Best colleges in Ohio, per Money magazine (hint: University of Cincinnati isn't one)

Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer
·2 min read
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A new, June 2024 study from Money granted a four-star rating to Ohio State University.
A new, June 2024 study from Money granted a four-star rating to Ohio State University.

A new listing of the best colleges in the United States by Money, a digital financial magazine, grants ratings of one to five stars to over 700 universities.

No schools in Ohio earned a perfect five-star rating but a handful were granted four stars in an analysis of three categories: quality of education (30% of weighting), affordability (40% of weighting) and outcomes (30% of weighting).

The magazine whittled down the over 2,400 schools in the country to the 745 used in the study using a few different criteria like having reliable data and having at least 500 undergraduate students. Graduation rates, student-to-faculty ratios, net price of a degree, earnings 10 years after college entry, and average student debt were some of the many metrics used.

A five-star rating signifies the school scored "significantly high" on most of the magazine's metrics while two- or three-star ratings mean the school tends to "have some combination of lower graduation rates, higher prices or mediocre alumni salaries," the report stated. The majority of colleges analyzed land in the 3.5 or four-star pool.

Here's how Ohio's major schools were rated in the report, published June 12.

Best colleges in Ohio, according to Money magazine

4-star rated schools:

  • Case Western Reserve University.

  • Cedarville University.

  • Ohio State University.

  • University of Dayton.

3.5-star rated schools:

  • Kenyon College.

  • Miami University-Oxford.

A new, June 2024 study from Money granted a 3.5-star rating to Miami University.
A new, June 2024 study from Money granted a 3.5-star rating to Miami University.

3-star rated schools:

  • Baldwin Wallace University.

  • Denison University.

  • Franciscan University of Steubenville.

  • John Carroll University.

  • Kent State University at Kent.

  • Malone University.

  • Oberlin College.

  • Ohio University.

  • Ohio Wesleyan University.

  • Otterbein University.

  • The College of Wooster.

  • The University of Findlay.

  • University of Cincinnati.

  • University of Mount Union.

  • Xavier University.

2.5-star rated schools:

  • Bowling Green State University.

  • Cleveland Institute of Art.

  • Columbus College of Art and Design.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Where UC ranks among best colleges in Ohio, per Money magazine