EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #26: Ohio State

By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: February 24, 2005

I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.

We continue our Foreign Student Series for students who want to attend an American college or university. Today we tell about one of the largest public universities in the United States: Ohio State.

It opened in eighteen seventy-three as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. It became the Ohio State University five years later, after expanding its programs. Ohio State now has twenty-five colleges. Among its better known programs are linguistics, business, education and engineering.

The main campus is in Columbus, the state capital. The Ohio State university system has over fifty-eight thousand students.

More than four thousand of them are from outside the United States. Of these, the International Student Office at Ohio State says almost three thousand are graduate students.

Most of the international students come from Asia, especially China, South Korea, India, Taiwan and Indonesia. Most of the graduate students are studying engineering, mathematics or the physical and biological sciences. The undergraduate foreign students are mostly studying business or engineering.

The cost of attending Ohio State is a little different for graduate and undergraduate students. Undergraduate foreign students pay about thirty thousand dollars a year. That includes books, health insurance and living expenses.

The cost is about thirty-two thousand for graduate students. Graduate students can get financial aid by working as a teaching or research assistant. Aid money is also given to outstanding graduate students. The university generally does not give financial aid to foreign students at the undergraduate level. But officials say some aid can be found.

University officials say they want international students to know that they do not have to take English tests to attend Ohio State. They do not even have to speak English when they arrive. The university offers intensive English training through its American Language Program.

Information about this program and others at Ohio State can be found on the Web at osu.edu. Internet users can find other reports in our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish dot com. And, to send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen.