.

In addition, there are three other recreational centers which house indoor tennis and basketball courts and areas for volleyball. OSU also has two baseball diamonds, two rugby fields, two 18-hole golf courses, more than a dozen football and softball fields, and areas for soccer, volleyball, field hockey, lacrosse and cricket, and crew and sailing.

There is an established intramural program for almost any sport you can imagine with 62 programs. There are also 70 sports clubs, and the chemistry department has its own softball league.

Ohio State also has annual film series, art galleries and exhibit space, and several museums. The music, drama, and dance departments offer presentations throughout the year, including a variety of theatre productions, student ensemble concerts, and a faculty recital series. Ohio State also presents an annual great artist series that features world-renowned performers, an early music series, year-round theatre productions, dance productions, and a variety of special events such as the annual Medieval and Renaissance Festival.